Consulting a Doctor

You may be better supported by a different healthcare professional. Please see our self-referrals and Services section for more information.

There are different ways of consulting a doctor:

• eConsult This is a new service being rolled out to all GP practices throughout Westminster and Central London and we are very excited to be implementing this in our practice. This gives patients the opportunity to fill out a health questionnaire regarding a medical issue they may have which will then be triaged and sent to a GP, patients can then expect to be contacted by a member of the teamwith advice within 48hrs. However, this service is not limited to just medical issues, it also covers admin queries such as sick note requests, etc. This service is available to use at any time just follow the link below or access this service through our home page.

Your request will be processed by a central admin team who work across Central London practices to ensure all requests are dealt with appropriately as soon as possible. If you prefer not to share your data in this way, you can continue to call the practice during normal working hours.

        https://fitzroviamedicalcentre.webgp.com/

• The Medical Emergency Clinic operates from 8.30 to 10.00am Monday to Friday for registered patients.
  If you have an urgent problem or concern that needs to be addressed on the day, please call before 10.00am. A trained member of our reception team will ask you for details. It is important that you share as much information with the receptionist as needed, so that they can signpost you to the best service and ensure that the most urgent queries are prioritised. Our duty doctor will assess your request and may need to call you back if they need more information. The doctor will attempt to call you twice, so please try to be available when they call. If the doctor needs to see you, they will offer you a specific time to come in that same morning. These consultations are not suitable for long-term, complex, or multiple problems as the doctors will only focus on your new urgent problem. 

• Routine Bookable GP Appointments are released every day at 3pm. Typically you will be offered an appointment a week in advance on the particular day you call.  However, due to the pandemic and high demand, currently we cannot guarantee you will be offered a GP appointment when these become available. Therefore, we also offer a waiting list with a turnaround time of 4-6 weeks. This is to ensure you will be offered an appointment within this timeframe. We realise that this is still quite a considerable amount of time to wait, so we encourage you to try our other access pathways such as eConsult as mentioned above. 

  Each GP appointment is 15 minutes and although this is significantly longer than average for UK GP practices, this may still not be enough time to cover all your problems properly, and the doctor may ask you to come back, or even to book a double appointment. Please understand that this is so that you can be given the best care.

Waiting Times

Surgeries will normally start on time. We expect patients to be seen within 15 minutes of their appointment time and in the event of a delay we will offer an explanation. Please ensure that you’re punctual for your appointments as this helps prevent unnecessary delays. If you are more than 10 minutes late for your appointment, you will be asked to reschedule it. Please let us know as soon as possible if you can't keep an appointment as we can offer it to someone else.

Late Clinics

On Thursdays evenings we offer late appointments with our doctors, nurse and health care assistant between 6.30 and 8:00 pm.

Other appointments

We are a team of health care professionals and you can also get help from:

• Our practice nurse, for example for immunisations

• Our healthcare assistant, for example for a blood pressure check

• Our pharmacist, for medication reviews

• Our physiotherapist, for muscles and joint problems, including when you need a referral for more tests or to see a specialist

• Our smoking cessation advisor

Please see our Services section for more information

Please call the practice after 11am if you would like to book an appointment.

Cervical screening " Smear tests"

• Cervical screening at the surgery can be booked online or you can call us.
• We also partner with local surgeries. Please call the practice after 11pm or use our eConsult service to arrange an appointment  
  • Sat 1pm – 5pm @ Westbourne Green Surgery
• • Sun 9am – 1pm @ Connaught Square Practice

Self-referrals

You can access some services directly:

Contraception and sexual health

• Our local clinic, Mortimer Market Centre, offers free and confidential sexual health services. Please visit their website

• Residents of Westminster aged 16+ can also access this online service
  • All you need to do is register on the website
  • For further advice and information on the most suitable contraception you can speak to a health advisor: 020 3315 9779

• Members of the LGBTQI+ community can access a dedicated sexual health clinic https://www.dean.st/

Feeling anxious, worried, down or depressed?

• You can contact the CNWL Talking therapies service, which is free and confidential and provides a range of talking therapies 
  https://talkingtherapies.cnwl.nhs.uk/

• The Samaritans are here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org. You can see their website https://www.samaritans.org/

Smoking cessation

• Tobacco smoke contains over 5,000 chemicals including nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive. Smokers smoke for the nicotine but are harmed by the tar and other chemicals. Find more here
• You can get free support to quit
  • Residents of Camden can self-refer to Breathe
  • Residents of Westminster can self-refer to One you or call and book directly at the surgery

Muscles and joint problems

You can refer yourself to Healthshare for Physiotherapy if you:

• Have a muscle or joint related issue/condition
• Are over 18 years old
• Are not under the care of a hospital consultant for the same problem

 If your case is complex, their team can triage you for more tests (ultrasound and MRIs), some procedures (joint injections) or refer you on to a specialist Doctor.

