Appointments

Configure Appointment Details

OLEA Online Consultations from 1st May 2025

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new local Online consultation service from the 1st May.  OLEA – OnLine Enhanced Access will replace the LIVI service.

OLEA will be managed in-house by the Northampton GP Enhanced Access Service, which you may have accessed in the past. You can make bookings via your GP practice reception team.

This service will replace LIVI, which will no longer be available as a free service. Instead, OLEA will be managed by your trusted local GPs, who are familiar with local healthcare pathways, prescribing guidelines, and referrals. This change will allow us to be more efficient when dealing with your needs and greater control over appointment availability.

How will this benefit you?

  • Additional video or telephone consultations
  • Available healthcare when you need it.
  • Greater visibility of available appointments, allowing us to plan and allocate them to better suit your needs.
  • GPs with local knowledge of healthcare pathways, referrals, and prescribing guidelines, working to support you.

The OLEA service is set to launch in May 2025, and we will keep you informed with updates leading up to this date. Once the service has launched, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to share your suggestions with us, so we can continue to improve this service and better meet the needs of the population in Northampton.

Thank you for your continued trust and support

AMC

Image

Extended Access

About your appointment

  • One appointment is for one person. If you want another member of your family to see the doctor or nurse, please book a further appointment.
  • Appointments with a GP are for ten minutes in duration and it is unlikely the doctor will be able to deal with more than 1 problem
  • If attending the practice for a face to face appointment.
  • Do not attend your appointment if you have any COVID-19 symptoms 
  • If you would like a chaperone please speak to the doctor
  • If you need an interpreter please ask the receptionist to organise for you on booking your appointment

Training Practice

We are a GP Training Practice which means that we have GP Registrars and medical students working at the practice. A Registrar is a fully qualified doctor who has been working in hospital medicine and is in training to become a GP. Part of the training involves the recording of consultations which are then assessed with the GP trainer.

If your consultation is to be recorded you will be informed of this when booking your appointment and asked to sign a consent form prior to your consultation.

Telephone Consultations

If you want to talk to the doctor or nurse but do not feel you need an appointment to be seen, we can arrange for the doctor or nurse to telephone you or request a video consultation.

Ask the receptionist who will be happy to arrange this for you either on the day or in advance.

Home Visits

Patients are requested, where possible, to telephone before 10am if a home visit is required that day.

We would request that, apart from the genuinely housebound, all other patients attend the surgery rather than request a home visit because of the extra time home visiting takes. On average four to five patients can be seen in surgery in the time it takes to do a single house call.

Late For Your Appointment

Please attend your appointment on time. Lateness impacts on other patients and the other clinicians involved. 

If you are late you may not be seen and asked to rebook another appointment on another day.

Interpreter

If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see your Doctor please notify the receptionist and she will arrange this for you.

Cancel an Appointment

It is important that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment, this will allow that appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you are unable to attend, you may be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.

 

DNA POLICY

dna

Background

We strive to offer as many appointments to our patients as possible. In order to do this we need to have strict guidelines in place to fully utilise every available appointment.

 In light of this we have introduced this policy; Did Not Attend (DNA) for our patients.

What does “DNA” mean?

DNA means Did Not Attend.

It is when a patient fails to attend their appointment without a valid reason, which results in a waste of an appointment. The appointment could have been given to another patient who maybe in urgent need of care.

If you need to cancel your appointment, then just let us know. We would like at least 24 hours’ notice, but we know this is not always possible, so, try and let us know at least 1 hour ahead of your scheduled appointment time. If you cancel your appointment with less than 1 hour to go, then this will still be classified as a DNA as we did not have enough time to offer and fill this appointment so it will be an unused appointment.

What can I do to cancel my appointment?

  • Call the Practice
  • Use SystmOnline or the NHS App

 What happens if I miss an appointment?

 If you miss ONE appointment:

 You will be sent a letter to remind you that you missed an appointment, and direct you to review this policy, so you are aware of the next steps if you fail to turn up to any other appointments within a 6 month rolling period.

 If you miss TWO appointments within a rolling 6-month period:

You will be sent a warning letter from the practice, advising you that another missed appointment could result in you being removed from the practice list.

If you miss THREE appointments within a rolling 12-month period:

 You may be sent a removal letter indicating that you are being removed from the practice list unless there was a valid reason for you missing your appointment.

 If there is a valid reason, then the third DNA will be removed but the first two DNAs will remain.