FAQs

All unplanned appointment requests are reviewed by our Clinical Assessment Team (CAT) whether you contact us online, by phone or in person.

The information you provide will help the team choose the most suitable care to help you. This could be an appointment within Bay Medical Group or by actively signposting to the right services to meet your care needs.

We may also invite you to book various types of appointments either via letter asking you to contact us or we will send you a booking link to allow you to book your appointment directly online.

Please tell us if you need an interpreter/chaperone and/ or if you have any other access or communication needs. Where appropriate, we offer telephone, video consultations and face-to-face appointments.

Learn how to request an appointment

We know it can feel frustrating or worrying if you can’t get an appointment as quickly as you’d like. We really do want to help everyone as soon as possible.

Right now, GP practices are very busy. There are more people needing help than ever before, but fewer doctors available to see them. Some GP practices have also closed over the years, which means the ones that are open are caring for even more patients.

This means each doctor is looking after a lot more people than they used to. Because of this, we sometimes can’t offer appointments straight away.

When you contact us, we carefully check how urgent your problem is. This helps us make sure that people who are very unwell are seen as quickly as possible, while still helping everyone else as soon as we can.

If your problem isn’t urgent, you might be offered a later appointment or another way to get help—but we will always do our best to make sure you get the care you need.

You may notice that only certain appointments—such as cervical screening (smear tests) and INR blood tests—are available to book online.

This is because these appointments are routine, planned in advance and suitable for direct booking without clinical assessment.

Smear tests and INR checks are carried out at regular intervals as part of ongoing care. Patients are invited when they are due, so eligibility and timing are already known.

These appointments are not based on new or changing symptoms. This means they can be booked safely online without the need for a clinician to assess urgency first.

They are usually delivered by our nursing team in dedicated clinic sessions, which can be scheduled efficiently and made available for online booking.

Why are other appointments different?

Most GP and nurse appointments are for new or ongoing health concerns. These require clinical triage to ensure:

• Patients are seen in order of medical need
• The right clinician is selected
• Appropriate appointment time is allocated

This helps us prioritise urgent problems and provide safe, effective care for all patients.

For non-routine concerns, please contact the practice by phone or use our online consultation system. This allows our clinical team to review your request and arrange the most appropriate care.

When you send us an online request, it is carefully checked by a trained clinician.

Please provide as much information as possible to help them asses your request.

They look at:

• What symptoms you have
• How serious or urgent it sounds
• Your medical history, if needed

Based on this, they decide the best next step for you, which might be:

• Giving you advice or reassurance
• Asking for more information or photographs
• Booking you with the right member of our team
• Arranging a phone call, video call, or face-to-face appointment
• Advising you to seek urgent or emergency care, if needed
• Signpost you to another more appropriate service provider

This helps make sure you get the right care, from the right person, at the right time.

We understand that having your appointment cancelled can be frustrating and inconvenient, and we sincerely apologise for any disruption this may cause.

In most cases, cancellations happen due to unexpected clinician illness. Just like anyone else, our clinicians can occasionally become unwell at short notice, making it unsafe or impractical for them to provide the high standard of care you deserve.

When this happens, our priority is to ensure patient safety while also rescheduling your appointment as quickly as possible. Our team will contact you promptly to offer an alternative date and time that works for you.

We truly appreciate your understanding and patience in these situations, and we remain committed to providing you with the best possible care.

We understand that convenience is important, and many patients naturally prefer to be seen at the surgery closest to their home. However, as we operate across five surgeries within a two-mile catchment area, appointments are offered based on overall availability across all our sites.

While all our locations are easily accessible and situated along local bus routes, appointment demand can vary between surgeries and throughout the day. To ensure you are seen as quickly as possible, our team may offer you the earliest available appointment at any of our sites rather than asking you to wait longer for your nearest location.

All our surgeries share the same clinical systems and high standards of care, so you will receive the same level of service regardless of which site you attend.

We always aim to balance convenience with timely access to care and appreciate your flexibility in helping us provide appointments as efficiently as possible.

Since changes introduced across the NHS, including making online consultations a standard part of general practice, we now offer a wider range of ways for patients to get in touch. Many patients are assessed and managed without needing to attend the surgery in person.

Technology has significantly improved how we communicate. Patients can now contact us through online consultation forms, telephone appointments, messaging, and by sending photographs or completing questionnaires in advance. This allows clinicians to review information more efficiently and prioritise care based on clinical need.

While the waiting room may appear quieter, our clinical team is often working at full capacity behind the scenes—reviewing hundreds of online requests, carrying out telephone consultations, and seeing patients face to face where needed.

This approach helps us provide the right care, in the right way, at the right time—while reducing unnecessary waiting and making it easier for patients to access support.

We understand how frustrating it can be to see a missed call when your phone hasn’t rung.

Unfortunately, this could be due to signal or network issues rather than a problem with our system. In some areas—particularly around Heysham—mobile signal coverage can be inconsistent. This can sometimes cause calls to drop, go straight to “missed call,” or not come through to your device at all.

When this happens, our system may still record that a call was made, even though it didn’t successfully connect to your phone.

If you are expecting a call from us, we recommend keeping your phone nearby, ensuring it has signal, and checking that it is not on “Do Not Disturb” mode. If you believe you may have missed an important call, please feel free to contact us so we can assist you.

We appreciate your understanding, as these issues are unfortunately outside of our control.

We are fortunate to have a multidisciplinary team, which means lots of different people working together to help keep you healthy.

Not everyone needs to see a doctor every time. We have different team members who are all experts in their own jobs, such as:

• GPs (Doctors) – help with illnesses and tricky health problems
• Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs) – highly trained clinicians who can assess, diagnose, and treat many health problems
• Nurses – give injections, do health checks, and help with long-term conditions
• Pharmacists – help with medicines and answer questions about them
• Physiotherapists – help with muscle, joint, and back problems
• Mental Health Practitioners – help with worries, stress, and feelings
• Healthcare Assistants – help with things like blood tests and checks
• Phlebotomists – carry out blood tests
• Social Prescribers – help with things outside the doctor’s room, like support groups or activities

By working as a team, we make sure you see the right person, at the right time and are looked after in the best way possible.

If you receive a booking link, this is active for the next 7 working days- if you don’t find an appointment or one that is convenient, please try again the next working day at 8am, more slots will be released.

Please consider if your condition is best seen by the practice. There are now many other alternatives to seeing a GP for minor illness and injury, and by using these other services first, it may relive some of the pressure on the practice. These include:

Pharmacy First - most local pharmacies offer pharmacy first. They can treat and prescribe for many minor illnesses without the need to see a GP.

Pharmacists can help with:

• Earache (1–17)
• Sinusitis (12+)
• Sore throat (5+)
• Infected insect bites
• Impetigo
• Shingles (18+)
• UTIs in women (16–64)

Self-Referral - Many services will now accept self-referral (without seeing a GP) there are listed here and include: -

• Stop smoking support services
• Maternity services
• Sexual health services
• Mental health services

111 NHS - 111 is a 24-hour service that can be contacted by phone or online - NHS 111 , for healthcare advice, treatment or signposting.

Urgent Treatment Centre’s - An urgent Treatment centre (UTC), is a place to seek medical help for minor injuries and illnesses that are not life-threatening including coughs, colds, ear and throat infections cuts, grazes sprains and strains. You can access this service by contacting 111.