Out of Hours
In September 2004, General Practitioners across the UK have relinquished emergency duties in the
evenings and weekends, and this responsibility has now been taken over by Primary Care Trusts.
Cover is now provided from Out of Hours centres, which are staffed by experienced medical
personnel who will either see emergency cases at the centre, or make a home visit, or arrange
hospital admission, as they deem necessary. Please note that you do not need to remember any new
telephone numbers, as our telephone calls are automatically diverted to this service when the
surgery is closed. Please proceed as follows:
- For routine health advice and reassurance, 24 hours a day, NHS Direct is now available 24 hours a day. You can call them on 0845 4647, or at their web site: www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
- In clear cut emergencies such as serious injuries, collapse, unconsciousness etc., it is considered that to do anything other than dial 999 for an ambulance can lead to a dangerous and avoidable delay in the patient receiving specialist hospital care.
- Where it is unlikely that a person's health will be significantly harmed by deferring medical advice until the next day, patients are asked to wait and telephone their own doctors the next morning.
- Finally, where delay may reasonably be expected to lead to serious decline in a patients condition, calls are handled by a GP emergency service. Telephone our number in the usual way and your call will be automatically handled by the emergency service.