Routine appointments

You can book a routine appointment by phoning the practice, coming in to reception or using the online form below. We are open for booking routine appointments between 8.00-18.30 Monday to Friday.

A routine appointment is ten minutes and we ask that you bring one problem to each appointment, to allow us to do your concerns justice.

Book a routine appointment online. Choose 'I have a health problem' on the following form.

Minor illness

Our nursing team see minor illnesses and can arrange antibiotics or other medication where this is needed. Please ask for a nurse appointment if you are an adult suffering from symptoms of a sore throat, ear infection or urinary tract infection (UTI).

We do not accept urine or any other samples for testing unless your doctor or nurse has asked you to bring a sample in.

There is also the Pharmacy First scheme which allows high street pharmacists can consult and prescribe for the following seven common conditions. To access Pharmacy First simply attend your nearest participating pharmacy (no appointment needed).

Condition	Age range
Earache (children)	1 to 17 years
Impetigo (skin infection)	1 year and over
Infected insect bites	1 year and over
Shingles	18 years and over
Sinusitis	12 years and over
Sore throat	5 years and over
Uncomplicated urinary tract infections	Women 16-64 years

Urgent problems

If you have an urgent medical issue that you are worried may deteriorate on that same day if not looked into further, then please phone the practice between 8.30-10.00 am and ask to go on the duty doctor list. The GPs take turns to run the duty doctor surgery, which is for urgent medical problems only.

The duty doctor is not best placed to help with ongoing issues as their time is particularly limited and they may not be familiar with your background or notes. To discuss test results, ongoing or chronic problems or minor or non-urgent problems please request a routine appointment.
Reception will request further information via text message to help the duty doctor to assist you.
Please be aware that the duty doctor surgeries can get extremely busy; they are designed to enable the doctors to deal with serious illness and potential emergencies.
Please ensure you have given an accurate UK phone number, and that you leave your phone on and within reach during the day. The duty doctor may text you, call you, or you may be contacted by reception if the duty doctor needs you to come in.
There is no flexibility for appointment times for urgent appointments, due to the volume of appointments being allocated.

Accidents and emergencies

If you have just had an accident and are concerned you may have sustained a significant injury, for example a fracture or head injury, please attend A&E. We do not have imaging equipment such as x-ray or ultrasound at the practice.

If you are experiencing chest pain, severe shortness of breath, new limb or facial weakness or altered consciousness; or the symptoms of an emergency problem such as a severe asthma attack or sepsis, please go directly to A&E, or call 999 if the situation is life-threatening.

When we are closed

The out-of-hours service which helps with out-of-hours medical issues in England is reached via 111. Please do not contact them when Bridge Street is open, as they will simply redirect you to the practice. They can, however, assist with urgent queries after 18.00.

We do have the facility to offer some extended access appointments through our membership of our Primary Care Network. These appointments are for routine care and are available outside our usual clinical hours of 8.30 - 6.00 pm. There are also some Saturday appointments. These appointments are staffed by clinicians from the Primary Care Network. Please ask reception to check availability for you.

Mental health crisis

111 option 2 is the contact for the crisis mental health team for help in a mental health crisis, for example if you are feeling very mentally unwell, or suicidal. They will speak to you initially on the phone and together will help you make a plan for what to do next.

Medication reviews and long-term condition reviews

For long-term conditions such as COPD, hypertension and heart failure we ask you to see the nurse or healthcare assistant every year for a check-up and where indicated, blood tests. Please book the appropriate long term condition review with the nursing team for this purpose.

All patients on regular medication should receive an annual medication review. If your tests are normal and your medications are very straightforward your GP may be able to do this without speaking with you, otherwise we ask that you book a routine medication review with our clinical pharmacist.

Medication queries

Please book a phone appointment with our clinical pharmacist, if you have any questions or concerns about your medication. The clinical pharmacist also carries out medication reviews for the practice.

Usual GP

Every patient registered at Bridge Street is allocated their own GP. Your 'usual' GP receives all of your correspondence from the hospital or other agencies and deals with all of your test results. They will therefore 'know' you, to a certain extent, even if you do not know them. Where possible, we ask you to see your own GP, so that we can offer you continuity of care - although we appreciate this may not always be possible. Reception can tell you the name of your own GP, or you can see this information yourself on the NHS app.

Online reviews

We are endeavouring to make access and medication reviews easier and safer for all patients by offering you the facility to carry out your annual review for some common conditions online - please see links below.

Asthma Review Form

HRT Review Form

Contraceptive Pill Form