The Practice has changed our online triage and communications tool to Anima.
Anima is a secure online system that helps us manage appointment requests and admin queries more efficiently.
This service is open 8:00am to 6:30pm from Monday to Friday.
The purpose of the triage system is to assess the urgency and best course of treatment for every patient’s medical request.
Our triage team is made up of GP's, who will review medical requests and make all clinical decisions on patient care. These clinicians are supported by senior administration colleagues, who will work under the direction of these clinicians to help process patient requests. This allows the clinicians in the triage team to focus on ensuring people receive the best care to meet their needs – less time on paperwork and have more time for helping patients.
We also receive Admin requests through Anima like we currently do and our admin colleagues in the triage team will be there to deal with these admin requests directly, allowing the clinicians to focus on triaging medical requests.
Anima allows patients to choose how they want to request services from us, makes it easier to manage patient requests and enables better continuity of care for those who need it.
Anima's online triage forms do capture more information from patients, so it may take you more time to complete these forms, but this information is necessary and will help your GP who reviews the form and will help us to reduce the number of times we have to respond back to you to ask for more information and enable better more informed care quicker.
In the long term, we expect that this new system will also mean a shorter waits on the phone and in the surgery queue, as more patients will be able to contact us online without the need to speak to our reception team. We will still continue to man our telephones and this will always remain an option in contacting the surgery.
Online Consultation Service
If you need urgent help, please call the practice on 01246 277287.
For non-urgent medical or administrative help, you can contact us using our online consultation tool by clicking the anima button above.
This service allows you to tell us about your symptoms, ask questions, or request advice without needing to phone or attend the surgery.
Your request will be reviewed by our clinical or administrative team. Submissions are reviewed between 8:00am to 6:30pm Monday to Friday, and we will provide a response once your request has been assessed.
Response times can differ depending on the nature of your enquiry and overall demand.
Please note: this service is not monitored continuously, and response times may vary.
If you have a medical emergency or need help outside of practice hours, please contact NHS 111 or 999 as appropriate.
You can still continue to get in touch with us the way you do currently, or if you prefer you can click on the submit a request button on the Anima banner above to request an appointment without having to ring the surgery.
You can also use Anima to request:
- Fit (sick) notes
- A query about a prescription request
(please continue to submit repeat prescription requests in the usual way)
- Routine care appointment (Smears, Vaccinations, Medication Reviews)
- Test results
- Updates on referrals
- Private letter from your GP (be aware that there is a charge for these)
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