Appointments

You no longer have to call the surgery at 8am to book an appointment. Our patient triage form is open 24-hours a day, 7-days a week!

At Bennetts End Surgery, we assess and triage all patient requests for appointments based on clinical need. This is to ensure patients get the appropriate care that they require. Appointments with the doctor are intended to address one problem.

Where possible, appointments will be booked with the doctor who knows your medical history but same-day appointments for more urgent matters may not always be available with the doctor of your choice.  

Please remember: Bennetts End General Practice Surgery is not an emergency service.

• Symptoms of severe chest pain, breathlessness or stroke symptoms or in a life-threatening emergency, call 999, at any time of day or night.
• For urgent medical queries, call 111.
• GPs are not appropriately trained to deal with dental problems. This covers toothaches, abscesses and problems experienced after dental treatment (including prescriptions for antibiotics). Please call your dentist or 111, or follow the link: dental health for more information.

If in doubt, please contact your local pharmacy in the first instance as they are qualified to advise and treat in many instances.

To find your nearest pharmacy, please click the link Find a pharmacy – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

How does Patient Triage work

There are two kinds of patient triage forms that you can complete: – one for medical issues and one for admin requests. 

• Medical issues – if you are feeling unwell and think you require an appointment, either telephone or face to face.
• Admin requests – to enquire about test results, prescription queries, Med 3 certificates (sick notes) and other administrative tasks.

If you are unable to use online services, or fall within our vulnerable patient group, please call the surgery on 01442 263511, our reception team will be able to support you with completing your patient triage form. Please note that this option is only available during surgery opening hours, which may delay your request. We ask that patients who are able to access the triage forms online do so, in order to leave the phone lines available for our vulnerable patients.   

Each patient triage form is assessed based on  clinical need and urgency.

Appointments, either telephone or face to face (we can offer video calls in some circumstances), are booked with the most appropriate clinician. In some cases, this may be with a member of the nursing team, Clinical Pharmacist or First Contact Physiotherapist.

Please give as much information as you can in your triage form to support the person assessing your needs to make the most appropriate decision. Your triage form will be looked at by a doctor and they will decide the appropriate advice or treatment based on your clinical need. Below are the different types of appointments that might be offered:

On-the-day (urgent) appointments

For patients who are assessed/triaged as unwell where an urgent medical intervention or onward referral is required to improve their health outcome. These appointments are usually offered within 24 – 48 hours.

Routine appointments

For patients who are assessed/triaged as unwell where a medical review, intervention or onward referral is required to improve their health outcome but this is not urgent. These appointments are usually offered within 2-3 weeks. (This might be longer in case of extenuating circumstances)

Routine (Planned Care) appointments

Usually with the Practice Nurse or Healthcare Assistant. Patients usually receive a text to self book or can call the surgery when these are due.  These appointments can be booked up to 4 weeks in advance. 

Please note, it can take up to 48 hours to receive a response to your medical request triage form. If your medical needs require a response quicker than this time frame, please call 111 or visit an urgent care centre. If you have not heard from the surgery after 48 hours of completing your medical request triage form, please contact reception. Please note, we aim to respond to administrative requests within 72 hours. 

Saturday Appointments

Bennetts End Surgery provides an enhanced hours service that offers routine appointments on a Saturday morning for patients who are unable to attend during the week. Please complete a patient triage form and specify if you would like an appointment on a Saturday morning. 

Please note that the treatment of ‘urgent cases’ will continue to be provided by the out-of-hours service. No ‘urgent’ on-the-day appointments are available at the weekend. 

Additional GP Appointments – Extended Access

Extended Access offers appointments to patients outside of a GP practice’s core opening hours (evenings and weekends).

The Extended Access service for patients in Dacorum is organised and operated by the local federation, Dacorum Healthcare Providers Ltd, who employ clinical, administrative and reception staff to run this service from different locations (known as hubs) across Dacorum locality.  Currently, these Dacorum Extended Access hub sites are:

• Hemel Hempstead Hospital, Urgent Care Centre: Hillfield Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 4AD
• Highfield Surgery: Cambrian Way, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 5TA
• The Nap Surgery: Kings Langley, WD4 8ET
• The New Surgery, Tring: St Peters House, Church Yard, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 5AE

The Extended Access service is operated as a locality for all GP practices in the Dacorum area and all patients from these practices can book Extended Access evening and weekend appointments at one of the hubs by contacting their own GP practice. We will ask for your consent at the time of booking the appointment for permission to share your medical records temporarily with the other clinicians to address your needs.

Patients wishing to CANCEL a hub site Extended Access appointment should telephone 07864 652 026.

Cancellation of Appointments

In order that we can make the best use of our resources, we greatly appreciate it when patients let us know that they are unable to attend an appointment.

We have a dedicated text cancellation line, 07814 442 290, patients can text the Surgery to make cancellations. Simply text us your name, your date of birth and the date and time of your appointment and we can take it from there. Please note that this number is for cancellations only and no other messages will be answered.

The doctors are occasionally called out of Surgery to attend emergencies. When this happens, our patient service team will inform the waiting patients and give an indication of the likely delay. It may be necessary to see another doctor or book a new appointment.

You can also cancel appointments by clicking on the link in your appointment reminder text message.

Each missed GP appointment costs the NHS £30, negatively impacts health outcomes for the patient and creates longer wait times to be seen. If you are unable to keep an appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so that the appointment can be offered to someone else.  

Home Visits

Whenever possible, please make requests for home visits between 09:00 and 11:00 by calling the surgery. This helps the doctors to plan their work for the rest of the day.

Requests for home visits are screened by a doctor. Home visits are very time consuming and are only made if the doctor decides that the patient is too seriously ill to travel or is housebound and needs to be seen at home. Please note that, on occasion, home visits will take place the following day, as it is sometimes more appropriate for the patient’s usual GP to attend. 

Out-of-Hours Service

During the week, out of hours refers to the period of time between 18:30 at night and 08:00 the following morning. Weekends and public holidays are also out of hours. During these times, please call 111 if your medical needs are urgent and cannot wait until the surgery reopens.

When the Surgery is closed, you can telephone our switchboard and your call will be transferred directly to the out-of-hours provider. Your call will be assessed by a clinical advisor and will pass this information to a doctor or nurse who will phone back with advice or, if necessary, arrange for you to see a doctor at the emergency centre or receive a home visit.

Call 999 in a life-threatening emergency. Chest pains and / or shortness of breath constitute an emergency.