Palatine Group Practice

 

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How to book an Appointment / See the Doctor... 

To make an appointment, call at reception or telephone Douglas 623931 between 8.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. Monday to Friday.  Please avoid calling at 08.30 unless for an urgent appointment.  Appointment slots are intended for one person.  Please tell the receptionist if several members of the family are attending so that a longer slot may be booked.   For non urgent appointments you may usually see the Doctor of your choice.  If you wish to be seen urgently please let the receptionist know and you will be offered the first available time on that day, although it may not be with the Doctor of your choice.  Please try to see the same Doctor if you have an ongoing problem as he/she will be familiar with your treatment and progress and knows you best.

ROUTINE OR URGENT?

We know that, sometimes, we are rather busy and the first “routine” appointment may not be for a few days – especially if you want to see a particular Doctor.  We can often offer earlier appointments if you need them, but it may not be with the Doctor of your choice.  However, if you have an urgent need to see a Doctor, we will do everything in our power to help you, but you do need to tell us it is urgent!  If you know that you will need to see a Doctor urgently, please bear in mind that, every day, there are a certain number of appointments held for urgent, on-the-day cases, which become available at 8.30 a.m. on the same day.  (Never earlier, so there’s no point ringing before that time.)  If all of these are gone and you have an urgent medical need, please tell the receptionist and she will do her best to help you.  Unfortunately, a small number of people abuse this system by telling us it is urgent when it isn’t, just because they know we’ll fit them in somehow.  For example, forgetting to renew a prescription so requesting an urgent Doctor’s appointment to short circuit the system doesn’t count!  People who abuse the urgent appointments system are being very selfish.  It might mean that someone with a real medical problem is delayed in getting proper care.  At the very least, it will mean that the Doctor goes home to his/her family very late as they seldom have “free time” in the working day. 

POLICY ON PATIENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND APPOINTMENTS

A lot of Surgery time is wasted because people do not attend appointments and fail to cancel them.  This means an unnecessary delay to people who have a genuine need to see a Doctor, as we seldom have appointment lists that are not full.  Our policy is that, if someone fails to attend without letting us know, we will send them a letter reminding them of the policy.  If they fail to attend again, unless there are extenuating circumstances, we will take them off our list and they will have to register with another Practice.

THE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A PATIENT

Subject to availability, you may be seen by your preferred Doctor or nurse.  In order to ensure best use of the Doctor’s or nurse’s time it is imperative that you should advise us in advance if you are unable to keep an appointment.  If you need to be seen urgently an appointment will be made with whichever Doctor is available.

If a patient is violent or abusive to any member of the Practice team the patient may be removed from the Practice list immediately.  If necessary the police will be called to deal with the situation, but the Practice Manager is pretty scary!!

URGENT APPOINTMENTS

If you need to be seen urgently please tell us.  It is difficult for us to deduce this if you don’t say.  We always go with your need, we don’t ‘gate keep’.  However, if a routine appointment will do, please don’t take up the short notice or urgent slots.  We always keep a number of appointments for “available on the day”.  We start to book into these from 8.30 a.m. on the same day.  Telephone early to avoid disappointment. 

CASUALTIES

There is no Casualty Department at the Surgery.  All patients with injuries needing stitches, or where a broken bone is suspected, are advised to go to the Accident and Emergency Department at Nobles Hospital.

EMERGENCIES WHEN THE SURGERY IS CLOSED There is always a duty Doctor on call if your own is unavailable.  Outside Surgery hours, the Doctors are members of the DHSS Manx Emergency Doctor Service (MEDS), sharing duty with other Doctors.  So if you need to contact a Doctor for urgent treatment or advice, telephone the usual Surgery number 623931 .  A RECORDED MESSAGE will tell you how to contact the duty MEDS Doctor.

When you contact the out-of-hours service one or more of the following is likely to be the outcome:-

a)     given telephone advice by the duty Doctor

 

b)     invited to attend the Manx Emergency Doctor Service at Nobles (IOM) Hospital

 

c)     visited at home, if considered medically necessary, following assessment by the duty Doctor

 

d)     admitted to hospital, if considered medically necessary.

In the unlikely event of you experiencing any difficulty in getting through, contact Nobles Hospital on 650000 or, in an extreme emergency, ring 999 for an ambulance.  Please note that it is unlikely that the Doctor you contact at MEDS will be one from this Practice, although it will be a GP from the Island.