Booking an appointment – An explanation of reception triage
When you telephone the surgery to book an appointment, the receptionist will ask you the follow question:
- “To help you make the correct appointment, I need to know a little more about why you need the appointment.”
The receptionist may also ask both/either/none of the following two comments, depending on your response.
- “It is not always necessary to see the Doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist /Healthcare Assistant may be more appropriate.”
- “Whatever you say will be treated in the strictest of confidence.”
This is because the receptionist has a number of alternative types of appointments available to her, and s(he) needs to offer you the most appropriate appointment to deal with your problem.
The most appropriate appointment may be with the GP for example, or perhaps with another member of the practice team.
In this way, on the occasion when you really do need to see a GP, there is more likely to be a free appointment for you.
The following tables may help you understand more clearly the choices available:
We very much hope that this system will make best use of the services available both at the practice and in the wider community, and by doing so indirectly increase the number of available GP appointments, so that you can more easily secure this when it is necessary.