If you telephone the Practice you will be offered a telephone call back from the GP. The GP will triage your call and where needed provide a prescription or immediately necessary treatment.  You will be asked to nominate a Pharmacy of your choice where your prescription will be sent for collection.

Appointments

If you have an on-going problem, it makes sense to try the Doctor that usually treats you.

The main advantages of the Telephone Call Back System include:

1) More flexible - you don't have to phone early to get an appointment.

2) Easier to speak to a Doctor of your choice.

3) Reduced time off work.

4) Better choice of appointment times to suit you.

5) Telephone call backs booked to suit you.

Ask the Receptionist 

Our receptionists are trained to deal with queries like repeat prescriptions, repeat sick lines, letters or delay in hospital appointments.  The receptionist will continue to book appointments with the Treatment Room Nurse and the Nurse Practitioner.

You can book your appointment for the Practice Nurse and Treatment Room Nurse on line follow the link on the home page.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10am if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

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 Surgery.

 Treatment Room Nurse 

The treatment room at Carrick Hill Medical Centre is staffed by Nurses from the North and West Belfast Trust.

The treatment room nurse is availble by appointment only each morning from 8.30am until 12.20pm Monday to Friday and in the afternoon from 2:00pm to 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

When ringing to book an appointment with the nurse please inform the reception staff the reason for your appointment as some procedures require more than 10 minutes routine appointment time.

Treatment Room Times

Monday - Friday    8.30am - 12.20pm

Monday - Friday    2.00pm - 4.30pm

Telephone Advice

The Doctors and Nurses are happy to offer advice on the telephone during Practice opening hours. All telephone calls should be made before 10am each day. For safety reasons

If a call is urgent, please give details to the receptionist who will make the Doctor or Nurse aware.

Doctors/Nurses are not always available to take calls immediately.

You will be asked to leave your name, telephone number and nature of your call, do not be offended as the receptionists have been asked to do this by the Doctor and Nurse.

Your call will be returned as soon as the Doctor or Nurse becomes available.

The Doctor or Nurse will only make 1 phone call to you so please ensure you are available to take their call.

If you are out or if your phone is diverted to voicemail or answer service we will NOT attempt contact you again.

A&E attendance

We would encourage all our patients to contact the surgery or see the doctor during normal open hours before attending Accident and Emergency.

When the surgery is closed we would encourage our patients to contact the Out of Hours GP for emergency medical advice.

Most problems can be sorted by the GP or Practice Nurse rather than by the Accident and Emergency Department.

This will avoid unnecessary attendances and long waits to be seen at the hospital.