Practicalities

Consultations with doctors and nurses are all by pre-booked appointment.

Since 2001 we have used an intensively managed appointments system to enable patients to see a health professional within 24 hours and a doctor within 48 hours.

We do however have appointments at our Deas Home Surgery that can be booked much further ahead if required, and appointments for routine review clinics can also be booked well in advance.

If your problem is urgent please let us know and we will arrange for you to be seen the same day.

Appointments may be made in person, by telephone and online but not by email.

Consultations last approximately 10 minutes and each person requires an individual appointment to avoid delays to others.

If you cannot attend, please cancel your appointment as soon as possible so that we can offer it to someone else.

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We will always visit those who are genuinely house-bound if this is needed.

If you feel you need to be visited then please ring the surgery before 10:30am. Home visits are carried out by either a GP or by our Nurse Practitioner. Emergency calls received after 10:30am will usually be referred to the duty doctor or the Nurse Practitioner.

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If you need urgent advice or cannot get satisfactory advice from NHS Direct then please telephone 020 8544 2107 to access Patient Care 24, the out of hours service. You will hear our recorded message. Please do not press any buttons on your telephone keypad and at the end of the message your call will be automatically transferred to Patient Care 24.

You may still be visited by a GP in your own home if that is necessary or you may be asked to attend a Primary Care Centre, for example at the Morden Hall Clinic. For less serious problems telephone advice may be given. Please use this service only for urgent problems which cannot wait until the next working day.

You may prefer to telephone NHS Direct (details as below).

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General medical advice may be obtained by telephoning NHS Direct on 0845 4647. This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Alternatively, you can visit the NHS Direct website where you will find a self-help section and advice on a wide variety of illnesses/conditions.

When ringing the surgery on 020 8544 2107 you will hear a recorded message offering a choice of extension numbers for appointments, results and general enquiries. Please remember that the telephone system is busiest between 8.00 and 10.30am so please ring outside these hours if the call can wait. Emergency calls will be dealt with swiftly at all times. Please tell the telephonist if your call is URGENT so it may then be transferred to our nurse practitioner who can organise any necessary care or advice.

Please be prepared to give the telephonist some idea of the nature of your call so that it can be dealt with more efficiently.

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To register at the practice you will be asked to complete a registration form, a medical questionnaire and undergo a new patient health check. Registrations are made at Church Lane only - please apply at reception.

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If your doctor agrees, you may request a repeat prescription. For safety & security reasons, we are not able to take repeat prescriptions over the telephone. However, we do accept prescriptions by mail, fax, or email. You can fax your repeat prescription list from your last prescription to 020 8544 1583 or email us at scripts.churchlanesurgery@nhs.net. Please bring or send your request to the surgery giving 48 hours' notice. Please enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope for posting. We prefer the use of the computer generated repeat prescription list which you receive alongside your previous prescription.

You can now also request repeat prescripions online. You will need to register with Emis Access to use this facility. You will need to be given a letter containing your unique log-in details in order to register. You will need to obtain this from reception so that we can verify your identity. Once you have your log-in details, you can go to the Emis Access website and request a repeat prescription from the list available. Please note, only prescriptions that are listed in your record as being repeat items will be shown on the website.

Prescription requests are accessed once daily at 7.30am and any requests received after that time will not be looked at until the following morning.

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Please telephone between 10.30am and 4.00pm for results of laboratory tests, smears, x-rays etc. If you are aged 16 or over, we will not give the information to another person (even a family member), unless we have your permission.

Doctors check all incoming results daily. If your result is normal, one of our administrative staff has the authority to tell you so. If the doctor needs to speak to you about a result you will be asked to leave your telephone number or to make an appointment.

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If you are sick from work you will require a doctor's certificate only if you are off for more than seven consecutive days including weekends. Periods less than three days require no certificate. Periods from four to seven days need to be explained to your employer on a self-certification form available at work, from the post office or from the surgery reception. If your employer will not accept self-certification, a private certificate can be issued by the doctor and the standard charge will be made. See our Fees and Charges page.

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Please notify our reception staff of any change of name, address or telephone number in order to ensure that your medical records are correct.

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There is a controlled parking scheme in the locality and there are several pay-and-display parking bays in Church Lane and nearby roads. Unfortunately we are unable to allow patients to park on the surgery forecourt as this is required for doctors' parking. The car park to the rear of the surgery does not belong to us but to the flats next door, so we request that you do not park there.

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If you have a complaint or comments about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We hope you will use our complaints procedure to allow us to look into and, if necessary, put right problems you have identified. Our practice complaints leaflet gives details of the procedures and is available from reception.

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This practice makes extensive use of computers for recording medical data. This means we are able to keep accurate databases for various diseases and preventative medicine. We also send and receive encrypted medical information via secure connections to the NHS net. We hold information about our patients to assist delivery of appropriate medical care and we share information with other bodies to the extent necessary to allow others to do the same, for example when referring patients for specialist care. We sometimes use and share data we hold for medical research. If this involves information identifying patients we will seek consent before sharing it.

You are entitled to see the information the practice holds on you on request and can obtain a printed copy of it for a small charge. Please contact our practice manager. We have further information about the practice available on request as laid down by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

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1. Telephone the doctor who will visit to confirm death and tell you how to obtain the medical certificate stating the cause of death. if the death is sudden or unexpected the case is likely to be referred to the coroner.
2. Contact the funeral director.

1. Contact the funeral director.
2. Collect the medical certificate stating the cause of death from the hospital.

1. Take the medical certificate to the registrar's office in the areas in whcih the death took place. If possible also take the deceased's medical card and birth certificate. The registrar will register the death and issue the death certificate.
2. Take the death certificate to the funeral director who will then be able to proceed with the funeral arrangements.

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GP registrars are fully qualified doctors gaining specialist training in general practice. They are attached to the practice for a year and hold surgeries in the same was as a GP.

As an essential part of their training, student doctors from St George's and King's Medical Schools regularly observe our doctors during consultations. A board in the waiting room indicates which doctor has a student with them.

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In order to ensure high quality care for our patients we keep confidential registers of patients with certain conditions. This enables us to audit the quality of care that we offer to particular patient groups.

An example of this is our Gold Standards Framework palliative care register. We keep a confidential record of patients who require palliative care and meet monthly to discuss their needs. Doctors, district nurses and palliative care nurses are present at these meetings and all patients on this register are discussed. We hope that you agree that our registers are important and if you are listed on one of our registers it is simply to ensure that we offer you the highest quality care.

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Appointments

Home Visits

Out of Hours Calls

Telephone Advice

Registrations

Repeat Prescriptions

Test Results

Medical Certificates

Change of name, address etc

Parking

Complaints Procedure

Medical Records

What to do when someone dies

GP Registrars and Medical Students

Internal Practice Registers