Home Visits, Telephone Enquiries & Out of Hours Services

Home Visits

• A Doctor will make a home visit to patients too ill to attend Surgery, but please make every effort to attend the Surgery if possible.
• If visit is necessary, it would greatly assist the doctors if you could make the request before 10.30 am as this will help the Doctor to plan his/her rounds.
• The doctors hope to complete their rounds by early afternoon, but are sometimes delayed by emergencies, etc.
• Please inform the receptionist if you feel the visit is more urgent.
• If the situation is very serious indeed, then call 999 and request an ambulance before calling the surgery.
• In most cases, it is perfectly safe to bring a child with a temperature to the Surgery. Should you have any queries with regard to this, please discuss them with the duty Doctor.

Telephone Enquiries

If you wish to speak to one of the Doctors, it would be helpful if you could telephone at the end of his/her Surgery, to avoid interrupting consultations with other patients. Please therefore telephone between 11:15am and 11:45am

Out of Hours Services

On weekdays between the hours of 6:30pm and 8:00am, and all day and night at weekends and on bank or public holidays, services are commissioned by Poole Primary Care Trust. If you require medical treatment you have a choice:

• If you wish to see an emergency doctor, telephone: Dorset Out of Hours Medical Service on 0845 600 10 13. This is for patients who need URGENT medical attention or advice that cannot wait until the surgery is open. You may be asked to attend the local out of hours centre, located at Poole Hospital, Longfleet Road.
• If you are seriously ill or have had a serious accident, then call 999 and ask for an ambulance.
• If you require health information or advice, you may phone NHS Direct, a 24 hour nurse-led advice line on 0845 46 47 or online at http:/www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
• A recorded telephone message provides this information when the surgery is closed.