Appointments - City Walls Medical Centre

Booking Appointments

After gathering feedback from patients, it was requested that we share a simple summary of our appointment system. Please see: Appointment System Explained

Appointment Requirements: Each appointment will only address one problem per patient. If you have more than one problem, please request a double appointment.

All appointments become available to book at 8am each morning. To book an appointment, please complete our PATCHS online form. This is the quickest and easiest way to gain access to our GP services.

The form will be passed to our triage team, including two GPs and a Patient Co-ordinator, who will review your request and signpost it to the appropriate clinician or service.

For even faster access to the PATCHS form, rather than accessing it via our website, please use this link: www.cwmc.uk/contact

For more information, please see the PATCHS - Patients Help.

Note: An email address is currently required to use PATCHS. If you do not have an email address and do not wish to create one, please call the Practice. A Patient Coordinator will fill out a form within our clinical system for you. This form is similar to the online form and will allow you to access our services similarly to all other patients.

For those without access to the internet or who are unfamiliar with the process, please call our reception.

If you need to book at the front desk, one of our Patient Coordinators will help you fill out the form.

Phlebotomy (blood test) appointments are the only appointments that we currently offer to book online. All other appointment requests must be triaged by a GP.

If you have an urgent enquiry and the PATCHS service is unavailable for requests, please call the practice on 01244 357800.

Please Note: If you are more than 10 minutes late for your appointment, you may not be seen and may need to reschedule your appointment.

As with all major cities, the traffic can be heavy, and we would advise allowing plenty of time to get to your appointment. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept traffic as an excuse for arriving late to your appointment.

Telephone lines will be open from 8am but may be very busy initially.

To save time, consider using our online booking system. For more details, please click here.

Please Note: A clinician can only see one patient per appointment.

Life-Threatening Emergencies

For immediate, life-threatening emergencies call 999.

Emergencies – Call:Emergencies – Call: 999

Urgent Conditions

If you feel that you need to be seen urgently on the day, an appointment can be arranged for you in one of our daily urgent clinics. The request will still need to be triaged by one of our GPs. It will be dealt with at a higher priority than routine and admin requests. You will be asked to supply a brief description of the problem to allow our GPs to decide on the most appropriate clinician.

Pre-Bookable Routine Appointments

Patients are able to request routine appointments either in person, by telephone or via our preferred most efficient method, a PATCHS Online Form.

There is no priority given to either method though you will likely have your request triaged faster if you submit it via PATCHS. There's no queue online.

You are able to choose a specific GP subject to demand, however, please take into consideration that other GPs may be available sooner.

The surgery opens at 08:00 Monday to Friday and patients are seen largely by appointment.

Follow-Up Telephone Appointments

Follow-up appointments will be arranged by our triage team if a clinician deems it necessary.

Minor Ailments

You can make use of the Pharmacy First facilities at your local pharmacy. Pharmacies can offer health care advice and have direct access to appropriate treatments, including antibiotics (if required).

Please consider the Pharmacy First service for conditions such as but not limited to:

Athlete's Foot
Cold and Flu
Constipation
Cough
Diarrhoea and Vomiting
Fever
Hay Fever
Pain
Sore Throat
Worms

For more information, please see the Pharmacy First section of our Self Care page.

Within our Self Care page, you may find information which could help you to treat your problem without the need for an appointment.

Making use of services such as Pharmacy First helps us to keep GP and Nurse appointments available for those who have conditions that require more complex treatment.

For minor illnesses that can't be dealt with by your local pharmacy, we offer daily clinics that are run by a highly skilled nurse practitioner who is able to help with many illnesses such as ear ache, chest infections and abdominal pain.

The nurse practitioner has the ability to prescribe, and in the event that you need to be seen by a GP urgently she will be able to allocate you an emergency appointment that day.

