Appointments

At the Limes the appointment system was implemented to improve:

• Appropriate appointment booking
• Patient safety
• Access to the surgery on the telephones
• Advance bookings

All our consultations are by appointment at the surgery. Routine appointments can be made using our automated system 24/7. For a new or flare up of an existing condition you will need to speak with one of our receptionists between the surgery opening hours. In order to ensure that you are seen by the appropriate member of the team the receptionist will ask you for information that is essential for the booking system to work efficiently and successfully. The receptionist will ask you: 

• "How can I help!"
• "Can you give me a rough idea of the problem!
• They will then know whether this is a new or on-going problem.
• They may also ask "what's happened!"

The receptionist WILL NOT be making any clinical assessment - this information is to direct you to an appropriate appointment or call from our duty team. It is essential that you co-operate with the receptionists and understand that it may be more appropriate for a nurse, healthcare assistant or a nurse practitioner to see/speak with you. It is NOT always essential to be seen by a doctor. The receptionists are all bound by strict rules of confidentiality.

GP and nursing appointments are bookable up to 6 weeks in advance for non-urgent routine appointments.

We understand that sometimes you may not be able to make an appointment that you booked or you may need to re-schedule. If you cannot keep your appointment please try to inform us as soon as possible so it may be offered to another patient. Please press Option 2 for use of our automated system where you can cancel an appointment any time night or day.

Appointment Times

• The practice provides appointments each weekday morning from 8.40am to 11.40am. Two mornings a week, Tuesday and Wednesday, the practice provides appointments from 7am. These appointments are bookable up to six weeks in advance.
• The duty team is available daily, from Monday to Friday between the hours of 8am to 6.30pm.
• The practice provides appointments each afternoon between 3.30pm and 5.30pm except for Monday and Thursday afternoons when appointments are offered between 3.30pm and 7.50pm. These appointments are bookable up to six weeks in advance.

Definition of Advanced Nurse Practitioner

An experienced qualifed nurse who has studied at a degree/masters level who can assess, diagnose and treat a wide variety of medical problems. She can also refer directly to secondary care as required. The Advanced Nurse Practitioners are also prescribers.

Telephone System

The Limes Medical Centre is pleased to announce that we have implemented a state of the art telephone system.

This system has been chosen using patient, staff and service user feedback and we are confident that it will incorporate all of the features suggested.

In addition to being able to speak with our reception team we are very pleased with the addition of an exciting feature called "Patient Partner". This is a new and automated way of cancelling, checking or booking your own follow up appointments with The Limes, any time, night and day, 24/7 access.

Our telephone numbers are NOT changing and so you can telephone the surgery as normal. If you choose the option from the menu to use the Automated Booking Service and then follow the simple instructions you will be able to see how simple this new method of access is.

All you need to use this new technology is a touch-tone telephone, your contact number and date of birth.

Remember - You can telephone the surgery around the clock, 7 days a week.

Note - You must inform the surgery if you change your contact telephone numbers - your home and mobile.

Please note that your call may be monitored for training and safety.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:30am if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

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 Health Centre.

Teaching at The Limes

We have a long established record of both under graduate and post graduate teaching at The Limes, having been involved in the undergraduate teaching process for over 12 years (and post graduate teaching for far longer).

We are involved in the undergraduate teaching of medical students from Barts and The Royal London (QMC) medical students, and several GPs and nursing staff in the practice regularly teach medical students. The courses we run range from a first year course on the role of "medicine in society", through taking second year students for a course that extends their exposure to meeting patients and learning the basics of taking histories and learning examination techniques.

We also run courses for third and fourth year students on all aspects of medicine, paediatrics and human development. This latter topic encompases the broader topics of child health, gynaecology and obstetrics. We are proud to say that we teach from our strengths, having many team members who have specialist knowledge and also make full use of the wider team, including the nursing team, midwives, health visitors and pharmacists where we feel that this will improve the student experience.