Call 999 for any of the following:
Signs of a heart attack: pain like a very tight band, heavy weight or squeezing in the centre of your chest.
Signs of a stroke: face drooping on one side, can’t hold both arms up, difficulty speaking.
Severe difficulty breathing: gasping, not being able to get words out, choking or lips turning blue.
Heavy bleeding: that won’t stop.
Severe injuries: or deep cuts after a serious accident.
Seizure (fit): someone is shaking or jerking because of a fit, or is unconscious (can’t be woken up).
What type of urgent appointments does the GP surgery deal with?
What is an urgent problem? This can be difficult to define because life is a complex interplay between physical, psychological and social issues and what might be urgent to one person might be different to the next. At its most basic level we’d say an urgent issue is one which you feel has to be assessed either today or within the next few days rather than being able to wait a few weeks. From a medical perspective we have included a list of what we would consider to be urgent issues:
Signs of infection: for example urinary, chest, skin
Shortness of breath: not bad enough to need an ambulance or A&E
New onset significant body pains
New onset confusion or headache
Diarrhoea and/or vomiting
Sudden onset hearing loss or visual change
A new onset swelling
Significant mental health problem
Unwell baby
Cuts / Bleeding / Bites / Burns: not significant enough to need A&E
Before calling us, please look at the information below – all these options are available without the need for a GP appointment:
Do you have a MINOR INJURY or ILLNESS which needs a SAME DAY review?
The following are a list of other services which can help with minor injury / illnesses. This includes cough, colds, sore throat, ear infections, urine infections, skin infections, diarrhoea / vomiting, rashes, cuts, wounds or burns.
Walk-in Centre – Open 7am-9pm seven days / week. Their website includes the current average wait time.
The 111 team can advise you on managing your symptoms, if you’re not sure what to do. They can also provide emergency supplies of prescribed medications.
Healthier Together – An excellent website which offers advice for many common childhood illnesses including fevers, coughs, colds, chickenpox, ear ache and rashes. Includes information on when you should seek advice from a healthcare professional.
NHS A-Z directory – This is a very useful list of medical ailments and provides some well written information, including when you should see a GP
Pharmacist – Experts in medicines who can help you with minor health concerns. Most pharmacies have a private consultation room where you can discuss issues with pharmacy staff without being overheard.
Do you have an URGENT EYE problem?
This includes red eyes or eyelids, sore / gritty / painful eyes, sticky discharge, flashes or floaters, sudden loss of vision or foreign body in the eye.
Community Urgent Eyecare Service (CUES) is available to all patients to self refer to. You will be put in contact with a local optician commissioned to provide an urgent eyecare assessment. They will be able to examine you with specialist tools not available to GPs. They can also refer onto the specialist services if further input is needed. You can click on the link to find a local participating optician or call 0300 303 4922.
Are you looking for help with ANXIETY and DEPRESSION?
The Wellbeing Team is our local service which you are able to self refer to. We often encourage patients to contact the wellbeing team who can provide various talking therapies including cognitive behavioural therapy. Their website also has lots of very useful self help material.
Are you looking for advice on your CHILDS HEALTH?
Mild to Moderate Mental Health Needs (up to age 25) – you can submit a self referral your child to the Norfolk and Waveney team via Just One Number. From the information received the team will decide which service best meets your child’s need.
Early Help – If you have difficulties in your family or are worried about your children, there are people who can offer help and support. Early Help is for children of any age (0-17) and their family. It’s about getting information, advice and guidance to prevent family worries escalating into bigger issues. You can phone the service on 0344 800 8020. You can self refer directly using this link.
Just One Norfolk is the local service for accessing child health resources. This includes child developmental advice, healthy lifestyle advice, speech and language information, emotional health and much more. You can access them using the link or calling 0300 300 0123.
Kooth is a free service which allows young people to seek advice and counselling, it also provides lots of online tools which young people can use to manage their symptoms
Solihull Parenting Course ‘Understanding Your Child’ is a free online course available for everyone who cares for children aged 0-18 years. It’s there to help you recognise emotions in yourself and your child, and helps you to see how these emotions can impact on behaviour.
