NEW WAY OF WORKING!

All patients of the surgery who have access to a smart phone, computer or tablet are asked to submit their clinical or medical administrative query via a form on an online facility called ‘Accurx’. Click here for access to forms or click on the yellow box above. Please note that if you need to book an appointment with a member of the nursing team, you can telephone us as usual or send us admin form request stating what appointment you need, we will then be in touch with you

Every form received will be reviewed by a team (which includes clinicians). The team will decide how best to proceed with your query. If your query is medical and the triage team feel an appointment is appropriate, this will be classified internally as Red – urgent, Amber - less urgent and Green – routine. Red appointments will be allocated soonest, then Amber and then Green. The appointment will be booked in on the basis of clinical need, with the most appropriate person – a doctor, paramedic, nurse, or, if simply an administration matter such as querying at what stage a referral is, by the admin team.

Patients will not be given an appointment at the time their form is submitted but instead someone from the surgery will make contact once the request has been reviewed.

What if I can't use the internet?

We understand that there will be patients who are unable to submit their request electronically, and you will still be able to phone us, or visit us in person. In these cases, a receptionist will ask you the same questions as the online form, and take the same information. These requests will then be dealt with in exactly the same way as those who submit their requests electronically.

A frequently asked questions document about our new way of working can be found here

Further information about our new model can be found here

Click here to access forms

About us

We are are a medical partnership providing medical services across three sites, Buxted, East Hoathly and Horam (Manor Oak Surgery). We offer a full range of services and facilities for NHS patients.

We are contracted by NHS Sussex to provide General Medical Services to patients registered at the practice. We are led by three GP partners, Dr Wright, Dr Gill, Dr Perry and more recently our Practice Director, Charlotte Luck who joined us in January 2022. For further information about our history please see here.

Patients have a right to a good standard of medical care, to be treated with consideration and dignity and have their privacy respected. Patients also have a right to have their views about their condition taken into account and be fully involved in decisions about their care.

We are confident that our website will provide clear and concise help and give our patients the information they require in an easy and convenient format. It has been designed with the patient’s needs at the forefront of everything, from checking surgery times to letting us know what you think of us.

Current demand

In common with GP surgeries across the UK we are currently in the position where demand for our services often exceeds our on the day capacity, this is despite having recruited additional personnel recently. We remain completely committed to our patients and your care is our first priority. We recognise it is frustrating for all involved on those occasions and we thank you for bearing with us. From 22 April 2024 we introduced a new way of working at the surgery whereby those who have access to a smart phone, computer or tablet are asked to submit their clinical or medical administrative query via a form on an online facility called ‘Accurx’ .

The aim of the new way of working is to improve access for our patients and make it easier for patients to make initial contact with us; and for our team to understand everyone’s needs and help you to get the most appropriate help and support. For those patients who are unable to submit their request electronically, you will still be able to phone us, or visit us in person. In these cases, a receptionist will ask you the same questions as the online form, and take the same information. These requests will then be dealt with in exactly the same way as those who submit their requests electronically. As we are in the very early stages of implementing our new way of working, we do anticipate that it will take a period to fully embed and therefore expect progress to be seen and made after some weeks.

If you are feeling unwell, instead of contacting the surgery, you may also find the following helpful

Contacting NHS111 for advice and support

Visiting your local Community Pharmacist

Attending your local Urgent Treatment Centre / Walk-in-centre which is located in Lewes. Appointments to this centre can only be provided by NHS 111 and so you will need to call 111 first if you need to access this service.

Urgent Treatment Centre
Lewes Victoria Hospital
Nevill Road
LEWES
East Sussex, BN7 1PE

Tel: 01273 666492

Our practice mission statement:

To place patients at the heart of all we do recognising that every patient matters

Our vision:

To be a centre of excellence delivering high quality compassionate care with a commitment to improving wellbeing and health outcomes for our patients

Our values:

Working together

Everybody matters

Compassionate

Accountable

Respectful

Empathetic

Online consultations and admin requests available using Accurx

We have recently changed our online consultation provide from Amina to Accurx.

You can now submit an online consultation request or admin request by clicking here or on the Accurx picture below to submit a request.

Our Phone System

We are absolutely committed to helping our patients get the care and support you need, as quickly and as easily as possible.

We have one universal phone number for all of our sites - 01825 732 333.

Having one phone line means that there will be an increased number of people able to take calls and support patients to get advice and book appointments when needed.

We have increased the number of calls which are able to be queued at any one time to 70 (up from 40). This is because there are more people available to answer the phones at any one time. We hope that this will mean the call queue will move quickly. If you call the surgery line and you hear an engaged tone, this will mean that there are already 70 people waiting in the queue to speak with someone.

If you are between caller 15 and 70 the system will offer you a call back facility to save you from waiting on the phone. The call back system is in operation from 8am until 11.30am each day and then again 2pm to 4pm. These times will be subject to review so that we can test and assess how the system is working.

A short summary of how our phone system works can be found below. Thank you to our Patient Participation Group for putting this together.

A summary of the phone system

Serving You

Our dedicated team are here to treat a range of minor ailments as well as providing specialist management of long-term conditions and clinics covering a wide range of healthcare issues. The technology also means you can now do a lot of things from the comfort of your home such as order a repeat prescription or cancel an appointment.

The NHS App provides a simple and secure way for people to access a range of NHS services on their smartphone or tablet. The NHS App lets you share your COVID-19 status, order repeat prescriptions, check results and a range of NHS services.

Partners in Care

Once registered, patients and healthcare professionals work together to ensure the most appropriate care is provided. This partnership philosophy extends even further and our active patient group exists to make sure that patient needs and the practice offering are always heading in the same direction. For further information about our Patient Participation Group (PPG) please click here

Access

All three medical centres are accessible and equipped for the disabled. There are allocated parking spaces available, wheelchair access and toilets with easy access at all sites. At our East Hoathly site there are hearing loops in all of the consulting rooms and there is a portable induction hearing loop at the Buxted and Manor Oak Medical Centres.