From 1^st October 2025  we are changing the way that patients contact the surgery to book an appointment. We are moving to a 'Total Triage' System.

All GP appointment requests, and all admin queries will need to be requested through our online triage system which can be found here: Contact Us Online

You simply fill out a short Online Form telling us about your need – whether it’s a medical issue, prescription request, fit note or referral query.

Your request will be reviewed by our Triage Team and directed to the most appropriate person to help you.

You will either receive a call to be offered a same day appointment, receive a self-book link or you might receive a message with advice.

Our aim is to improve patient access by making sure you get the right medical care at the right time, the first time you contact us.

This is a national NHS project, and all general practices must adopt the system.

Total triage is a system where every patient contacting a GP practice provides information about the reason for their contact before any appointment is booked.

All patient requests will be triaged by our triage team, who will decide what the best course of action is. Where necessary, we might ask you to answer a few additional questions to help our team prioritise those patients who need more urgent care.

You may be offered a face to face or telephone appointment; you may receive a reply from the Triage team with self-care advice, or you may be signposted to a more appropriate service.

Following any outcome, we will always try to make sure you know what to do if you believe your problem to be more urgent or should your symptoms worsen.

All patients need to submit their request via the  Online Contact Form

This will be seen by our triage team. After the triage team has reviewed your request, you will either receive a call or text to be offered a same day appointment, receive a self-book link to make an appointment or you might receive a message with advice.

We will have three types of GP appointments:

• Same day – for an urgent issue (A member of staff will contact you to book the appointment via telephone or text.)
• Within 7 days – for patients that need to see or speak to a healthcare professional soon, but not urgently (You will receive a self-book link to book your appointment.)
• More than 7 days – for routine appointments (You will receive a self-book link to book your appointment)

All patients will need to submit their request via the surgery’s website or using the NHS app, or using the link sent to.

Ideally, patients will submit their own request, however we appreciate that this may not be possible for some patients.

If you are unable to use or access the online form, then please contact the surgery in the usual way and we will complete the request with you. This will be triaged by our triage team on the same way as any other forms.

Appointments will NOT be given out without the (Total Triage) request being completed

Our Reception teams will be unable to provide any appointments without the (Total Triage) request being triaged.

Appointments will not be directly bookable using the NHS APP. This is to ensure requests are correctly assigned to the appropriate clinician.

You can still telephone the surgery or visit in person. The receptionist will ask you questions about your request to fill out the online form on your behalf.

The surgery team will then assess your request and will be back in touch with next steps.

All requests will be assessed as soon as possible and in the same way, regardless of how you contacted the surgery.

We want to ensure the process of booking an appointment with your GP practice as fair as possible, as previously patients were more likely to secure a same day appointment if they queued at our front door or called us early in the morning which put patients who are unable to do this at a disadvantage.

We found that patients who do not necessarily need a same day appointment were often seen when in fact a routine non-urgent appointment would have been more appropriate. This then resulted in us not being able to see patients who really needed an urgent same day appointment.

Also, patients sometimes do not see the most appropriate healthcare professional for their need, for example, instead of a GP, a patient could have seen a nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, mental health practitioner or an advanced clinical practitioner – for more information on these roles, visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/gp/expanding-our-workforce/

Total Triage is a new approach recommended by NHS England, to improve access to services. The main purpose of Total Triage is to:

• communicate with patients in a timely way
• enhance the quality of care our patients receive
• ensure they are given the most appropriate appointment or advice to meet their needs.

Similar to the appointment process before we launched Total Triage where you would book one appointment per health concern, if you have multiple health concerns, we advise that you fill in one triage form per concern.

This is so that the GP can make an accurate assessment of each individual concern. Please note that you may be directed to an alternative service or professional to help with your health concern, for example, A&E, your local pharmacy etc.

Please ensure you provide as much information as possible per form.

Appointment requests will receive a response within one working day. If you need to be seen on the same day, you will receive a call from the practice. If you need to book a routine appointment, you will receive a text message with a link for you to book.

Administrative requests will be acknowledged within two working days.

Please don’t re-submit the same form. If you haven’t received a response within the relevant timeframes mentioned above, please call the practice directly.

You can access the form in several ways:

• Website: https://www.stpaulspartners.nhs.uk/https://www.stpaulspartners.nhs.uk/ 
• NHS App: Login to your NHS App, click ‘Services’, click ‘Contact your GP about a health problem’.
• Text message: You will have received a text message with the link when Total Triage has been sent from 15th September 2025, if you still have the text message please click the link to access the form.
  • No username and/or password is required to complete and submit the form. Forms can also be completed on behalf of a patient, for example, by a relative or carer.

If the GP feels you need to be seen on the same day, you will be expected to attend your appointment. If you are unable to attend the same day appointment offered, you will be directed to the Urgent Care Centre or another Service that is appropriate.

If you are unable to/do not want to attend out of hours services, you will need to submit another form the following day.

Please make sure you provide your availability when you complete the form so that we can take this into account when offering an appointment.

No, if you visit or call the surgery, you will still need to fill out the same triage form so that you can be assessed in the same way, as the process is the same for all patients. The receptionist or call handler will need to go through the form with you to capture all the required details.

If you/the patient cannot fill the form in for whatever reason, calling the practice would be the best option as it avoids an unnecessary visit to the practice.

Forms can be submitted between the hours of 8am and 6.30pm.

The Triage Team assessing your request will determine who the most appropriate healthcare professional is for your needs.

This means you may not see a GP during your appointment, instead you may see one of the following:

• First Contact Physiotherapist – a highly experienced physiotherapist who can manage most conditions without needing to involve your GP, and can request investigations, in some cases joint injections and prescribe medication.
• Mental Health Practitioner – a specialist mental health nurse who can support with patients experiencing mental health problems such as low mood, OCD, depression, anxiety or stress.
• Clinical Pharmacist – a clinical pharmacist can provide advice in relation to medicine use and can also prescribe medication as and when needed.

Alternatively, you may be directed to services outside the GP practice, for example, your local pharmacy.

For any administrative queries/requests such as repeat prescriptions, test results etc. they should be submitted by clicking the ‘admin query’ button.

NHS App is the quickest and most efficient way to request repeat prescriptions and view your test results.

If you haven’t already downloaded the NHS App please click here: NHS App