Supporting Smiles (formally Point-1) offers professional mental health support to any child or young person, aged 4 – 14 years, living in Norfolk or Waveney or registered with a Norfolk or Waveney GP. You can self refer via their website.
Family Lives has a confidential helpline you can call to discuss a wide variety of issues including parenting advice, behavioural issue, child mental health problems and much more. They also provide “live chat” and e-mail communication.
This May Help has very useful information on a number of child mental health issues including anxiety, depression, self harm, online activity, teenager safety, eating disorders and school avoidance.
Do you need help with ALCOHOL / DRUGS or STOPPING SMOKING?
If you are concerned about alcohol and/or drugs you can self refer to Change Grow Live which is our local drugs and alcohol team. Their services include medical treatment, including substitute prescribing or medication that helps prevent relapse.
You can also contact Alcoholics Anonymous via their website or national helpline free on 0800 9177 650 and talk directly to someone who has overcome their own issues with alcohol, alternatively, you can email [email protected] for help.
If you are looking to stop smoking you can self refer to smoke free Norfolk
Are you looking for URGENT SOCIAL CARE?
You can access the adult social care team here.
Urgent help at home can be accessed via the Norfolk Swift Response Team
Are you looking for URGENT PREGNANCY or SEXUAL HEALTH advice or to book with the MIDWIFE?
Just One Norfolk – Has lots of useful information on preparing for pregnancy and the pregnancy journey
British Pregnancy Advisory Service – you can self refer to the BPAS team if you are uncertain about whether you want to continue with a pregnancy.
iCash – if you’re looking for contraception, treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV care and treatment or related advice in Norfolk
Midwife Appointment – if you have just found out you are pregnant you can self refer to the midwife team here or you can call 01603 481222. If you are less than 6 weeks pregnant please do this when you are between 6 – 8 weeks. If you are more than 8 weeks pregnant now please do this on the next working day.
Morning After Pill – you can obtain the “morning after pill” from a number of sources other than the GP surgery
To request an appointment for an urgent issue:
Please phone us on 01603 977 477
We want to speak to you if you have an urgent issue to ensure we offer you the correct appointment or advice.
One of our care navigation team will need to get a brief summary of your healthcare issue. This may include signposting you to a more appropriate service.
Our care navigation team are supported by the doctors in the practice.
FAQ Section – Urgent Appointments
Why do I have to phone the surgery for an urgent issue rather than using the online option (PATCHS)
We want urgent medical issues to be requested by talking to one of our care navigation team. This means either phoning the surgery or if you are unable to do this asking at the front desk. This is in contrast to non urgent issues which can go via our online system called PATCHS. The care navigation team might have traditionally been thought of as “receptionists” but are now trained and highly skilled in ensuring you are given the most appropriate appointment or advice.
Why does the receptionist (care navigator) need to ask me questions about my problem?
We need to talk to you to ensure we can assess the urgency of your issue. It might be your problem is urgent enough to warrant a 999 call or A&E. You might need an on the day appointment or perhaps it is urgent but can wait a few days. The care navigation team will help to ensure you are given an appointment at the timeframe which best meets your issue. In addition general practice is very different from 10-15 years ago and has expanded from the traditional doctor / nurse model to now work alongside advanced nurse practitioners, physicians associates, physiotherapists, pharmacists, mental health practitioners and social prescribers. In addition there are lots of options outside the practice we can signpost or refer you to. This is great as it means we can offer you lots more appointment options to meet your need. The care navigation team will need to ask you some questions to ensure you are booked in with the correct person and are trained in the types of questions to ask. The doctors work closely with the team. Please do be kind to them and understand the pressures on the practice. The care navigation team are not a barrier to you getting an appointment and on the contrary are an effective way to help ensure appropriate care can be delivered to all our patients.
Why can the phone queue be so long?
The primary reason for this is the demand on the services which is why we would like people to consider whether any other options (as listed at the top of this page) may meet your needs.
In addition, our care navigation team will take a few minutes with each patient to get all the necessary information and ensure the most appropriate appointment or advice is given. This extra time is hugely important in the care navigation process but inevitably leads to a longer call queue.