Healthier Together for your child's health

The Healthier Together programme relies upon patients and healthcare professionals working together to improve how local healthcare is delivered. The website provides advice for parents, young people and pregnant women, and clinical resources to support healthcare professionals – which means that your child is likely to receive consistently high-quality care, irrespective of which healthcare professional they see

How do I make an appointment?

Booking appointments

Telephone the surgery to make an appointment.

You are now able to view and cancel appointments at your convenience online.  You can view your medications, immunisations and allergies.  You can also update your address and contact details online. Please ask at reception for details on how to register an account.  You can then use the link below.

Evening and weekend appointments

If you are registered with a GP practice in Southampton, you can now get an appointment with a doctor or nurse from 8am to 8pm every weekday (including bank holidays), 8am to 4pm on Saturday and 8am to 2pm on Sunday via The Hub. This appointment will either be at your GP practice or at one of the six hubs throughout the city.(more information is below and in the tab 'The Hub')

These appointment slots are for a variety of different appointments, and can be booked through your GP practice when they are open or by phoning NHS 111 if your practice is closed. NHS 111 is free to phone and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What type of appointment do I need?

Routine GP appointment

We offer routine GP appointments up to 4 weeks in advance but should you need an urgent appointment on the day with a doctor we will offer you an appointment as soon as possible. This may be telephone advice where the doctor will asses you and advise if you need to attend within the next 24 hours.

Nurse Practitioner

Our nurse practitioners support our GPs and are able to offer telephone consultations and face to face appointments, often on the same day.  They are able to provide medical advice as well as prescribe medication.  

Practice nurse

In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many ailments and you may be seen more quickly.

Emergencies

For emergencies which require an urgent visit or appointment which cannot wait for end of surgery, please use the facility on the telephone system to speak urgently to one of the clinical staff, and a doctor or nurse will assess what needs to be done for you.

Telephone Consultations

We pride ourselves on being accessible to our patients, and both the doctors and nurses are happy to call you back if you have a problem that you fell could be dealt with by phone. If you are telephoning about an on-going illness, or for a test result please try to speak to the doctor or nurse who has been looking after you.

Intimate Examinations

You are entitled to ask or arrange for a chaperone to be present during intimate examinations.  You can either choose a friend or relative to be present or ask the practice to provide a chaperone.

Why does the receptionist ask what is wrong with me when I am making an appointment at the surgery?

Our reception team are trained to ask certain questions in order to ensure that you can be directed to an appropriate health professional.  This is because in addition to GPs our health professional team also includes;

•  Nurse Practitioners who support our GPs in providing medical advice and are also able to prescribe medication
  
  
•  Practice Nurses who are able to attend to nursing needs, for example dressing changes, injections, cervical smears, annual reviews and health checks
  
  
• Health Care Assistants who are able to provide (for example) blood tests, health checks and ECGs

Receptionists are asked to collect brief information from patients:

• To help our health professionals to prioritise home visits and phone calls
• To ensure that all patients receive the appropriate level of care
• To direct patients to see the most appropriate health professional

Reception staff are bound by confidentiality rules: 

• Any information given by you is treated as strictly confidential
• The management team would take any breach of confidentially very seriously and deal with accordingly
• You can ask to speak to a receptionist in private away from reception desk

We do understand that patients do their best to arrive on time for their appointment.  We recommend that you arrive a few minutes earlier than your scheduled time to ensure that you have time to let us know that you have arrived and that you are seen at your booked appointment time.

If you are more than 10 minutes late for your appointment, however, we will be asking that you rebook your appointment for another time.  This ensures that the clinic you are booked into runs on time, or as close to time as possible, not only for yourself, but also for other patients.

A Practice Nurse will see (on average) 5 patients an hour.  A GP will also see (on average) the same number of patients during this period.  If each of these patients were to arrive late, this would mean that by the end of the morning or afternoon clinic, delays could be quite significant, just by patients arriving late.

It is really helpful to us and other patients if you are unable to make your appointment for you to call the surgery 02380 227559 or email

hiowicb-hsi.brookhousesurgery@nhs.net to advise of your cancellation.  This then allows us to open your appointment to another patient.

We are able to share our Appointment Punctuality Policy on request.

Home Visits

Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception before 10:00.

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice.

Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls

You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.