Eye problems

You can use Urgent Eye Service

• Symptoms that can be seen under the service include:
  • Red or painful eye or eyelids
  • Recently occurring flashes or floaters
  • Recent and sudden loss of vision
  • Foreign body in the eye
• If you have very minor symptoms you may be advised to self care or seek support from your local pharmacy first
• Please note, this is not a sight test.
• See leaflet  about this service

Breast-feeding support

• If you live in Camden

You can call 07808 891260 or visit a drop-in session

Camden Flyer

• If you live in Westminster 

You can contact your health visiting team 0208 200 2500, selecting option 2

Please follow new-baby-and-parent-resources/infant-feeding-services/breast-feeding-kensington-chelsea-westminster-hammersmith-and-fulham for more information

• Other resources

National Breastfeeding Helpline 0300 100 0212

Support is also available in Welsh and Polish

National helplines are open seven days a week 9.30am to 9.30pm breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk

Supporter line Bengali/Sylheti 0300 456 2421

unicef.org.uk nhs.uk/start4life

globalhealthmedia.org

firststepsnutrition.org

Attending your appointments

• Please note that you should NOT attend the surgery if you have symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough or loss of smell or taste but also a "bad cold") 

  • If you have a routine appointment, you can call reception and ask the healthcare professional to call you instead (if you think the appointment can be done over the phone), otherwise you will have to re-book at a later date
  • For urgent advice regarding COVID, please see this section and if you have further urgent concerns, please call and ask to speak with our duty Dr

• In line with NHS England guidance, face coverings are still mandatory in GP practices. When you come into the practice, please wear a face covering and adhere to social distancing, unless you are exempt

• Please ensure you tell us as soon as possible if you are no longer able to attend your appointment. This means we will be able to offer it to someone else.

• We have a ground floor consulting room for patients who are unable to manage the stairs. When possible, please give us notice if you will require to use this room. ideally when you book the appointment 

• In order to try and improve waiting time, we would ask you to turn up for your appointments on time.
  • If you are more than 10 minutes late, you will be asked to re-schedule another appointment.
  • Please do not arrive too early, as we have limited capacity in the waiting rooms to enable social distancing 
  • Please ensure that you have informed the receptionist of your arrival so that the clinician is aware that you are waiting 

• Chaperones are available at your request. This means that, if you feel more comfortable, especially for an intimate examination, a member of the admin time cam join the consultation

Home Visits

Patients are required to speak to the Duty Doctor for advice and home visit requests. If possible please try to telephone reception before 10am if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Health Centre.

COVID-19 FAQ

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

• Fever
• New cough
• Loss of smell or taste
• Some less typical symptoms including
  • A "bad cold"
  • Diarrhoea
  • New headache
  • Sore throat

What should I do if I have symptoms of possible COVID-19? 

• Advice has changed :
  • While you’re no longer legally required to self-isolate if you have COVID-19, you should try to stay at home and away from others to avoid passing on the virus.
  • Please see the NHS website for advice https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

• Free testing for coronavirus (COVID-19) from the NHS has ended for most people in England. There are a small number of people who will still be able to get free COVID-19 tests from the NHS for example
  • If you have a health condition which means you're eligible for COVID-19 treatment
    • If you have a health condition which means you're eligible for COVID-19 treatments, you should be sent a COVID-19 test to use if you have symptoms
    • You can order free NHS tests yourself, if you have not received any tests yet or have used the tests you've been sent.
  • If you work for the NHS or in social care
  • If you've been asked to take a test by a doctor or healthcare
• Please see https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/get-tested-for-coronavirus/
• Order through https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests or call 119

• I can get an isolation note, I don't need to speak with a GP https://111.nhs.uk/isolation-note/

Vaccinations

We do not offer the COVID-19 vaccination at our surgery but strongly recommend that you get vaccinated  / get a booster to protect yourself and others

You can find some local centres or use the national booking system

If you were vaccinated abroad, you can register your vaccinations through https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/tell-nhs-about-coronavirus-vaccinations-abroad/

If you can't get vaccinated for medical reasons, you can apply on the government website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-medical-exemptions-proving-you-are-unable-to-get-vaccinated