Appointments Update

You may have seen information in the media on Friday 14th May, concerning face to face appointments being available from Monday 17th May and telephone/online consultations not being available. We were informed of the updated information at the same time as the public, in addition, we have already booked appointments several weeks in advance and we would be unable to cancel these appointments at this late stage.

We would like to clarify that at Burney Street Practice we have never stopped providing face to face consultations when needed. We have also had telephone triage even before the COVID pandemic and you may wish to refer to telephone triage as a ‘Duty Doctor call’.

Through the use of telephone consultations and online consultations, we have been able to increase capacity in the number of appointments we provide. Without the use of telephone and online consultation we would have had no option but to cancel our patient’s appointments during the Pandemic.

We are also now able to respond to patient’s queries and consultations within a shorter period of time rather than the previous wait to see a Doctor.

We recognise that as we come out of the pandemic we will need to reconsider the volume of appointments we provide of each type; from face to face, to telephone and online consultations. Some of our patients prefer face to face consultations and some of our patients prefer being able to consult with us remotely.

We have a responsibility to provide a service that fits for all of the patients registered at the practice and will be keen to work with all of our patients to redesign the service to best suit the needs of all of our patients as we come out of lockdown.

Until this time, please continue to contact the practice in the same way you have been doing currently and we thank you for your patience in these challenging times.