Appointments

Our appointment system operates by booked appointments only.

Routine appointments

  • These can be booked up to four weeks in advance by phoning the surgery on 01782 432420 or visiting the surgery in person.  When you get in touch our Patient Care Co-Ordinators will ask what you need help with so that they can care navigate you to the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional. 
  • We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional to help you.
  • You can also book certain appointments online through the NHS App or Patient Access such as long term condition reviews or smears.  Registration may be required for this.  If you need any assistance, please don’t hesitate to speak with one of our Patient Care Coordinators. For more information on the NHS App visit NHS App and your NHS account – NHS
  • Use our Online consultation service for non-urgent, problems or queries Consult Online from Home – Biddulph Doctors.   Once you submit a form online, your query will be reviewed by a GP.  We aim to respond within two working days.
  • In some circumstances we will send patients invites to self-book an appointment for a specific purpose, these invites are sent by text message or email.

Book on the day appointments

  • These are reserved for urgent matters that need to be managed on the same day and are bookable by phoning the surgery on 01782 432420 or visiting the surgery in person. When you get in touch our Patient Care Co-Ordinators will ask what you need help with so that they can care navigate you to the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional.   We always have an on-call GP present in the practice.   If all our on the day appointments have been booked, the on-call GP triages any genuinely urgent requests.

Enhanced Access Appointments 

  • Enhanced Access and Out of Hour Appointments are available for patients within the Leek and Biddulph Primary Care Network (Biddulph Doctors, Biddulph Valley Surgery, Leek Health Centre, Moorlands Medical Centre, Park Medical Centre).  The appointments are either telephone or face to face.  Appointments are available from 4pm to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 2pm on Saturdays and 9am to 12pm on Sundays.  Our Patient Care Co-Ordinator will offer and book you one of these appointments and advise you of the location of the appointment. You will most likely be seen by a clinician from another practice, but they can access your medical records, order tests and investigations and refer you on if required.

Chaperones

  • We understand that you may wish for a chaperone to be present during your consultation.  Please ask one of our Patient Care Co-ordinators prior to your appointment. Our clinicians also have the right, in some circumstances to insist on a chaperone to be present.

How to Change or Cancel an Appointment

In the event that you are unable to attend your appointment, you can change or cancel your appointment with us. We ask that you cancel at least 2 hours before your appointment so that we can offer the appointment to other patients.  You can do this in the following ways:-

  • Our phone system has a check and cancel function.  This gives you the ability to check and cancel your appointment without needing to speak to a member of our team. This service is available 24/7 and can be accessed by phoning 01782 432420 and choosing Option 5.  This service can only be used if the number you are calling from, and the patients date of birth match the details held on the medical record.
  • By phoning the surgery on 01782 432420 or visiting the surgery in person.
  • By text message.  Please follow the link on your reminder text if you need to cancel your appointment
  • Via the NHS app. To find out more information about the NHS app you can do so here NHS App and your NHS account – NHS 

Home Visits

  • Patients are encouraged to request home visits before 11 a.m. This ensures that the practice has enough time to assess the necessity and urgency of the request and manage it effectively. The Patient Care Co-ordinator will ask for brief details about the request and pass this information to one of our GPs for triage. The GP will then either contact the patient by phone to discuss the situation further, or arrange for a member of the practice team to carry out the home visit.

The practice home visit policy is based on the General Medical Service (GMS) contract, the Local Medical Committee (LMC) guidance and the British Medical Association (BMA) guidance. 

Further Information

Home visits are time consuming; several patients could be seen in the practice in the time it would take to carry out one home visit.  Please help the practice to help our other patients by visiting the surgery whenever possible.

The practice will carry out home visits for:

  • Terminally ill patients
  • Housebound – a patient who is defined as being an individual who is unable to leave their home environment due to a physical or psychological illness
  • Patients who are severely ill in bed

The following ARE NOT valid reasons to request a home visit:

It is not the practice’s responsibility to arrange transport or to perform home visits because the patient has difficulty arranging transport. In these circumstances patients should seek transport help from relatives, friends or taxi firms.
If a patient has difficulty arranging for someone to care for their children whilst attending appointments, the patients are welcome to bring their children to the surgery.
Whilst it is understood that having poor mobility is in convenient and unpleasant, GP surgeries are designed to cater for patients with restricted mobility, if patients are able to attend appointments at other healthcare settings, then they should also be expected to attend appointments in the surgery.
It is in the best interest of the child to attend the surgery where they can be properly assessed and treated. The Clinician can make a more informed clinical judgement when seeing the child in surgery.
If a parent believes that the child is too unwell to travel to surgery, and is a medical emergency then it would be advisable for them to seek help from the emergency services by calling 999.
Care home residents are no different to patients in their own homes. The need to visit should be based upon clinical need, not the availability of transport or staff to attend the surgery. It is the responsibility of care facilities to make transport available for residents so that they can get to medical and non-medical appointments. Routine visit requests for care homes can be requested however will be deferred until appropriate clinical resource available.

What should I do when the surgery is closed?

  • If you need urgent medical advice between 6.00pm and 8.00am weekdays, or during weekends and Bank Holidays call 111

For medical advice on a Thursday after 1.00 pm please call 01782 651651 until 6:30pm.  This is only for Thursday afternoons. Please ring the surgery as normal on other days during the week.

NHS 111 can help if you have an urgent medical problem and you’re not sure what to do. For children under 5 call 111

For people aged 5 and over go to 111.nhs.uk

  • Your pharmacist can help with various conditions such as minor cuts, sprains, aches, colds, headaches, rashes, cystitis.   Get fast help from a Pharmacist