The Hopetoun Practice - How to make an appointment to see your doctor or nurse at the surgery

Appointments

Consultations are by appointment only and can be booked up to four weeks in advance.

When you contact us to make an appointment, our Reception team will ask you some essential questions to work who the most appropriate person is for your to speak to, as it might not be a GP. Our team here includes Pharmacists, a Physiotherapist, a Mental Health Nurse, and a Community Link Worker. You don’t have to tell the Receptionist anything that makes you uncomfortable, however they can help you get to the most appropriate appointment as quickly as possible. All the information they handle is treated confidentially.

All GP appointments will be carried out by telephone in the first instance. This allows the doctors to decide whether you need to be seen in person in the surgery, or whether your problem can be dealt with over the telephone, or, occasionally, via a video consultation. If you have a problem that needs to be seen face-to-face, the GP will arrange this for you, and if any tests or investigations are required, you can get these taken care of meantime, so that the results will be back when you see the doctor. If you have a problem that needs to be seen in person urgently, we'll bring you in and deal with it the same day, if possible.

For urgent appointments please call the practice as early as possible in the day.

Practice Nurses

In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many ailments and you may be seen more quickly.

Phlebotomist

If you've simply been advised to have a blood test, or to have your blood pressure checked, you can book in with our Phlebotomist, Jade Valentine. Please note that these tests must have been pre-authorised by a doctor or nurse first. You cannot simply decide to have such tests carried out by yourself!

Cancellations

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.

Medical Student Teaching

The Surgery is a teaching practice for students studying Medicine at Edinburgh University Medical School. This means that we have "Student Doctors" attached to the Practice for periods of 10 weeks at a time, over 30 weeks of the year. The students will be observing consultations between patients and various members of the Practice team during their attachments, and they will accompany the GPs on home visits etc. There will only ever be one student at a time, and he or she will be bound by the same duty of confidentiality that applies to all other members of our Team. Each Student Doctor will require to gain experience and confidence in dealing with patients' problems themselves, so during the course of each 10-week attachment, we will seek your permission to allow the Student to obtain the story behind your problem, and/or examine you, if you need to be seen in person.

You will be advised whenever a student is going to to present at any of the appointments that you attend, so that you have the opportunity to ask to see your healthcare professional alone. Please do remember, however, that we are teaching the doctors of the future, and the only way for them to learn is by seeing patients like you.

Home Visits

Doctor's bag If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:00am if you require a home visit.

You should 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 he/she thinks that your medical condition requires it, and he/she will also decide how urgently a visit is needed.

You can also be visited at home by a District Nurse if you are physically unable to attend the Practice for nursing treatment. This can be arranged directly by calling the District Nursing Service on 0131 557 6586.

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. Again, this can be arranged by contacting the Health Visitors directly on 0131 557 6585.

Employees only need a fit note from a doctor after 7 days off work sick.

If they are ill just before or during their holiday, they can take it as sick leave instead.

Fit notes and proof of sickness

Employees must give their employer a doctor’s ‘fit note’ (previously called a ‘sick note’) if they’re off sick for more than 7 days in a row (including non-working days).

Hospital doctors or GPs provide them, but if you're seeing our Advanced Physio Practitioner or our Mental Health Nurse, they can also issue fit notes.

The fit note will say the employee is either ‘not fit for work’ or ‘may be fit for work’.

If it says the employee ‘may be fit for work’, employers should discuss any changes that might help the employee return to work (eg different hours or tasks). The employee must be treated as ‘not fit for work’ if there’s no agreement on these changes.

Employers can take a copy of the fit note, the employee should keep the original.

The Practice can, and will, charge a private fee of £35 for the unnecessary work involved, should a sick note or fit note be requested before the 7th day.

Self-certification

Employers can also ask employees to fill in a form when they return to work to confirm they’ve been off sick for up to 7 days.

This is called ‘self-certification’. Employers usually provide their own version of this form.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced)

There is an increasing tendency for educational institutions to seek GP confirmation where a student may have been absent from attending exams or classes due to ill health. We are increasingly being asked to spend time writing letters to confirm periods of absence that we often know nothing about, or to confirm that students have been, or will be, unable to sit exams, or submit coursework, due to problems that the Institution may already be well aware of. This is an inappropriate use of your GP's time and is a growing problem. Parents are responsible for providing reasons for their children's absences from school, and students, as adults, are responsible for providing reasons for their absences from university or college.

There is no obligation for GPs to provide such reports or letters as part of the National Health Service, and Department of Work and Pensions Medical Certificates cannot be issued, as these are legal documents used exclusively for employment and social security purposes. Such reports or letters therefore fall into the same category of private services that occupational health reports for employers currently occupy, and they will be charged for accordingly.

Should an educational institution insist on a Doctor's letter, they themselves should submit a written enquiry to the GP, including the appropriate signed consent of the student that gives explicit permission for the release of information from their medical record. The appropriate consent form can be downloaded here:

Student Consent Form

In all cases, this type of letter or report will attract a fee commensurate with the amount of GP and administrative time involved in its preparation.