Appointments - 0131 651 1000

You will be asked by the call handler to give a brief detail of your reason for requesting an appointment.  This is to ensure you are given an appointment with the most appropriate professional. There may be times when you may not wish to say what your problem is and we understand this. We have face to face and telephone appointments available. 

If you wish to see a doctor or nurse you must make an appointment. This can be done in person or by telephone between 08:00 and 18:00 Monday to Friday.

If you wish to see a particular doctor, please tell the receptionist. In general, it is helpful if you try and see the same doctor each time. If the surgeries are fully booked but your problem is medically urgent, please tell the receptionist who will arrange for you to be seen.

Appointments with doctors are normally made at ten minute intervals; however some appointments unexpectedly run over the allotted time. If a surgery is running behind time the reception staff will keep you informed. If you require a longer appointment, this can be arranged. When more than one member of your family needs to be seen, please make a separate appointment for each person.

Certain appointments may require longer time e.g. insurance medical examinations. Please tell the receptionist when making such appointments and remember to book early.

If you are unable to keep an appointment, please contact the surgery to cancel so that the appointment can be offered to someone else.

Please arrive on time for you appointment and report to the reception desk.

Telephone appointments can be made with the doctor. You will be asked to give brief details of your request and a contact telephone number and will be given a 1 hour time slot when the doctor (or nurse if appropriate) will call you back. 

Things that are suitable to discuss with your doctor in a telephone appointment include; blood/test results, medication reviews, mental health reviews. 

Please note that the doctors are not in the practice every day and you may have to wait for your preferred GP to be available.

These calls are for acute medical problems and are dealt with by whoever is the duty doctor at the time.  The reason for your request will be taken by the call handler and passed to the duty doctor who will usually call you back. 

If the duty doctor feels your request does not require a response on the day, the call handler may be asked to contact you to advise you of this. 

We recognise that sometimes it is not easy to see us during working hours, so we are now offering an extended access service on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

The aim of the service is to offer a greater range of appointments for routine problems. This service is for routine medical conditions and is not an emergency service. If you become unwell out with our core opening hours, of 8am-6pm, please call NHS 24 on 111.

Please speak to our reception team to book an extended access service appointment.

Requests for home visits should be made only if the patient is too ill or infirm to come to the surgery. If possible please telephone 0131 651 1000 before 10:30 when requesting a home visit as this allows the doctors on call to plan their visits. The receptionist will ask about the problem; this is to enable the doctors to give priority to urgent cases. If you think the problem is an emergency, please tell the receptionist who will arrange for you to speak to a doctor.

Please remember, a doctor can see up to eight patients in the surgery in the time it takes to do one home visit.

Requests for home visits made later than 10.30 will be referred to one of the doctors. A visit will be offered only if the problem is urgent; any non-urgent visit may be arranged for another day.

This is a GP training practice. Qualified doctors who are specialising in General Practice after training in hospitals join our practice for 6 months and a year at a time and work as equal members of the medical staff.

Medical Students

Fourth year medical students are frequently attached to the practice. You will be informed if the doctor has a student with him/her. If you would prefer to see the doctor alone, please say so. Individual medical students occasionally have access to medical records. If you have any objections to this, please let us know.

As Mackenzie Medical Centre is associated with the University of Edinburgh Medical School, we host a range of medical students at the practice.  Students can be sitting in with the GP or nurse in surgery or we do also ask patients if they will meet students to chat about their health or to be examined.

If you are interested in helping with teaching in some way, please let the practice know.  Students value patient contact immensely.

There are certain conditions that we teach that we are often actively recruiting for.  This includes: headaches, stroke, asthma, COPD, heart failure, IBS, IBD, MI/ angina, stomach problems including gallstones and reflux.

There is also a university programme for recruiting patients.  If you enjoy helping at the practice, you may also enjoy helping with this.  Details regarding this are below:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/medicine-vet-medicine/edinburgh-medical-school/centre-for-medical-education/edinburgh-patient-partnership/becoming-a-patient-partner

It is important that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment, this will allow that appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you are unable to attend, you will be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.

You can also complete our appointment cancellation notification request form. This can only be used if your appointment has been arranged for more than 24 hours in advance. (excluding weekends and public holidays). You can also text to cancel your appointment.

Please attend your appointment on time, if you are late you may not be seen. If you are not seen you will not be able to rearrange your appointment until the next working day-except in the event of an medical emergency that requires immediate attention.

If you would prefer the presence of a chaperone during any of your appointments please inform the receptionist when you first arrive for your appointment or inform the doctor or nurse.

Interpreter

If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see your doctor please notify the receptionist and she will arrange this for you.

We have a texting service which allows you to receive confirmation and reminders about your appointments.

To have this service you will need to register by completing a consent form.

Please remember to update your contact details with us when you change address, telephone numbers and email address.

If you are cycling to your appointment, there are two bike rack locations near to the practice entrance. These are marked in blue on the map below.

Please note these bike racks are not owned by the surgery and, like all other places where you may park your bike, you are doing so at your own risk.