Before requesting an appointment with one of our clinicians, it may be worth looking at our self-referrals page to check if a surgery appointment is needed for the service you require.
Urgent appointments
You can request an urgent appointment for today or tomorrow (Monday to Friday) during opening times.
We will respond to requests within 2 working hours.
You can also:
- phone us on 0161 766 6622
When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.
We will use your answers to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or healthcare professional to help you.
Routine appointments
To request a routine appointment in advance during opening times:
- phone us on 0161 766 6622
- use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App) or Patient Services to book an appointment, screening test or vaccination
When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.
We will use your answers to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or healthcare professional to help you.
What’s the problem?
Face to face or telephone consultations are available at the practice on weekdays, Monday to Friday, between 8:30am and 10:30am, and from 2pm to 4:50pm.
Routine / advanced bookings can be made by contacting our reception team during our opening hours. We also offer book on the day appointments which again can be arranged by contacting our reception team from 8am on the day you wish to see the GP.
The GPs have numerous responsibilities during each week with on call duties and various clinics. The receptionist will advise you regarding individual GP availability. The practice operates on an appointment system, to provide fair access for all our patients. Patients may see a doctor of their choice. However, should a patient require an emergency appointment for an urgent condition, they would see the on call doctor for that day.
If you have an urgent medical problem which you feel cannot wait until the next available appointment, we will always speak with you the same day to help you via a telephone consultation or during this telephone call ask you to attend for an appointment the same day or arrange a video consultation if required. We respectfully ask patients to use this facility for problems which are genuinely urgent, and not as a means of gaining early access to see a GP.
Enhanced access
Additional pre-bookable appointments are available outside the standard practice hours from the extended working hours service, which are provided at Moorgate Primary Care Centre, Radcliffe Primary Care Centre, and Prestwich Health Centre.
The extended hours appointments can accessed by contacting the practice during the week to pre-book appointments, or patients can ring on the day on Saturday and Sunday to access the on-the-day appointments.
This service runs from:
- Monday to Friday, between 6:30om to 8pm
- Saturday and Sunday, between 8am to 6pm
- More information about the Bury GP extended hours service can be found by visiting www.burygpfederation.com
Your appointment
However you choose to contact us, we may offer you a consultation:
- by phone
- face to face at the surgery
- on a video call
- by text or email
Appointments by phone, video call or by text or email can be more flexible and often means you get help sooner.
Care navigation
You may have noticed that we may now ask for a brief outline of your problem when you call to make an appointment at the practice. This is because we have developed a new role in the practice called a care navigator, to help you to see the right health professional.
We have trained a number of staff to take on this new role. Our care navigators will work with you to fully understand what your needs are, and will ensure that we help you with your problem efficiently and conveniently. Their goal is to ensure that you get the right care at the right time, in the right place, with the right outcome.
Through specialist training, our team can now offer more choice on who to see in the practice, and help you get to the right health professional fast. Our care navigators never offer clinical advice or triage; this is about offering you the choice to see other more appropriate health professionals, often quicker and without the need to see the GP each time.
We often get calls that can be dealt with by an optician, the pharmacist, or the nurse, that you may not be aware of if you haven’t visited the practice in a while.
By working this way, it helps us to free up time for GPs to care for our patients with complex or serious health conditions, and it means that you will find it easier to get a GP appointment when you need one. More importantly though, it means you are seen by the most appropriate health professional that is best placed to deal with your problem each time you visit us. The choice is up to you.
Cancelling or changing an appointment
To cancel your appointment:
- use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
- using the GP online system: Patient Services
- phone us on 0161 766 6622 during opening times
If you need help when we are closed
If you need medical help now, use NHS 111 online or call 111.
NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over. Call 111 if you need help for a child under 5.
Call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency. This is when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.
If you need help with your appointment
Please tell us:
- if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
- if you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
- if you need an interpreter
- if you have any other access or communication needs
Home visits
Please call the surgery on 0161 766 6622, to arrange a home visit. Please ring the surgery to request a home visit before 10am, where possible, except, of course, in an emergency.
The doctor can usually see four or five patients at the surgery in the time taken to visit one patient at home, and often the waiting time to be seen is less. Therefore, if at all possible, please try to come to the surgery.
Home visits are strictly for those patients who are housebound or too ill to leave their home to attend surgery. It is a patient’s responsibility to arrange transport too and from the surgery, and not having transport would not be considered a reason for a home visit.
When calling to request a visit for yourself or family member, the receptionist will ask for details of your/the patient’s condition, in order to pass this information on to the doctor so that visits can be triaged and prioritised.