Appointments
Appointment for the Doctor or Treatment Room Sister
- Consultations with the Doctors and Treatment Room Sisters are by appointment only
- To make an appointment please contact Reception in person, or by telephone. We do book appointments in advance of the day you wish to be seen. You can usually see a doctor the same day, though this may not be the doctor of your choice. If you wish to see the doctor of your choice you will be offered the next available appointment.
- Consultations are generally for 10 minutes each – so only ONE patient per appointment please, and try to avoid attending with multiple problems! Normally at least one doctor and one sister will be consulting from 8.30 – 12 noon, and from 2.30 – 5.30pm Mondays to Fridays.
- It is best to see the same doctor each time you attend for the same problem. However not all the doctors are here all of every day, so if you want to see a particular doctor you may have to wait until their return.
- If you cannot keep your appointment PLEASE let the receptionist know as soon as possible so that the appointment can be offered to someone else. A wasted appointment means that another patient will have to wait longer for treatment.
Fit for Work Certificate
It is not necessary to have a Doctor’s certificate until you have been absent continuously from work for seven days including weekends. After three days you must obtain a self-certificate (SC2) from your employer. If your employer insists on a private certificate for an illness of less than seven days duration then the Doctor will charge a fee of £10. If your illness continues for more than seven days then under the NHS your GP can issue an official statement (Med3) “fit to work certificate” to confirm your illness.
Home Visits
Home Visits take a long time and our Medical Centre is better equipped than the doctors' bags – so please try to get to the Medical Centre if you can. If you feel you must have a Home Visit, please ring the Medical Centre before 10:30am if at all possible.
A doctor, or other staff member, may then contact you to determine the medical need and urgency of your request for a visit, and to determine whether it is most appropriately dealt with by a doctor or another health professional, such as District Nurse or Paramedic
When the Medical Centre is closed
Out of Hours - For Urgent Medical Services
Please contact
Devon
Doctors on Call
Tel : 0845 671 0270
If medical advice, or medication, is required out of hours, please telephone Devon Doctors on Call on 0845 6710 270. You will be asked to provide limited information in the first instance to enable your call to be prioritised. This will be followed as soon as possible by a clinician calling you back who will give appropriate advice based on the information that you have given.
Please note that all telephone calls to these Our of Hours Services are recorded.
If you are calling on behalf of someone else please have relevant information available, such as:
- address
- date of birth
- current medication
- name of their GP.
If considered necessary you will be referred to a duty Doctor or Nurse Practitioner who will contact you and, either give further telephone advice, or ask you to attend a local centre or in appropriate circumstances visit you at home.
NHS Direct offers free health information and advice 24-hours a day. For deaf people and those hard of hearing, a telephone service is available on 0845 606 4647. If English is not your preferred language you can choose to use a confidential translation service.
