Message to Patients from the GP Partners:
From the 1st April 2023, there is a new GP contract from NHS England, which sets the rules on how practices operate. A significant change this year is for practices to offer all patients “an assessment of need” when they contact the practice. This might involve arranging an appointment at the practice but also includes signposting our patients to other services, where appropriate (e.g local pharmacy for minor ailments).
The Dunstan Partnership, like many practices, have struggled in recent years to meet the demand for appointments, which is higher than ever before. We have recruited more staff at the practice, as well as extra clinical staff, employed by the Primary Care Network, who work at the surgery part of the week, e.g Musculoskeletal Practitioners, Mental Health Practitioners, Paramedics and Pharmacists. Despite all of this we cannot always give an appointment to everyone who wants one and deal with every patient request ourselves. We continue to offer well above the minimum requirement and offer some of the highest level of GP access across Bolton.
The new contract will mean a bigger focus on non-emergency appointments, which will impact our ability to provide as many same day urgent appointments. We will still have appointments released every day and patients can contact the practice through our website and our online consultation links from 7:30 AM via this link, or ring the practice on 01204 463777 from 8:00 AM.
Please contact the practice as early as possible in the day to make your appointment. Based on the demand we have seen recently, we expect there will be times when the practice can no longer safely see any more patients that day and so we will either have to direct you to another provider for medically urgent problems, or arrange a suitable appointment for a future date.
