Why we …. ask what the problem is over the phone for a non-routine doctor appointment?
When patients call the surgery for a non-routine appointment you may find the receptionist asks what the problem is. This is not the receptionist being awkward or “nosey”, they ask simply to benefit the patient.
Once all of the routine appointments have been booked, the receptionist has a certain (sometimes very few) amount of appointments to give out to patients on the day, a duty nurse and duty doctor on call. To allow the receptionist to direct you to the most appropriate health care professional to deal with your situation, we need to ask about your symptoms.
Our urgent calls are also prioritised, for example a patient complaining of chest pain will be dealt with before a patient complaining of sinusitis regardless of what time you called. It is your right to withhold why you are calling from the reception team, but doing so may result in your case not being picked up as quick as could be.
Why we …. ask what the problem is when booking appointments with the nurse?
Nairn Healthcare Group has Health Care Assistants and Nurses, all of whom undertake different procedures.
The Health Care Assistants are responsible for blood pressure checks, blood tests, height, weight and your Well Woman and Man checks, all of which are 10 minute appointments
Not all Nurses do all tasks. Some do asthma checks, some do diabetic checks, some do childhood immunisations. The appointment times also vary, a spirometry check can take up to 30 minutes while an injection only takes 10 minutes. The reception team ask what the appointment is for in order to book the patient in with the appropriate nurse and also with the appropriate timeframe needed to carry out the procedure required.
Why we …. don’t do repeat orders over the phone?
Currently, Nairn Healthcare has over 15,200 patients with many on several repeat prescriptions that are different strengths and directions. As patient are already aware, our phone lines can be very busy so to allow patients to phone in with orders could prevent an emergency call coming through to the Practice. We obviously cater for those who are unable to attend the surgery. There are also safety reasons for not taking medication orders over the phone.
Why we …. send out recall letters and why you should attend?
The Practice sends out recall letters to those who have a chronic disease or are on certain medications. We have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that regular checks are undertaken where appropriate and we have a contractual duty to invite certain patients in for recall either 6 monthly or annually. Some medications, such as Levothyroxine, will require thyroid blood check and those on the contraceptive pill need annual blood pressure checks. We advise these checks for your own health.