Telephone Advice

There is also a list of useful contact numbers to be found by following this link – Useful Numbers.

Laboratory comments vocabulary

1 – Normal – the result is within normal range, and no further/additional action is needed at this time (either by patient and/or clinician)

2 – Satisfactory/Stable – The reviewing clinician has deemed the test result to be in a safe range or not changing significantly from the previous result (if it is a consecutive test) and no further action is required at this time.

Example:

• A blood test for diabetes monitoring was arranged, and whilst not entirely in the normal range it was OK for the time being and it will be discussed during the next, already planned appointment or annual check appointment.

3 – Actioned – reviewing clinician have appropriately actioned the result (e.g. booked an appointment, sent a text message with the result to a patient if previously agreed so, ordered another test, made a referral etc) or have satisfied themselves that another colleague has already taken appropriate action. Please note that this action could have occurred even before the test result was available. It means that at this moment, NO additional action from either patient or clinician is needed.

Examples:

• The patient was referred to the hospital, and blood tests were required as part of the referral process. A referral has already been made but the test results were available and seen by a clinician a few days later.
• The patient was given an antibiotic for a urinary tract infection, and at the same time, a urine sample was sent to the laboratory. The result came back a few days later, and the reviewing clinician noted that the original treatment given was correct, so no additional action was needed.

4 – Appointment – The reviewing clinician has either arranged an appointment or requested one to be arranged by Reception or by contacting the patient directly (via a phone or text message and asking them to arrange one at their convenience) or an appointment has already been arranged earlier. In all cases, the clinician established the appointment’s urgency, and the most appropriate timeframe was chosen.

5 – Individual comments – sometimes reviewing clinicians feel that none of the above generic comments is appropriate and provide individual, bespoke comments.

Just so you know, we are asking our patients NOT to contact Practice routinely (unless previously arranged with the clinician) for their test results. As a practice, we receive and review between 200 and 300 laboratory results daily. We want to reassure our patients that ALL results are all being reviewed EVERY WORKING DAY as they become available, and all appropriate actions are being taken during these reviews. However, communicating them all to our patients individually is not feasible.

Please remember that all patients with online access to their clinical records have full access to all their results, which includes the normal reference ranges. So, we would like to encourage our patients to request this access.

Home visits are for those who are housebound or too ill to come to surgery. All home visits will be triaged, and may be conducted by a Doctor or Nurse Practitioner dependent on your illness. Whenever possible we prefer to see you at the surgery. If you do not feel well enough to sit in the waiting room we can make alternative arrangements.

To request a home visit, we kindly ask that you complete an Online Triage form. In the comments box, you will be able to specify that the request is a home visit.

If you are new to the area and require to register at our practice please come into the Practice and ask at our Reception Desk. This is best done in the afternoon to ensure the admin staff have more time to go through things with you. They tend to be very busy in the mornings. If you have a medical card, please bring this with you. If your PC has a suitable spreadsheet program, why not save time by downloading the registration form and fill it in before you come or by visiting www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-gp/ where you can complete the online registration form which will then be send directly to our admin staff at the surgery.