Urgent Appointment System

At Claypath & University, we are proud to be able to offer all patients who need help access to a clinician at the surgery. 

In April 2019, before the pandemic, we provided 6,235 appointments. In April 2021, we provided 9,115 appointments – an increase of 46%. We are very much open and doing our best to offer more appointments all the time, but the demand for our service is higher than ever.

We do not have an unlimited amount of appointments available, however. Therefore, when all of our routine appointments are filled, we need to try and ensure that the urgent, same-day appointments we have to offer are kept for those who really need help that day. Whenever those appointments are used by someone who has a problem that could wait, it means that someone else who really needs help may struggle to access it.

We therefore ask all patients to support their fellow patients, by only requesting an urgent, same-day appointment when they really need it.

What if I don’t know if my problem is urgent?

Sometimes you will know that you need help that day, for example if you have a new pain that is really severe. On other occasions, it may not be clear if you need help that day – and we understand that.

For those times where you are unsure, we suggest submitting an eConsult to the surgery. This will involve completing an online form with various questions related to your issue. From the information you provide, we may:

• arrange treatment using just the information from the form, or
• call you to further discuss the matter, or
• send you a message advising what next steps are advised to investigate or treat your problem

If you submit an eConsult before 2pm on a working day, a doctor at the surgery will review that submission on the day. If the doctor thinks you need help that day, someone will phone you and/or arrange for you to come into the surgery to be seen. If the doctor feels the situation can wait a few days, they will send you a message advising you of what next steps to take.

Thank you for working with us to ensure a fair and safe system for all patients.