Nurse Telephone Advice on the Day

A routine telephone call can be arranged with a nurse for her to call you back at some time during the day. This advice line is to be used for issues such as:

Travel Information (please complete our online form or visit the practice to collect a form. Once this has been received, it will be reviewed and a telephone appointment will be arranged to dicuss any vaccination requirements)
Immunisation status
Wound Care
Diabetic Queries
Asthma Queries
Smear Advice
Contraception Advice

Need An Appointment When We're Closed?

If you require a routine appointment outside of our opening hours, please see the "When We Are Closed" section of our Opening Times page.

Attending Appointments

When attending an appointment at the practice, please make sure to let us know that you have arrived. This can be done using the patient check-in screen within the waiting rooms or by notifying our reception staff at the front desk. Failure to do so could mean you miss your appointment.

Book a Home Visit

Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and full clinical records available, we do appreciate this is not always possible.

In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception on 01244 357800 or 01244 881590 (Saughall) before 10:30am.

Requests received after 10:30am will normally be visited the following day unless medically urgent.

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed.

Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls.

Lack of personal transport will not be considered a valid reason for a home visit.

You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You may also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.

How To Obtain a Sickness Certificate

A sickness certificate ("fit note") completed and signed by your doctor is only required when a period of continuous absence from work due to illness is more than 7 days in a row (including non-working days).

To obtain a"fit note" you are required to book an appointment to be seen by a GP unless the practice has received notification of your illness from another medical professional, such as a letter from the hospital. In that case, a "fit note" may be provided by your GP without you having to be seen.

If this is the case, you may be able to request a "fit note" via our Online Consultation Service.

Your employer may ask you to fill in a form when you return to work to confirm that you've been off sick for up to 7 days. This is called "self-certification". Although your employer may have their own form for this, the following form may be used and is also available at reception:

Employee's Statement of Sickness (SC2)

The above form can also be used if you have been ill for 4 or more days in a row (including non-working days) and need to claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from your employer. Please tell your employer in writing (if they request it) and by their deadline (or within 7 days if they don't have one).

Please note: You may have to see a GP if you wish to renew a "fit note" or return to work before your "fit note" expires.

Using a Chaperone

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. This chaperone may be a family member or friend. On occasions you may prefer a formal chaperone to be present, i.e. a trained member of staff.

Wherever possible we would ask you to make this request at the time of booking the appointment so that arrangements can be made and your appointment is not delayed in any way. Where this is not possible we will endeavour to provide a formal chaperone at the time of request. However occasionally it may be necessary to reschedule your appointment.

The Medical Protection Society has produced the following guidance for Patients and Practices:

Ten best practice points for the use of chaperones

Any patient can request a chaperone for any consultation. As this will usually require a second clinician to attend, please give us as much advance notice as possible so we can make a chaperone available.
Chaperones should be offered to patients for intimate examinations. Your GP/ Nurse should consider what defines “intimate” and should judge this from the patient’s perspective.
We must all be aware of and respect cultural differences. Religious beliefs may also have a bearing on the patient’s decision over whether to have a chaperone present.
It is Practice policy that the best person to have act as a chaperone would be a member of the clinical team. That clinician will have been fully trained to act as a clinical chaperone.
The patient should be introduced to the chaperone before the examination can proceed. The chaperone will need to be present during the examination.
A clinician may wish to have a chaperone present for their own reputational protection.
We will never force a chaperone on an unwilling patient. If this facility is declined by a patient the clinician should note that in the patient’s medical records.
If the clinician does not wish to proceed in the absence of a chaperone, they should explain this to the patient and the reasons why. The patient might then reconsider or agree to see a different doctor on another occasion.
The clinician should not assume that a chaperone is not needed just because they are the same sex as the patient.
Using a chaperone every time you examine a patient is impractical – the patient and the clinician should use their judgement about individual situations to decide when a chaperone is appropriate.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Patients

For our patients that are deaf or hard of hearing, if you are unable to use our Online Consultation Service or the Patient Access service, please contact the practice using the form below.

Once your request has been dealt with, you will receive an email containing the necessary details.