Specimen and Swab Drop-Off Policy

All specimen samples and swabs must be dropped off between 8:00 am and 3:00 pm. Please note: Samples brought in after 3:00 pm may not be sent off, so we advise bringing them earlier to avoid disappointment.

Need help with a non-urgent medical or admin request? Contact us online.

Book an Appointment

Contact us online
Contact us online

Can another Healthcare Professional help?

Do you need to see the GP?
Sometimes the GP is not the most appropriate Healthcare Professional to deal with your ailment. Please see the information on see a Doctor or Healthcare Professional, which might help you decide whether a GP appointment is truly necessary or whether it might be better for you to see a Pharmacist, Optician, Dentist or other Healthcare Professional. You can even self-refer for some services without seeing your GP.

For real life-threatening emergencies such as those below – RING 999

  • Chest pain (suspected heart attack)
  • Suspected stroke
  • Suspected meningitis
  • Anaphylactic shock (severe allergy)
  • Heavy bleeding or deep lacerations
  • Fluctuating levels of consciousness or completely unconscious
  • Difficulty breathing or stopped breathing with a change in colour
  • New seizure, fit or uncontrollable shaking

For immediately serious conditions such as the following, GO TO Emergency Department (A&E) IMMEDIATELY

  • A fever and lethargic (drowsy) child
  • A feverish and floppy (unresponsive) infant
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Sudden, severe abdominal pain
  • Accidental or intentional overdose of medication
  • Trauma (including falls) and possible broken bones or road traffic accident

Your appointment at the Practice

  • Please make one appointment for each member of the family who needs to be seen
  • We try to keep to time but please be patient if someone before you takes longer than planned
  • Appointments are normally ten minute slots, so if you have a complicated problem, or more than one problem, please ask for a longer appointment
  • It is Practice Policy to allow patients to choose whichever Doctor they wish to attend in the Practice

Please help us

If you are not able to attend your appointment please let us know in time so that the time can be used for someone else. If you are late for an appointment you may be asked to re-book.

Patients can call the Practice to Book an Appointment, the type of appointments available are:-

Evening & Saturday Appointments

Patients can access evening appointments as well as Saturdays. Saturday appointments are – Smear Appointments, Blood Tests, Advance Nurse Practitioners for minor illness. Please contact the practice for these appointments.

Home Visits

Home visits are only for patients who are housebound and unable to attend the surgery. If you can, please come into the surgery for your assessment, so we can have access to our full range of medical equipment. If you think that you may need a home visit, please telephone before 11.00am. The duty doctor will phone you to assess before visiting.

Nurse Appointments

Sometimes an appointment with our doctors may not be the most suitable option, and we recommend that you book with one of our nurses for any of the following issues:

  • Contraception advice and pill checks
  • Cervical smears
  • Sexual health screening including HIV testing
  • Blood pressure/Hypertension monitoring
  • Healthy lifestyle advice
  • Asthma & Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease checks
  • Travel health including vaccinations (please try to book at least 6 weeks before your planned departure)
  • Childhood immunisations
  • Ear syringing
  • Wound dressing and stitch removal
  • Cystitis or urine infections in women

Health Care Assistant/Phlebotomist Appointments

Our health care assistant offers several services, including:

  • New patient health check
  • Healthy diet and lifestyle advice
  • Help to stop smoking.
  • Weight management
  • Blood pressure monitoring
  • Annual diabetes checks
  • NHS health checks (for patients aged 35-70 years)
  • Vitamin B12 injections
  • Flu and Pneumonia injections
  • Blood testing
Other Appointments

Other Appointments – We have a range of other appointments throughout the week, these are:

Pharmacist Appointments – Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) This service connects patients who have a minor illness or need an urgent supply of a medicine with a community pharmacy, please contact us to be referred.

Physio Appointments – Patients with back and joint pain, including conditions such as arthritis, can now book directly with a physiotherapist, rather than waiting to see a GP, please contact us to get an appointment.

Request to be referred to a Social Prescriber – A Social prescribing is an all-age, whole population approach that works particularly well for people who:

have one or more long term conditions.

  • who need support with low level mental health issues.
  • who are lonely or isolated
  • who have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing.

Request to be referred to a Health & Wellbeing Coach – Health and wellbeing coaches support people to increase their ability to self-manage, motivation levels and commitment to change their lifestyle. They are experts in behaviour change and focus on improving health related outcomes by working with people to set personalised goals and change their behaviours. They work with people with physical and/or mental health conditions and those at risk of developing them.

Mental Health Clinics – drop-in advice clinic for people with Mental Health issues every Thursday 2-3:30 at the Kings Centre, Bull Head Street, Wigston, Leic, LE18 1PA. No appointment is needed.

Mental Health self-referral –  Help for initial anxiety, bereaved or separated or uncomplicated low mood or depression – 0330 094 5595 https://www.vitahealthgroup.co.uk/nhs-services/nhs-mental-health/  

Pre-Bookable Appointments

Pre-Bookable Appointments may be booked up to four weeks in advance. We reserve some of our appointments to be booked urgently on the same day. Please try to call in the afternoons for routine appointments as mornings can get very busy dealing with urgent requests.

Same Day/Urgent Appointments

These are available Monday to Friday, and they are for problems which arise suddenly and need to be seen urgently. Please try not to book these appointments for routine matters, such as medication reviews, prescription requests or sick note requests, as this may make it harder for us to see patients who are very ill. To book a same day appointment, you should telephone or report to reception and you will be given an appointment time for that day. If we have no same day appointments left, you can leave your telephone number for the duty doctor to call you back to decide how urgently you need to be seen.

Telephone Consultations

If you prefer to discuss something over the phone with one of our doctors or nurses, our reception staff are happy to take messages with as much detail as possible by phone or in person. The doctor or nurse will then call you back, usually on the same day.

Additional information

Can I bring someone to accompany me to the Appointment?

We are generally very happy for patients to bring with them a carer, relative or even a friend. This often helps, particularly when they know you well and it allows them to tell us any observations they would make about you, which can help us in undertaking our assessment. Ultimately this will lead us more quickly to make an accurate diagnosis and therefore help you more.

Also, having someone with you means they can prompt you to ask questions that you may have forgotten, and after the appointment they can help in reminding you what was discussed.

Occasionally we might ask for them to leave but this would be unusual.

If you require interpretation services please contact us in advance of you appointment and we will arrange this.

If you have a suspected infectious disease

Please inform reception if you suspect an infectious disease, as this will enable us to deal with it appropriately during your visit to protect you, other patients and staff. 

Giving Consent for Treatment

You have the right to accept or refuse treatment that is offered to you, and not to be given any physical examination or treatment unless you have given valid consent. If you do not have the capacity to do so, consent must be obtained from a person legally able to act on your behalf, or the treatment must be in your best interests.

Your valid consent (agreement to the course of action) is needed for the treatment that’s offered to you before any physical examinations or treatment can be given. If you haven’t given your consent, you can accept or refuse treatment that’s offered to you.

It’s important to be involved in decisions about your treatment and to be given information to help you choose the right treatment. When making treatment choices, you’ll often discuss the options with your doctor or another healthcare professional.

Personal Examinations

Sometimes it is necessary for the Doctor or Nurse to perform an internal examination. In accordance with current guidelines you may be asked if you would feel more comfortable with a chaperone present for such an examination. In the event that the doctor or nurse forgets to ask you please do not hesitate or be embarrassed to ask for a chaperone if you would like one. We understand the reasons for such requests and will always provide a chaperone for those patients who want them. Occasionally this might mean a short delay in performing the examination.