BRADFORD & AIREDALE CCG TRUST

ashcroft surgery,
bradford

Newlands Way, Eccleshill, Bradford, BD10 0JE, West Yorkshire, UK

Useful Numbers

  • CALL 111 –  open 24 hours for help with medical problems of short duration and sudden onset
  • ANY LOCAL PHARMACIST for good advice about medicines, minor illness
  • DISTRICT NURSES: 01274 256 131 for wounds, dressings, elderly people
  • HEALTH VISITORS: 01274 221 223 for advice about babies and children
  • MIDWIVES: 01274 623 952 if you’re pregnant
  • National Coronavirus Support Line 0333 880 6619

Our services

We operate free to patients GP services in line with our NHS contract. However, some items are not NHS services, so will incur a fee i.e. filling of forms, medicals, some vaccinations, etc. Please give any forms etc to the Receptionist who will advise you of the fee and pass the form onto a Doctor. Appointments should not be made to request completion of a form.

We work hard to meet our NHS Targets of:

Offering appointments up to at least 3 weeks in advance
Provide an appointment with an unnamed GP within TWO working days (48hrs). You can request to see a named GP but this may take longer and is not the measured target
Appointment system

We are continuously revising our appointment system so that you can book an appointment to see a named doctor up to 3 weeks in advance. Our system also allows you to see someone more quickly if you wish – either urgently on the same day or within TWO working days (48 hours). You can express a named GP but this may not always be feasible with the latter routes.

We operate a daily Sit & Wait service where registered patients can simply turn up between 0900 and 1030am for anything and they will be seen that morning. If you wish to use this service, please try and come as early as possible and don’t leave things till the last minute (the time when the practice usually experiences a big rush with this system). Of course, we will try and see you as quickly as possible but please be patient if you are waiting and understand that the doctors are working hard and trying their best.

We also have emergency doctor slots, where you may first be entered for a telephone call. The Emergency Doctor will then ring you back and deal with your emergency issue over the telephone or invite you into surgery. Please do not abuse this service. It is for urgent problems only. If you abuse it for simple problems, then other patients who need urgent treatment cannot get in!

Whichever appointment system you use, the doctors encourage the staff to ask you why an appointment is required. This is because we want to identify and deal with urgent problems early. Also, some items may not need an appointment and may be better dealt with over the phone. Things like repeat prescriptions, repeat sick notes, filling forms are best dealt with in this way. You too can request a telephone consultation.

If you do come to the surgery to see a doctor, please try to only bring one problem for a ten minute consultation. Bringing more often means the doctor ends up running late and the other patients kept waiting – which is unfair. If you have ever been kept waiting for a booked appointment with a doctor, it is very likely it is because of patients bringing a shopping list of problems to one appointment.

Be on Time
Please arrive promptly for your appointment. If you are likely to be late, please let us know. Usually if a patient is more than 10 minutes late, we aim to re-book rather than force a delay on other patients. Sometimes Doctors can also run late as some patients may need more than the 8-10 minutes the NHS tells us to allow. We are sorry if this occurs and aim to keep you informed if the delay is greater than 20 minutes.

Home Visit Requests
These are only for patients who are unable to attend the surgery i.e. housebound by their medical condition. If you telephone to request a home visit, this should be before 11.00am detailing why the visit is required and a contact number as a Doctor may first contact you.

WARNING: If you are not able to attend an appointment….

  • If you decide not to attend an appointment, you must cancel it.
  • If you miss a number of either surgery or hospital appointments you will be removed from the practice and asked to register elsewhere.
  • Did you know that on average there are 400 appointments per month at this surgery where patients just don’t turn up and don’t even bother to cancel in advance! Seriously – we are not kidding.
  • And on the other hand, we get loads of patients ringing us up telling us how ridiculous it is that we don’t have enough appointments.
  • So please, if you can’t make it, give us plenty of notice so that we can cancel and offer the appointment to another patient.

WARNING: Be nice to our staff
Each member of our staff is committed to the practice and work hard to try and help you the best they can. Please try and understand how hard we are working to try and help you and other patients. Try not to get angry with the doctors, nurses, reception or other staff at our practice. Physical or verbal aggression is not tolerated in this practice. If you behave badly, you will be thrown off the practice list without further discussion. Being nice costs nothing but yields good returns – others end up liking you, will want to help you and will go the extra mile for you.

Talking to us on the telephone
We know it can be frustrating when you are trying to talk to us over the phone. People generally get frustrated when they are kept waiting or where the person on the other end of the phone asks lots of questions. Before getting frustrated please remember two things:

  1. We are probably asking you lots of questions because we want to understand your problem better.
  2. By understanding your problem better, we can help you better.
  3. Being rude or angry gets you know where. In fact all it does is make the other person want to get you off the phone.
  4. We are doing the best that we can.

So please be patient and try to be nice and respectful.

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