If you are unable to keep an appointment please telephone the surgery to cancel so that your appointment slot can be offered to another patient.
"In person" appointments can be made with a doctor or nurse at either Taymount Surgery in Perth or Scone Surgery.
Appointments are booked at 10 minute intervals. If more than one family member needs to see the doctor please make a separate appointment for each person.
We operate our appointment system based on the principles of "Advanced Access" and one of the main aims of this system is to try and keep our capacity and demand in balance to ensure that all patients who need an appointment with a healthcare professional will be offered one within 48 hours. This means that the majority of our appointments - routine and urgent - are available to book on the day, although we also ensure that we have a number of appointments available to book up to 6 weeks in advance.
Every effort will be made to offer an appointment with your preferred doctor as soon as possible. Please be aware however, that as the doctors operate between both our surgery sites, and in many cases are part-time, this may involve a longer wait. To help with continuity for patients and clinicians, patients may be offered an appointment at the alternative surgery site if they are happy to travel.
The practice has seen a significant increase in demand on our appointment system in recent times and for this reason, patients may now be asked for some further details about their appointment when booking. Many of the reasons that patients book a GP appointment could have been dealt with by a more appropriate person within the practice healthcare team. Please do not be offended if the reception staff do ask you a few more questions than you have previously been used to. They have been asked to do this by the doctors to help improve access for all patients.
There may be times when you would find it more convenient to speak to the doctor or practice nurse over the telephone and some examples suitable for a telephone consultation include:
- Advice or reassurance about a new or ongoing medication condition
- Advice about medication
- To request a medical certificate or a medical report
Each doctor and nurse will have a small number of telephone slots available each day and the receptionist will arrange a suitable time for the doctor or nurse to phone you back.
The receptionist may ask for a little more information than usual when you book these appointments. This is to ensure that a telephone consultation is suitable for your complaint but also providing some information in advance can assist the clinician prior to calling you back.
The practice use the accredited Near Me (Attend Anywhere) software for video consultations. This is a fully secure system which is used very widely by secondary care services within NHS Tayside and in other health board areas.
If you would like to try it for your next appointment with us, please ask the receptionist who will arrange this for you if it's appropriate for your complaint. The reception staff may also proactively offer you this as an option when you are looking to book an appointment at the practice if they think it may be of benefit to you.
Once you have been given a time for your video appointment, simply go to https://nhsattend.vc/taymountsurgery. You will then be prompted to enter your full name, date of birth and your telephone number. This information is vital and must be completed at all times.
Once you have entered this information and accepted the terms and conditions, you will then be taken to a virtual “waiting area” to wait for the doctor or nurse to connect with you at your appointment time. We would ask that you please allow 10-15 either side of your booked time slot to allow for your clinician running slightly ahead or over time with other patients.
The system works on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or a computer which has a video camera installed on it. To get the most out of the experience, we advise that you ensure that your device has the most up to date software version on it. The system works best where there is at least a 4G or Wi-Fi connection available. It will not work on a 3G signal.
Further information about how this works and when this might be a suitable option are available in our video consultations news item.
If you are requesting a home visit, please telephone before 10.00am, except in a medical emergency. Visits are for those who are housebound or seriously ill; otherwise we ask our patients to come to the surgery if at all possible.
All requests for home visits are checked by the doctors and if necessary they will phone the patient back to get some clinical details. Based on that discussion the doctor will make a clinical decision whether the patient is well enough to come down to the surgery or whether a home visit is necessary. If the patient is asked to attend the surgery they will be given an appointment the same day.
