Appointments System
The practice and the telephone lines are open from 8:30am-5:30pm, Monday to Friday.  Please note special times for ordering prescriptions and enquiring about test results.  Appointments are available 8:30am-5:30pm with some additional early appointments available from 8:00am. You may see the Doctor of your choice by appointment.   For routine appointments, please phone as far in advance as possible.  Urgent cases will be seen the same day, but it is helpful if you telephone in the morning.   Please try to give the Receptionists any information which they may ask for, as this helps the Doctor assess your request.  Please note the Doctor of your choice may not be available for urgent cases. An appointment is for one problem only.  If you are concerned that you require more than the allocated time, please speak to the Receptionist who may be able to arrange additional time for you.

Failure to Attend or Cancel Appointments 

Failure to keep appointments leads to delays in other patients receiving appointments and appropriate treatment.  There are over 150 appointments per month wasted.  If an appointment is no longer required, please ensure you cancel it. Patients who continually fail to keep or cancel appointments will be removed from our list.  Please sign up to our text confirmation and reminder system for appointments.

Triaging/Urgent Appointments

Requests for home visits and emergency appointments for that day will be triaged by one of our practice nursing team. The use of triaging allows us to prioritise visits and make most effective use of our existing appointments. Please give the Receptionists as much information as possible.

Duty Doctor

The purpose of the duty doctor is to deal with urgent medical issues only.  The duty doctor is not available to speak to any patient at any time.  They are delaing with a high volume of urgent calls which require to be triaged rapidly and dealt with on the same day.  Please do not be disappointed if the doctor is unable to spend more than a few minutes on the phone with you, this is only because they have a queue of urgent calls to attend to.

Ayrshire Bloods

There has been a change to how hospital requests for blood tests are managed within Ayrshire. Any hospital consultant who requires bloods to be taken prior to a clinic will now refer the patient into the Ayrshire Bloods Service. Patients will have the choice of attending the Biggart Hospital or North Ayr Health Centre to have their bloods taken. This system will ensure that the results of your blood tests are sent directly to the appropriate consultant prior to your hospital appointment

Home Visits 

Please make every effort to come to the practice as this gives the Doctor more time and better facilities to deal with your problem.   If you are too ill to attend the practice, it is helpful if you can telephone your request for a home visit as early as possible in the morning, ideally before 9.30am. Urgent calls will take priority. 

Triaging/Urgent Appointments

Requests for home visits and emergency appointments for that day will be triaged. The use of triaging allows us to prioritise visits and make most effective use of our existing appointments. Please give the receptionists as much information as possible.

Chaperones

There are occasions when as part of patient care, an intimate examination by a Doctor or a Nurse is required. We would not wish such an examination to cause undue distress. If you wish a chaperone to be present during the examination, please inform the Doctor or Nurse. It may not be possible for such a chaperone to be provided immediately and you may have to return for the examination to be carried out at a mutually convenient time.

However, trust is important in the relationship between General Practitioner and patient and we would wish you to feel, at all times, able to ask for a chaperone should this make you feel more comfortable.