New Practice Telephone number from 24th July 24 is now Live

Dear Patients,

Due to the imposition of 'Cloud Based Telephony' by NHS England on General Practice, our Practice telephone number has to be changed. This is not something the Practice asked for, or wanted, but is an unfortunate by-product of the imposition of digital telephone systems on General Practice throughout England to remove the 8am rush. You will have seen/read about this in the media. Please be aware, we don't have any additional staff to answer the telephones.

Our telephone number changed on 24th July 2024. There is call divert on our old number for several months advising of the new telephone number and then automatically transferring your call.  After this there will be a voice message advising the number has been changed, and advising you to redial. 

We apologise for lack of notice in letting you know about this important change in how you contact us, we were only provided with our new numbers on 1st July which we needed to query with our supplier before we could inform you.

All our team have received training and we hope you can appreciate that moving from a simple, workable system to something quite complex is challenging. Our team are doing their very best to ensure a seamless implementation of the new telephone system but we ask that you be patient.

Please make a note of our new contact telephone number, which is now live:

01253 204690

New functionality

Our new telephone system is menu driven and we hope you soon settle in to the new options. This is to help streamline incoming calls so our team can assist you as quickly as possible and allow patients with urgent medical needs to get through quickly.

• All telephone call are now recorded for monitoring and training purpose
• There is a new menu for you to select from and the opening times are:
  • Appointments 08:00 – 18:00
  • Prescriptions 11:00 – 12:30 We do not take repeat prescriptions by telephone unless by prior agreement. Please order online/via your app/in person/by post
  • Test results 14:00 – 16:00
  • Medical Secretaries 09:00 – 16:00
  • General enquiries 10:30 – 18:30
• Automated check and cancel service. This line allows you to receive details of your upcoming appointments, as well as cancel them, if the appointment is no longer required. Using this service means you do not have to queue and speak to one of our reception team.

Please bear with our Team, and specifically our Reception team, in these next few weeks whilst we all get used to the new telephone system.

Thank you, 
Marie Chambers 
Practice Manager