Practice Updates

Practice closure on Tuesday 11th June 2024

Wallingbrook Health Centre, Wallingbrook Dispensary and Winkleigh Surgery will be closed for GP and staff training in the afternoon of Tuesday 11th June 2024.

The practice will open again as usual on the Wednesday 12th June 2024.  

 

If you have an urgent medical need in the afternoon on Tuesday 11th June, please continue to ring the usual telephone number for the practice and you will be put through to the duty service.

Please do not ring for routine appointments and queries during that afternoon.

Thank you

For immediate, life-threatening emergencies, continue to call 999.

Changes to Online Consultation Access at Wallingbrook Health Group

Wallingbrook Health Group have been successfully using eConsult to help access our services for almost 4 years.  NHS England require all practices to offer an online consultation service,  allowing patients to contact their practice without coming into the surgery or waiting on the telephone.

We are grateful to patients who use eConsult, it enables the team to answer the phones for patients who are unable to easily access online resources, and patients who need urgent assistance.

We have always taken pride on being amongst the very small minority of practices who offer the eConsult service outside of surgery hours. We intend to continue offering this service but have been made aware of incidents where eConsults submitted at the start of the weekend detailed symptoms in need of review sooner had not been reviewed prior to Wallingbrook opening again on a Monday.

No harm occurred; however, we want to prioritise optimal levels of safety in our systems and prevent harm from occurring. For this reason, we have chosen to close eConsult at weekends and bank holiday weekends.

From Friday 5 January, eConsult will close at 18:00 on Fridays and re-open on Sundays at 18:30 (except on Bank Holidays).

We will continue to keep eConsult open during the weekday evenings to enable continuing access for those that work Monday to Friday. This will enable us to continue providing a service that offers better access than many other surgeries.

If you require medical advice outside of our operating hours, please call 111 or in a medical emergency call 999.

We are grateful for your understanding around this issue and would like to apologise for any inconvenience.

New Patient Call Back System

We have activated the patient call back facility on our phone system. This means when you telephone the practice you will now be able to choose to stay in the call queue or to save you waiting you can choose the call back option.

How do I choose the Call Back Option?

If we are experiencing high call volumes when you telephone the practice the phone system will activate the following message:

We are experiencing high levels of calls. You can press 1 now to retain your position in the queue and we will call you back when you are at the front of the queue. Please have your phone to hand to receive our call. If however you would like to continue to hold without ending the call, please stay on the line.’

When will the Practice Call Back?

Once you have chosen the Call Back option your place in the queue is retained, the practice will call you back when you are at the front of the queue.

Activities in the Practice Area

Our Patient Participation Group have kindly put together a list of all community activities in the area. Please click the link below to view 

 

Activities in the Area.pdf