Patient Information

Appointments

Seeing a doctor requires making an appointment. Please tell the receptionist if your problem is urgent. Sick children will always be seen on the day.

A standard consultation lasts for up to 15 minutes. Please ask for a longer appointment if you know that you will need it, or you have more than one issue to discuss with the doctor. Work or insurance medicals are usually longer appointments, so please inform the staff of these when booking.

The doctors are willing to take time for counselling or for comprehensively assessing a problem, so we encourage you to book a longer appointment for these purposes. Please be reassured that consultations are billed on time spent and complexity and not on the length of appointment booked.

If more than one person in your family needs to be seen please ask for an appointment for each of them.

We welcome new patients. If you are attending the practice for the first time, please arrive 15 minutes before your appointment time to register your details with the practice.

Accessing your doctor or nurse

Most issues are best dealt within a consultation. A doctor or nurse will always be available during normal surgery hours to provide emergency advice over the phone. Our staff will help you decide whether an issue requires an appointment, a return phone call or immediate advice.

Test Results

For your safety you must obtain results of any tests done. This may be at an arranged follow-up appointment. If not please contact the surgery to learn your results. Do not assume that “no news is good news”. Make sure that you get a result. For your convenience your doctor will have left a message for the receptionist to pass on to you when you phone.

Recall Reminders

We are committed to preventative care and to appropriate management of chronic conditions. We may send you a recall reminder letter from time to time offering you follow up or preventive care. If you do not wish to be part of this service, please inform your doctor.

Waiting times

Please understand that as illnesses are unpredictable conditions, appointment times cannot always run on time. Emergencies take priority and may require rescheduling of other appointments, so please be patient if you have booked an appointment and an emergency arises. This is not common. Our doctors, nurses and receptionists make every attempt to keep appointments running to their scheduled time however, unforseen circumstances may create occasional delays.

Cancellations and rescheduling

If you are unable to make your appointment, please call to let us know in advance. Someone else could be offered the appointment. We can arrange another appointment time for you.

Home visits

Doctors at Queen Street Medical Centre provide home visits and see residents of nursing homes. Home visits will be provided for those seriously ill, or who have transport problems. Your problem may be discussed with a doctor, and it may be decided that, for the benefit of your health, it would be better that an ambulance be called. Home visits are carried out during working hours.