The Way You Access Appointments Has Changed

Effective from Tuesday 22nd July

Following instructions from NHS England & the Department for Health & Social Care which attempts to limit the practice of our Physician Associate/Assistant colleagues, we have been compelled to introduce a revised system for booking appointments. 

• Pre-booked appointments are available, up to 6 weeks in advance for a doctor or nurse of your choice. 
• For emergency or 'on the day' appointments you will phoned by a doctor in the first instance who will perform a triage consultation, and then if appropriate they'll book you to see a doctor or PA later in the day. 
• We are not able to offer e-consultations for the time being as the restriction on our PAs being able to perform this type activity means that we will need to re-design the processes for handling these types of interaction. 

We have continued faith in our Physician Associate/Assistant colleagues. Both have been trained at Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia, with placement at the surgery, and we have continued to invest in their further development over years of successful clinical practice. All of their clinical practice has always been supervised appropriately, and their duties have been entirely in line with their qualifications and with NHS England contractual guidelines. We fundamentally reject any suggestion otherwise. 

We accept that unfortunately these changes reduce our capacity, however the alternative is the loss of these colleagues from clinical practice, which we would consider abhorrent at a time of increased pressures on our National Health Service. 

Published: Jul 17, 2025