Whitley House Surgery has a new phone system which will record all inbound and outbound calls for training and monitoring purposes.

The system brings many benefits including increased lines to help patients trying to get through to the surgery and a queue buster system whereby patients beyond a certain number of people in the queue will be offered the opportunity to keep their place in the queue but put their phone down – they will receive an automatic call back when their call reaches the top of the queue. We frequently receive over 500 calls a day and hope the new system will support us with the volume and access for our patients.

From 1st October 2022 our Extended Hours are changing

Changes: 

We want to provide the right services at a time which is convenient for you. We’ve listened to feedback from people in our local area, and we are making changes to our out-of-hours appointments to deliver better services for you.

The new way of delivering out-of-hours appointments will give you:

• Access to more healthcare professionals. This new service will be delivered by professionals including GPs, nurses, pharmacists and health care assistants.
• More choice about the type of appointment you want. These include a mixture of in-person face-to-face appointments and remote appointments like telephone, video, or online appointments.
• Make it more convenient for you to travel to out-of-hours appointments. These appointments are being planned and delivered locally, so it is likely they will available closer to your home.

From Saturday 1 October 2022, out-of-hours appointments will be available from 6.30pm to 8pm on weekdays, and from 9am to 5pm on Saturdays.

When we asked local people what you wanted from these appointments you told us you would be happy to travel to any of Chelmsford City Health’s practices which are all within a close proximity of one another. In response to this, we have arranged the following.  For the month of October, out of hours appointments will be available at your usual surgery with a focus on providing mainly flu and COVID vaccinations.  From November, most appointments will be available at the Baddow Village Surgery, Longmead Avenue, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, CM2 7EZ.

Out-of-hours appointments were previously planned by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) on behalf of many GP practices in a bigger area. From Saturday 1 October 2022, this is now being planned and delivered locally by Primary Care Networks (PCNs).

We are working together with other GP practices in our local area as part of the Chelmsford City Health Primary Care Network. You can find out more about Chelmsford City Health Primary Care Network on our PCN website at https://www.chelmsfordcityhealthpcn.nhs.uk.

An out-of-hours appointment might not be at your regular GP surgery. When you book an appointment, you will be told where the appointment will be.

All the out-of-hours appointments will be routine and not available as walk-in appointments. You will need to book the appointments in advance.

To book an out-of-hours appointment, you should contact your regular GP practice in the usual way. They will advise you on the appointments which are available, and which healthcare professional is the right person to help you.

If you need medical help now but it's not an emergency, you can also go to 111 online or call 111.

Using this link patients can access information about hospital elective waiting lists. If you have been referred for a procedure / operation, this may give you a guide to the waiting time you face:

https://www.myplannedcare.nhs.uk/east/mid-south-essex/