What services do Doctors' surgeries provide?
Your local Doctors' surgery (or GP practice) provides a wide range of family health services, including:
NHS Tameside and Glossop has contracts with 39 practices to provide general medical care from 40 premises. GPs have to provide this care during what are known as core hours from 8am to 6.30pm.
Many GP practices also provide additional services such as minor surgery, anticoagulant care and provision of long acting contraception. All GP practices are able to sign post patients to other services as appropriate.
GP practices also work closely with community services such as district nursing and specialist nurses like the diabetes nurses. Information about surgery and opening times are available from practices in their information leaflets and also on the NHS Choices website which you can got to by clicking on 'Find a Doctor near you' in the column to your right.
Some practices also have patient participation groups who are always on the look out for new members.
Outside of core hours the Primary Care Trust provides emergency treatment using a service called GoToDoc. It can be reached using the usual GP surgery no. When you reach this service you may have to speak to a nurse first. Depending on the severity of your illness you may be asked to attend the out of hours surgery which is based at Guide Bridge and in Oldham.
If you want to join a practice the easiest way is to go in person and ask to be taken on. Most practices are accepting new patients but a few may have what are called closed lists because they already have as many patients as they can safely deal with. If you have any difficulty joining a list then Patient Services on 0161 304 5810 will be happy to advise you.
If you have made an appointment to see a doctor or nurse and you can't go for any reason then please let the surgery know as soon as possible so that your appointment may be used by someone else.
All practices will do home visits for patients who are unable to attend the surgery but most practices will expect you to come to the surgery if it is at all possible. This is because it is often easier to examine you properly in the surgery and because the doctor is able to see more patients in the surgery.