• All initial GP consultations are by telephone appointment only and may be booked up to 4 weeks in advance.  If the clinician feels a face-to-face appointment is needed after the intial contact, this will be booked by the clinician at the time of speaking to you.
• Appointments with a Practice Nurse can be booked up to 8 weeks in advance.
• Requests for 'On the day' appointments will be triaged by a clinician who will call you back to discuss your medical needs.
• You may be offered an appointment with a practice nurse.
• An appointment is for one person only.
• Where an appointment is for a specialised procedure - such as join injection or coil fittings, please contact our Reception Team to book.
• Patients with more than one issue to discuss should book a double appointment to ensure that appropriate consultation can take place. Otherwise, patients may be asked to book another appointment at a later date.
• Urgent cases will be seen on the day but we may not be able to offer a choice of clinician or time.
• Home visits will only be undertaken if there is a medical reason that prevents you from attending the surgery.
• Please let the surgery know as soon as possible if you cannot keep your appointment. This will allow us to offer the appointment to another patient.

Please note a GP surgery receptionist is not simply someone who answers the phone - they are specially trained to help you get the most appropriate treatment as fast as possible.

In order to do this, they need to ask you questions about why you need to see a Doctor, often they might be able to get you a nurse appointment faster.

It is important that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment, this will allow that appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you are unable to attend, you will be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.

Please attend your appointment on time, if you are late you may not be seen and may be asked to re-book for another day.

If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see your Doctor please notify the receptionist when booking your appointment and she will arrange this for you.

We aim to see patients with long term conditions annually, around their birthday. You will receive a text message inviting you to make an appointment from our Patient Services Team.  You may be invited on a more regular basis as needed.  

Patients with diabetes and hypertension will be asked to attend a pre-annual review check to have bloods, blood pressure, weight and any other relevant checks taken.  Please remember to bring a urine sample, first of the day with no red meat or strenuous exercise the night before.

For Asthma and COPD, you will have just the review appointment but may be sent a text questionnaire prior to that appointment to complete.  

Contraception advice and reviews are conducted predominantly over the phone.  We do have a coil and implant clinic.  Due to high demand we have had to temporarily close our waiting list but you can still attend Brookside Clinic in Aylesbury.  If you would like to try an alternative form of contraception in the meantime, please contact us to make an appointment.  We are able to provide emergency contraception and abortion advice should you require it.  

Antenatal Clinics are run by our midwives and you can book these by phoning the surgery.  They will then make contact with you to arrange to see you. 

If the clinician recommends a follow up appointment then this will usually be arranged at the time of the consultation.  Most follow up appointments will be a telephone consultation.  If this is not arranged then please call the Practice and request an appointment with the Reception Team explaining what the clinician had recommended.  They will be able to view your notes and confirm the requirement and make the necessary appointment. 

Home visits are for housebound patients and for those too ill to attend the surgery.

If you need a home visit, please ring the surgery before 10.30am.  We can then prioritise visits and enable a clinician to visit you, should we feel this is appropriate.  Clinicians who may be assigned to visit you include GPs, Registrars and Paramedics.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit.  There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the practice.

Berrycroft Community Health Centre is a training practice.

Your GP appointment may be with a fully qualified doctor who is undertaking additional training to become a GP, known as GP Registrars.

GP Registrars are fully qualified doctors who have been gaining experience in hospital medicine and we value the opportunity of helping to develop the family doctors of the future. 

We also teach medical students and they may occasionally sit in during consultations – we always ask your permission before allowing them to see you, so if you would rather see your doctor alone, please feel free to decline.  Sometimes medical students will carry out the initial consultation.  All these consultations are followed by a review with the fully qualified GP who is supervising the student for that session.  This is a great way to help teach our doctors of the future.

Our doctors occasionally video their consultations for learning purposes. If you object to your consultation being recorded, please let us know.