Appointments

(Please also see end of page "Making Appointments")

All services at the surgery require an appointment which can be made either by telephone or at Reception during surgery hours.

Our receptionists are trained to gather some information from you.  They are bound by NHS confidentiality policies.  They do NOT make clinical decisions or give medical advice.  Sometimes it is not a GP who you need to see and they can help direct you to other staff in the practice to help you. It would be appreciated if you can give the receptionist some information when you call.

Medical Emergencies will normally be seen within 24 hours.  Please note you may not be able to see the doctor of your choice when requesting an emergency appointment.

Our registrar doctors are all qualified doctors on placement in our surgery.  Most are undertaking specialist training to become GP's in the near future.

Patients are seen at our surgery by appointment.

Making Appointments

To see a doctor:

Please telephone 024 76332628 and select option 1.

The practice has been operating a  telephone triage system since April 2020. Patients requesting an appointment will be called back by a doctor to see if the problem can be resolved by telephone. If not, an appointment will be made. Patients needing to be seen will be seen that day.

To help with our triage system the doctors have asked the receptionists to ask some basic questions about the nature of your problem so that they can book you with the most appropriate practitioner.

To see a Practice Nurse or  Registered Nurse Associate:

Please telephone 024 76332628 and select option 1.

It helps the receptionist and the nurse if we know why you are coming to see the nurse so that the appropriate length of time, equipment and co-ordination with a GP can be arranged where necessary.  If you know you need a routine appointment,  you can book in advance.  We keep some appointments reserved for treatments that are required on the day, such as a change of dressing, but it always helps us if you can book an advance appointment.

Midwife:

The midwife attends our surgery to run her clinics on specific days.  Please speak with a receptionist to make your appointment.

Blood clinics (including patients who are not registered at our practice) :

Our phlebotomist and Health Care Assistant run blood clinics. Patients are seen by appointment which can be made in advance. 

In all cases you will require the blood test form that your doctor gave to you so that the nurse knows what type of blood test you require.

Smoking Cessation Clinics

We have a trained counsellor at our practice who can give you support to help you give up smoking.  Please ask at reception or your GP or nurse when you have an appointment, we can arrange for you to come to the clinic.

Home Visits

Where possible, please try to request a Home Visit before 10.30am by telephoning the surgery reception on 024 7633 2628.

If you feel the problem is urgent, please make this clear to the receptionist. A doctor will telephone to discuss your circumstances. This allows the doctor to assess the necessity of a visit. All visits are made at the doctor’s discretion.

When we are closed there is emergency cover provided for our patients.  

You need to dial 111 and your call will be directed to the appropriate service.

House visits are only available for patients who are bedbound because of illness or disability or terminally ill.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Health Centre.

Out of Hours: When we are closed please dial:

 NHS  Freephone number 

  111

This is a 24/7 telephone service which you can call when you need medical help  when we are closed.

We also offered Extended Hours GP appointments and these are available locally at 4 sites.  Please ask reception for details of appointments for evenings and weekends.

Emergencies such as chest pain, difficulty in breathing, collapse  or  heavy bleeding dial 999 and request an ambulance.

We are pleased to announce that we now offer routine GP and nursing appointments during the evenings and over the weekends.  This is provided by Coventry North Primary Care (PCN), which comprises of 8 practices.

Springfield Medical Practice is one of the eight practices in the PCN providing the Extended Hours Appointments. 

Locations are:

Keresley Green Health Centre

Mosley Avenue Health Centre

The Gables Medical Centre 

This is an appointment ONLY service, available Monday to Friday between 6.30pm and 8.00pm and Saturday's 9.00am to 5.00pm 

Making Appointments

We have listened to patient feedback and have changed our appointment and telephone system in an endeavour to meet your requests.

We only operate an appointment system - we do not offer a walk-in service.  

Telephone appointments: Many conditions and queries can be dealt with quickly over the phone and can be more convenient for working patients.  Medication queries, test results and follow up appointments are often dealt with this way. The GP will telephone you either in the morning or afternoon, they only try once. However, due to the nature of general practice, we cannot guarantee the time so please be prepared to be flexible.

Appointments are released on a daily basis at 8.30am bookable via patient online access or by telephoning the practice.  These appointments are limited and can go very quickly. 

 Urgent: Acute episodes or medical situations that you feel are urgent may be seen by the duty doctor.  In most cases the duty doctor will call you first to prioritise the sickest patients first. This is why it is important to give brief details of the problem to the receptionist. They are bound to confidentiality rules too. Due to the nature of these clinics appointment times cannot be guaranteed and you may be required to wait. Please phone as early as possible during the day.

Clinical photographs

Photographs can be very useful in helping us decide how to manage a problem. We have the facility to send you a text and for you to reply and send in photographs to the Practice. The following information will enable you to provide us with useful photographs that will help in your care.

• Ideally, have someone else take the photographs for you.

• Use a phone or digital camera. If using a phone, use the camera’s main lens not the “selfie” camera. Check the camera lens is clean.

• Take the photographs where there is lots of natural light or where there is very good artificial light. Avoid using the flash unless necessary.

• Avoid shadows on the area being photographed.

• If possible, place the area to be photographed on a plain non-white background.

• Put the area of interest in the middle of the frame.

• Keep the area still whilst taking the photograph. Rest the area against something if needed. Hold the camera still as you take the photographs.

• If photographing a single skin lesion, place a coin or a ruler near the lesion to give an idea of scale.

• Photographs needed (take several and send the best of each type):

  • Orientation photographs. Stand 3 feet away from the area and take photographs from this distance to show where the problem is located. If a rash, try and include the whole area affected.

  • Close-up photographs. Move the camera to about 4-6 inches from the skin problem and take close-up photographs. Make sure the images are clear and sharply focused. This is more important than getting very close, which may result in blurred images. Blurred photographs are of little clinical value.

  • If a skin lesion is raised, try and get sideways photographs as well – to show the height of the lesion.

• Remember, only send the best photographs using the link in the text you have been sent. If you can, size the photographs you send to about 1 MB each.

• Normally, the photographs you send in will be stored in your medical records. If you DO NOT want any of the photographs saved to your medical record, please say so in your text reply.

• For additional information and examples of taking photographs, please visit this web-link: http://www.pcds.org.uk/clinical-guidance/photography-for-the-patient-how-to-take-a-good-photograph-of-a-skin-conditi

If you would like on online advice, have an admin query or would like help with a medical issue, you can now use our patient online triage service. 

Please note this is not for urgent request and it will be read by a team member within 2 working  days 

Please click  here 

Eye emergencies

Below is the link to book a triage appointment with the acute referral service for eye emergencies:
https://www.uhcw.nhs.uk/eye-department/eye-emergency-referral-service/
They may make an appointment with a local optician/eye service, but will depend on the nature of your symptoms.
Alternatively, the phone no. is:0247 696 4800, Mon-Fri 9-5pm (closed between 1-1:30pm) and Sat 9-12pm.