Abbey Wood Surgery

We are open 8am – 6.30pm Monday to Friday

Consultations

We now operate a telephone triage system for our Clinical Team. This means when you call the surgery to request a consultation, your contact details and a brief summary of your problem is taken by our reception staff. Please be aware that we have a many Clinicians in the Practice and you will be allocated to the most appropriate clinical team member for your needs and this may not always be a GP.  You will  be called back on the same working day anytime up to 6.30pm. If you miss the first call the Clinician will try one further time, should you then miss this call  you will need to resubmit your request the following day and this will be recorded as a Failed Encounter.  This is called ‘telephone triage’. Reception Staff  are unable to book you an appointment with a Doctor or Nurse Practitioner, if it is necessary for you to be seen , you will then be offered an appointment by the clinician.

You can book for the Practice Nurse, Physiotherapist or Mental Health Nurse with the reception team in advance.

We are open from 8.00 am – 6.30 pm every weekday, but we are closed on Saturday, Sunday and  Public/Bank Holidays. We do not close the surgery or switch over our telephones at lunchtime, unless we have staff training.

Consultations are available from 9.30am everyday and from 8.30am when the Nurse Practitioner is working. To speak to a clinician please telephone us or submit an online request.

Online consultation requests are capped daily and open at 8.30am for submission. Once our quota is reached a message will appear to advise patients to try the following day.

Booking an Consultation

Consultations are available Monday to Friday from 09.30 – 11.30 and 15.00 – 17.30.

We only take consultation requests for the mornings up to 10.30am for our Doctors and the Nurse Practitioner, although we cannot guarantee we will have available slots left for the morning if you ring in at this time. Any patient telephoning or coming into the surgery after this time will be advised that they can be booked from 3.00pm  for an evening surgery consultation.

Saturday hub clinics

We are part Heritage PCN, our patients have access to Hub appointments for face to face appointments with a Dr or Nurse. These surgeries are held at Triveni Medical Practice, Escreet Grove SE18 5TE

Evening appointments

Evening appointment for the Doctors cannot be pre-booked and must be booked on the day they are required.

We book the evening consultations from 3pm onwards, but the surgeries do not start until 4pm and we have limited slots therefore we cannot guarantee that patients will be seen if they ring up or come in towards the end of the evening surgery times. We cannot offer double appointments in the evenings due to the limited spaces available.

We try to make sure you see the doctor of your choice but if they are not available we may ask you to see another doctor or our Nurse Practitioner, who can prescribe and refer exactly the same as the Doctors.

Home visits

If you are too ill to come to the surgery and you require a visit at home, please call the surgery before 10.30am. Home visits take up much more of a doctor’s time than a consultation in the surgery.  Requests for a home visit does not guarantee Doctor will come out to see you, but they will ring you beforehand so it is important that you give the reception staff your correct contact number(s).

Lateness

Patients who are 10 minutes late for all any face to face appointment  will not be seen. They will have to re-book their appointment, but they will not be guaranteed to be seen on the same day. Any patient who does not attend 3 appointments with any of the Healthcare Professionals at the Surgery will be sent a warning letter and could potentially be removed from our register should they continue to DNA their appointments.

Missed appointments

This is a serious issue in the surgery with several appointments being missed and not cancelled on a daily basis by patients who DNA (do not attend) their appointment for whatever reason.

In line with the surgery policy, any patient who fails to attend 3 appointments or has 3 failed encounters when trying to call a patient back, within a 12 month period will receive a warning letter informing them that should this happen again they will be removed from our patient list.

If the patient is under 16 years old then the whole family will be removed. We have a dedicated cancellation option (option 2) on our phone line and you can cancel  in person as well.

Date published: 8th October, 2014
Date last updated: 22nd February, 2024