GP Practices across the country are under immense pressure and struggling to meet patient demand. They are reporting they are having to work harder than ever, with many suffering from burnout. Whilst we are very much open, as we have been throughout the Pandemic, patients should self-care where appropriate for minor illnesses and should contact their local pharmacy or NHS 111 where appropriate.

The Online Consult facility will usually be accessible between 8.00am and 4.00pm.

Help and advice is available during opening hours.

If your question has not been answered by the information provided online, submit your routine query via an online form directly to us and get a response within 2 working days.

You may get a response to your enquiry via email or text message so please look at both. If you think we might not have up to date phone or email details, please let us know.

Please use this service responsibly and self-care for minor ailments where appropriate Please don't submit several requests for the same problem - this takes up valuable clinical time.

If you need routine health advice please use our Online Consultation service. Please telephone the surgery if you do not have access to online facilities or the patient is under the age of 16.

If a consultation is required, you will be signposted to one of the following clinicians: pharmacist, mental health practitioner, musculoskeletal practitioner, specialist nurse or GP, depending on the problem.

Telephone consultations are available for problems which can be simply be dealt with over the telephone. Video consultations are available where a face to face discussion is more appropriate. A Face to face appointment at the surgery can be arranged if the clinician needs to physically examine you.

Choice of Clinician is dependent upon their availability. A trained chaperone will be offered where a physical examination is required.

Patients who have an urgent medical condition that has started in the last 48 hours may be seen urgently. They will be asked to give brief details of the symptoms and when these started in order for the Clinician to prioritise. These details will remain strictly confidential. You will be booked a telephone appointment initially with a Nurse Practitioner, Minor Illness Nurse, Paramedic Practitioner or GP the same morning/afternoon. Urgent requests for children may be booked straight in to see a Clinician - children with urgent problems will always be seen on the same day.
When booking an appointment please remember the following:

• You cannot be seen 'urgently' to obtain a sick note.
• One appointment is for one problem only.
• Do not make an appointment for a repeat prescription.
• Do not make an appointment to have forms or certificates completed, please ask at reception.
• Do not make an appointment to discuss an existing hospital appointment or referral, please speak to a secretary in the first instance.
• Doctors have no treatments for minor ailments, eg, colds, sore throats, minor stomach upsets. Your local pharmacist can help with these. If you have any doubts you can obtain telephone advice.

Appointments are valuable - by not informing us of a cancellation, another patient is deprived of an appointment.

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason you must inform us by leaving your name and date of birth on our 24 hour cancellation line (01204 799955) as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.  You may also text back the word CANCEL to the text message reminder you receive.

EVENING and WEEKEND ROUTINE APPOINTMENTS in Bolton’s Extended Primary Care Service

Changes to our Enhanced Access Service

From 1 October, there will be some small changes to the appointments that we make available for our patients during the evenings and weekends. These changes are being made to ensure we meet the requirements set by NHS England. We have worked closely with Bolton GP Federation (who provide these appointments on our behalf) to make sure they meet your needs too.

What’s the same:

We will still provide evening and weekend appointments for you during the following times:

· Monday to Friday, 6:30pm to 9:30pm

· Saturdays 9am to 5pm

· Sundays 9am to 5pm 

The Enhanced Access Team is made up of lots of different specialists, that have been specially selected to meet patients’ needs, and appointments will be booked for with the most appropriate clinician, which could include a GP, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Nurse, Health Care Assistant, Mental Health Practitioner or Physiotherapist.

Patients will be offered the choice of both face-to-face and telephone appointments.

What’s different:

· Patients will be able to access face-to-face appointments closer to home at Farnworth Health Centre

· Bank holiday appointments will no longer be provided by this service. However, should you need support from a GP on a Bank Holiday, you can still contact the out of hours service on 0161 763 8940 or the 111 service.

Practice receptionists will ensure that patients needing this service can access the available appointments. To book an appointment, patients should contact their GP practice.

Please attend your appointment on time, if you are late you may not be seen. If you are not seen you will not be able to rearrange your appointment until the next working day-except in the event of an medical emergency that requires immediate attention.

If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see your Doctor please notify the receptionist and she will arrange this for you.

Patients too ill to attend surgery may request a telephone consultation, video consultation or a home visit if required by contacting the receptionist on 01204 573445 ideally before 10:45. Please explain the problem briefly to the receptionists so that clinicians can assess the urgency of the call. The clinician will then call you back to discuss your request and assess your problem.

Home visits are generally not available for children.

You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.

Stonehill Medical Centre is a training practice.  Dr Chowdhury and Dr Ratnarajah are our GP trainers and are responsible for the training of our ST3 and ST2 doctors.

Dr Stafford and Dr Ibrar are responsible for the Medical Students from The University of Manchester, together with the supervision of F2 doctors. All the other GPs and Nurses are also involved in the their training.

Additional Information

All training practices must be accredited in order to ensure that the highest standards are maintained. This accreditation is carried out by doctors from the North Western Deanery and, on occasion by members of the PMETB (Post Graduate Medical Education and Training Board). The PMETB sets the standards for all GP training posts in the UK and carries out a programme of accreditation visits to all areas in the UK, to ensure that standards are being met.

During an accreditation visit, a sample of patient records is inspected. All the people looking at the records are bound by the strictest rules of confidentiality, as stated in the GMC's "Confidentiality: Protecting and Providing Information" and the inspection is limited to a verification process to ensure the practice is compliant to the required standards.

Any patient may object to the whole, or any part, of the inspection of their own records and their objection will be respected.

You may be asked if we can use your notes for inspection, but you will be required to sign a form to allow us to do this.