Your Hampton

From April of this year (2010) we have been trialling a ‘staggered’ Open Clinic in the mornings to try to cut down on waiting times and we have been inviting feedback from users of the service through our suggestion box and comments made to the GPs.

Although the Open Clinic has been very popular with many patients, who felt it was beneficial to have guaranteed immediate access to a GP within an hour or two of asking, the overwhelming majority of patients expressed the view that waiting times were still unacceptable and impractical for workers and requested a return to booked appointments.

With this feedback in mind we have made the decision that from Friday 30^th July 2010 the Open Clinic will cease.

From Monday 2^nd August we will be offering a mix of prebooked and emergency appointments each morning and the on call doctor working in the afternoon will also have some appointments available to see emergencies.

In addition on 2^nd August we have an experienced nurse practitioner, Claire Flint, starting work at the surgery which will mean that there will be more appointments available.

Claire will be able to see patients for diagnosis of problems and can see patients with minor illnesses or injuries, infections, asthma, skin problems and to start contraception.  She can also prescribe medication and make referrals.

As well as offering late night appointments for workers who find it hard to attend the surgery during the day, we will also be offering early appointments to book with the GPs between 7am and 8am each Thursday morning.  These are available to book now through our reception team.

Please note that our morning opening times will also change from Monday 2^nd August from 8am to 8.30am.