You and Your General Practice

At St Augustine's Medical Practice, we already follow most of the principles set out in this document. It explains both what you can expect from us, and what we ask of you as a patient.

However, we also want to be open with you. The British Medical Association (BMA) GP Committee – which represents GPs – is currently disagrees with the Department of Health and Social Care about some of the changes being introduced. Because of this, we want to be honest:

Our Commitment to You

We aim to provide safe, high-quality care to all our patients. However, there may be times when we cannot fully meet the standards due to limited capacity, staff training, system failures, or other unforeseen circumstances. When this happens, we’ll let you know and may ask that routine requests wait or direct you to another service for urgent care.

General Practice is under significant pressure. With proper resources, we could expand our team and improve access to care — but we will always do our best with what we have.

We believe patients deserve more

• At present, GP's and their teams are under huge pressure – caring for more people with fewer resources.
• Without proper investment, the safety, stability, and continuity of care that patients value most are at risk.
• As your GP practice, we will always do what we can to deliver the best service possible for you and your family. With the right resources and support, we could expand our services, employ more staff, and deliver the safe, timely, and personalised care you deserve.

So please bear with us.

In practice, this means:

• If you contact us asking for a specific appointment (for example, with a particular doctor, on a certain day, or at a certain time), and we don’t have anything available to match that request. We may offer an alternative or direct you to another service that can help. We always try to be flexible, but demand for appointments is higher than ever. We need to support as many patients as we can, so sometimes that means we can’t meet every individual preference. But if you work with us, we’ll work with you to find the best way forward.
• Most of the time, we can respond to patient queries the same day, or by the next working day. Some queries need input from a specific member of staff or a bit more investigation. If that’s the case, we’ll let you know and keep you updated.
• We have tried to avoid introducing a waiting list for routine appointments, however due to rising demand this may become necessary. 

What We Ask from You

• Use the right route: for new and changing symptoms please do not use admin or routine request forms, use ‘I have a health problem’ for a clinical review. If this form is closed, we have reached capacity to process urgent or same day requests, it will reopen the next day at 8am. If you feel your problem is urgent call reception for further advice, do not put through a routine request. We may direct you to call 111, urgent care centres, minor injury units or a local pharmacy if we feel they can help you. 
• Be clear: give as much detail as possible when submitting requests.
• Blood tests / investigations: tests and investigations can only be arranged if requested by a clinician.
• Consider self-referral: many local services accept direct self-referrals – see our website
• Hospital / Community Referrals: contact the hospital / provider directly for updates on waiting times.
• Hospital / Community Tests: if your test or investigation was requested by the hospital please contact them directly for results.
• Be prepared: Arrive on time and cancel if you no longer need your appointment.
• Order medications early: Allow time for prescriptions to be processed.
• Emergency care: Unfortunately, we are not a walk-in provider of emergency care and if you need immediate care we will direct you to another appropriate provider.  

We know you want timely care – and so do we. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and continued support.

We know that in an ideal world, everyone would be able to see a GP whenever they want. What we can promise is that we’ll keep doing our best to provide safe, high-quality care to the right person, at the right time.

We know you want timely care – and so do we. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and continued support while we try our best for you and your family.  

Our core contract hours are Monday – Friday, 8am– 6:30pm.

All sites are open from 8am– 6pm.

Temple House Reception remains open until 6:30 pm (from 6pm each day via door intercom). 

Our consulting times are between 08:00 and 18:00. We have a subcontract with Health Hero who provide out of hours cover between 18:00 and 18:30. Patients needing to speak to a GP between these times should contact 111 who will arrange an appointment. 

In an emergency, please dial 999 for an ambulance or attend the nearest Accident & Emergency Department.