Acute Care Team

Patients deserve continuity of care: patients seeing their usual GP for ongoing health care. The GP that knows/understands you best will be most able to provide the best care.

We believe that you should be able to access high quality medical care in a timely manner, appropriate to the urgency of your problem. As a Practice, we are always looking for innovative ways to improve the service your receive whether this is care of an ongoing problem or help with an acute illness. Nationally, patient demand for appointments is at an all-time high, whilst at the same time there is a recruitment crisis in general practice.

We have for some time been developing a number of alternative solutions that benefit both patients and GPs. Our receptionists are now asking the nature of your problem and a few other questions to ensure you see the most appropriate clinician.

As an initiative to optimise appointment use, we have introduced The Acute Care Team. It is staffed by four acute care practitioners, each of whom is an experienced nurse with additional training (and experience) in the management of new problems.

This team will see the majority of patients with problems that need to be seen that day. The Acute Care Practitioners work alongside one of the practice GPs on a rotational basis. The Acute Care Team will deal with your immediate medical need and will direct you towards your usual GP if any further care is needed.

Our acute care practitioners:

• Can assess, diagnose and advise on management of a wide range of minor illnesses.
• Have knowledge of the medications used in managing minor illnesses. 2 Members of the team are also prescribers.

Acute Care Team appointments are here to deal with one acute problem. If you have additional minor problems a further appointment will be needed.