GP surgeries in Surrey Heartlands

Practice Nurse Taking Patients Blood Pressure

GP surgeries in Surrey Heartlands

GP services

GP services, or primary care services as they are also known, are the front door to the NHS. This means it is often the first place a person may visit when they have a health care need or are seeking advice regarding a health matter.

There have been changes to the way we access advice from GPs and their teams with an increase in online and digital, however primary care has and continues to be as accessible as it always has been.

You can find your local GP practice by following this link - NHS find a GP.

You can also view a map of all GP practices across Surrey Heartlands.

Access to appointments

GP practices are open and where appropriate and necessary, are offering face to face consultations. However, increasingly consultations can now be done over the phone or using a digital device.

For those who can access digital devices, the vast majority of GP practices offer online services to their patients, which include booking and cancelling of appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions and access to their GP record. Some GP practice websites also offer a service online for patients who need advice and treatment for a health matter. Using this system, a GP or health care professional will get back to you and if necessary, you will be offered an appointment online, by telephone or face-to-face.

For the majority of practices a triage process has been introduced which means a telephone call with a GP initially takes place to determine if advice and treatment can be provided without coming into the surgery.

If you need to see a GP or clinician in person

You may need to do an assessment over the phone first with a GP or Nurse Practitioner to find out more about your health care need. This means that you are seeing the right person and are seen in the appropriate time.

As part of this initial assessment, our receptionists might need to ask you some additional questions. This is to help ensure that you get the right care, in the right way, by the right professional. All staff operate strict privacy guidelines, all your information is treated confidentially.

If you are unsure of what online services are available at your GP practice, please visit their website.

What services are available at GP practices?

GPs work as part of a multidisciplinary team (MDTs) who support the care of any patient through promoting, preventing and initiating treatment. They will also refer and signpost to other services if required. Therefore, depending on your health care need, it might be appropriate to make an appointment directly with a member of the team other than the GP. These roles will vary in each practice but include:

Practice Nurses
Community Midwives
Community Paramedics
Nurse Practitioners
Clinical Pharmacists
Health Visitors
Mental Health Specialist
Physiotherapists

The MDT meet regularly to discuss cases and plan joint approaches to co-ordinate packages of care for patients.

Watch this video: How can you get the best out of your GP consultation

GP out-of-hours services

If you feel that you need to see a doctor outside of GP practice opening hours (known as ‘out-of-hours’) and it is not an emergency please call 111.

The Surrey Heartlands GP out-of-hours service does not offer walk-in appointments, and can only be accessed by calling NHS 111.
The out-of-hours service is for urgent cases only. If your problem isn’t urgent, please contact your GP surgery when it is next open.
The GP out-of-hours service is open Monday to Friday from 6.30pm to 8.00am, and for 24 hours at weekends and during bank holidays.
NHS 111 will tell you if you need a face-to-face appointment and this could be either at a local healthcare centre or a home visit.

Find out more by visiting the Surrey NHS 111 service website.