Long Furlong Medical Centre

Please note that our list is temporarily closed, so we are no longer accepting new registrations.

There will be a flu clinic on Tuesday 12th December.  If you are eligible for a vaccination, please book an appointment online or call the surgery.

If you have had the flu vaccination elsewhere, please let the surgery know so we can update your records.

The COVID-19 vaccine will be offered this autumn to people aged 65 and over, residents in care homes for older people, anyone aged 6 months and over in a clinical risk group, and health and social care staff.  Appointments will be available from the National Booking Service on 18^th September.

We are not holding clinics at the surgery and our staff will not be able to give you additional information.  Please contact 119 if you have any Covid queries.  A GOV.UK guide to the COVID-19 autumn programme can be found here.

From Monday 7 August eConsult and telephone bookings will be replaced with a new quick and simple online triage form called Accurx to triage ALL GP appointments and to assist you with medical and administrative queries.  This can be accessed through our website between 8am – 4pm.  All requests for appointments will be reviewed by the duty doctor and an appointment will be offered, if necessary, within the RIGHT timeframe, the RIGHT clinician and via the RIGHT method (face to face, telephone). You should no longer telephone the surgery to book a GP appointment.  

All appointments with the Nurse or HCA can still be booked in the normal way. Please see https://support.accurx.com/en/articles/5390855-patient-triage-patient-guide for detailed information on how patient triage works.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

What is patient triage?
Patient triage uses a quick and simple online form which patients fill in when they wish to contact the surgery.  For medical issues it contains a few questions, which should only take a few minutes to fill in.  Whether you visit in person or contact us by phone our patient services team will no longer be directly booking your appointment.

What if I do not have access to the internet or struggle to complete forms?
Our practice phone lines will remain open for anybody with accessibility needs who might find it difficult to complete this form and a member of the patient services team will complete it with you.

Will I get an appointment quicker if I speak to reception instead?
The patient services team will no longer be making GP appointments with patients directly.  Whether you complete it yourself via the website or call the practice and it is completed for you, both are assessed equally.

What happens after I submit a query for a medical issue to the practice?
Medical queries will be submitted to the GP led triage team.  A member of the team will respond to you within 2 working days.  Conditions that need to be assessed on the same day will be prioritised.  The triage team may send a request for further information if required.

What happens if I need an urgent appointment?
Conditions that require a same day assessment will be booked in on the same day or directed to an appropriate service after your form has been triaged by the duty doctor.

What if I have more than one medical issue that I need help with?
Please only submit one medical issue per triage form, so that you can add sufficient detail for each problem, to allow our GPs to deal appropriately with your request.

How do I submit an admin query?
There is an option to submit an admin query on the form for general administrative issues such as requesting a fit note etc.  This form should be used rather than emailing the practice.  If you send an email, it will be sent back asking you to use Accurx triage.

Will the patient still have a choice of which clinician they see?
We will try to meet this request, availability permitting, but cannot guarantee this.

What is self-book?
Our team may send you a text message inviting you to book your own appointment online.

What happens after 4pm when I cannot access Accurx?
If you have an urgent problem, you will need to phone our patient services team who will signpost you to the appropriate service.  Patients with non-urgent problems will be asked to complete an online form the following day.

Why are we making this change?
We believe that patient triage is the most effective way that we can sustain a safe and accessible service for our patients based on clinical need.

We have listened to patients who have raised concerns directly with us and have spoken to our Patient Participation Group about the challenges we are experiencing with regards to increasing patient need, available staffing resources and the difficulties with the queues on the phone system. 

This change should make it easier to submit requests to the practice and ensure that requests are seen by the most appropriate member of staff and dealt with in an appropriate timeframe.

The benefits of using patient triage are:

• Easy to access
• No waiting on hold on the phone
• Your request will be seen by a GP directly
• The surgery might be able to help more quickly and easily e.g. with text message advice, prescription or referring you directly to the appropriate service
• Those who need appointments most will be prioritised, rather than those who got through on the phone first

At Long Furlong we aim to provide the best possible quality and range of services for all our patients.   To help us achieve our aims we would like to work with groups of patients who represent the different needs and ages of our practice population.   We hope our patients will contribute to the continuous improvement of the services offered now and in the future and that communication between the practice and its patients will improve.

We realise that everyone leads full and busy lives and, therefore, we would only contact you when changes or developments to the surgery or the services provided are being planned that might affect you or the group of patients that you represent – this could be just a couple of times a year.  We anticipate that much of the work will be done by surveys which could be completed either electronically or by post.  The results of the surveys will be published on our website and in a practice newsletter which will be available for all patients in our Waiting Room and posted to those members of the patient group that opt to complete postal surveys.

If you would be interested in joining our group and representing other patients, we would be very interested to hear from you.  Please complete the form below and return to the practice or alternatively for more information, contact Debbie Major, Practice Manager by phone on 01235 522379 or email debbie.major@nhs.net

The group would like to contact patients on occasion by email and/or text so that they can obtain the views of the widest group of patients possible. We would like to obtain your email address and mobile phone number to do this. Please complete the Patient Contact Form to provide your consent for this.

OCCG launched its first Primary Care Estates Strategy in December 2020 see here

We have worked with colleagues from Healthwatch Oxfordshire to produce a summary which we kindly ask you to share with your PPG or put on your practice websites so patients can be view the strategy see here