East Barnwell Health Centre

East Barnwell Health Centre, Ditton Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8SP

Telephone: 01223 728900

admin.eastbarnwellhealthcentre@nhs.net

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Appointments

We are a GP training practice which means we often have medical students accompanying our GPs during their consultations 

Appointment system

Demand for GP appointments in England is growing at a significant rate. East Barnwell Health Centre mirrors this growth which means that the way we handle appointment requests has had to change.

The Patient Services Administrators have been instructed by the doctors to ask you some basic questions about your health issue. (you can be assured that staff observe strict confidentiality at all times). This information will help in deciding how your appointment request will be dealt with and to ensure you see the right person at the right time. It is also to ensure that appointments with clinicians are used in the best way to meet the needs of all our patients. Depending on your condition you will either be referred to your local pharmacy, offered a telephone call back with a clinician or booked into an appointment slot with the practice nurse.

We offer 10 minute appointments. All patients have a named GP and though we do not run rigid personal lists, we encourage patients where possible to see one doctor, as we think it is best for both patient and doctor and provides a continuity of care. If your own doctor is not available then we will offer you an appointment with another doctor.

It is our intention to offer appointments with the doctor of your choice on the day of your choice, although given increasing demand for our services this may not be possible. With this in mind there are a number of things to consider when requesting an appointment. Firstly all of our doctors work part-time and may not be running a clinic on the day you phone. To help with this please use the chart from the tab above to see the days the doctors usually work. On occasions they may be on holiday or undertaking training.

The doctors daily appointments are split 30/70. Approximately 30% of appointments are prebookable. They are useful if you need to plan an appointment in advance or for managing an ongoing issue, rather than an acute illness. The other 70% are released early in the morning each day. These appointments are for patients who are feeling unwell and need to see one of the clinicians fairly quickly. You will need to phone us at 8.30 in order to secure an appointment. Please stay on the line when you ring as you will be held in a queue. If you hang up you will lose your place in the queue.

When all the appointments have been used for the day, the Patient Services Administrator will need to find out if the problem is something that can wait. If this is the case you will be asked to call back another day. If it is a clinically urgent matter that cannot wait until the next day you will be offered a telephone appointment with one of the clinicians to assess the problem.

The Practice Nurse and Phlebotomist appointments are released in advance to allow you to book for routine blood tests, injections and long term condition reviews

We understand that our telephones are very busy at 8:30 and ask that patients should only ring at this time if they need an appointment. If you want to speak to us about anything else, it would be most helpful if you could telephone after 9:00.  Please phone for test results after 2 pm.

Multiple problems : Please inform reception if you have more than one problem you would like to discuss as we may be able to allocate you more than ten minutes. On busy days this may not be possible and you will be asked to prioritise your needs.

Patients under the age of 16 are expected to attend with a parent or responsible adult. Our policy is to encourage children to discuss their problem with a parent or guardian but we appreciate this might not always be possible, for example in sensitive areas such as contraception. We respect the confidentiality of minors in the same way as adults.

Opening Times

  • Monday
    08:00am to 01:00pm
    02:00pm to 06:00pm
  • Tuesday
    08:00am to 01:00pm
    02:00pm to 06:00pm
  • Wednesday
    08:00am to 01:00pm
    02:00pm to 06:00pm
  • Thursday
    08:00am to 01:00pm
    02:00pm to 06:00pm
  • Friday
    08:00am to 01:00pm
    02:00pm to 06:00pm
  • Saturday
    CLOSED
  • Sunday
    CLOSED
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