Anyone who turns up between 08:00 and 10:00 will be seen: these surgeries are very popular and sometimes there can be a wait.

These are not pre-bookable appointments; however, it does mean that you can get to see a GP or ANP at short notice and on the day of your choice.

Make an appointment by visiting our Consulting Room.

Blood Tests

If you are booking an appointment online for a Blood test, a Doctor or Nurse must have requested that you need to have a blood test taken. They will then arrange a blood test form for you and it will be here on the computer ready for when you come to the appointment. If you book an appointment and it has not been requested by a clinician and no form has been organised you will not be able to have the test done and you will be required to re-book at another time.

Nurse Specialist Clinics

Appointments at the Nurse Specialist Clinics i.e. Midwife, Hypertension, Diabetes, Asthma, COPD, Coronary Heart Disease and Anticoagulation are for 10 to 30 minutes.

Please arrive in good time for all your appointments and cancel if you are unable to attend. We will try to run to time but the nature of medicine is such that inevitably there will be unpredictable delays at times. We would ask for your patience and understanding when this happens and also would ask you to remember that next time it might be you or a loved one who needs extra time with the doctor or has an emergency.

Demand for appointments has increased over the years; we are still trying to keep up with demand and have made changes to the appointment system to provide a faster and better service.

We also offer early morning and late evening appointments which can be pre-booked in the normal way.

The Nurse’s clinics are pre-bookable usually 4 weeks in advance.

Missed Appointments

Due to the number of patients failing to attend appointments, it may be that you are not able to see the doctor on the day that you wish to.

In an attempt to try and resolve this, the Practice has developed the following policy. If you fail to attend appointments without informing us, we will write to you asking if there are any specific problems preventing you from letting us know.

If you repeatedly fail to attend for appointments, you may be removed from the Practice list and have to find an alternative GP Practice.

Online Services

If you are booking an appointment via the Colchester Medical Practice Patient Online Access website please make sure that you book into the site where you are registered.

The practice uses a secure system that interfaces directly with our clinical computer. Patients wishing to book appointments, view limited medical information or order prescriptions via the secure website will need to obtain a User ID and PIN from the Practice.

If you would like to sign up for this service please bring photographic proof of identification into the practice and speak to one of the reception team.

Appointment Text Reminder Service

We are offering a new Text Message Service, when an appointment is booked you will receive an immediate text message confirming the appointment and then you will receive a reminder text message 48 hours before your appointment.

This is still a free service.

We require you to complete the consent form for opting in or out of the Service. Please complete this form which can be posted to the Surgery or handed in at Reception.

Travel clinic appointments are available with the Practice Nurse, please collect a Travel Questionnaire form from Reception. When this has been completed please hand the form back into Reception and they will contact you to book an appointment once your form has been assessed by the Nurse

We are not able to provide Travel clinic appointments for complicated travel i.e. multiple destinations or short notice travel (less than 6 weeks)

Consultation

During the clinic appointment the Nurse will discuss your requirements such as:

• Vaccinations required
• Malaria and its prevention
• Existing medication (prescribed or otherwise)
• General travel advice

Malaria Prevention – Patient UK Information Leaflet

You will be advised at your travel consultation if malaria tablets are required and if so, which are effective in the area you intend to visit.

Chloroquine and Proguanil can be bought from the chemist without a prescription.  These drugs are only effective in certain parts of the world where the mosquitoes are not resistant.

The antimalarials: Doxcycline, Malarone, Malarone Paediatric and Mefloquine can be obtained with a private prescription for which a charge of £24.00 is payable at the surgery. The prescription will be generated following your travel consultation and the fee is payable when you collect the prescription.

The cost of medication itself is payable to the chemist. The price is decided by the pharmacy and the price may vary widely between chemists.

Online services

The practice uses a secure system that interfaces directly with our clinical computer. Patients wishing to book appointments, view limited medical information or order prescriptions via the secure website will need to obtain a User ID and PIN from the Practice.

If you would like to sign up for this service please bring photographic proof of identification into the practice and speak to one of the reception team.