If you or your family need urgent medical care when the surgery is closed, call the new 111 number if you feel your call is urgent but does not require an ambulance or a visit to A & E. If you call the surgery number out-of-hours, you will be redirected to a message telling you to call 111.
This service is available when your GP practice is closed.
Walk-in Centre
Visit the NHS Walk in Centre on London Road (next to the BBC), a nurse led drop-in service offering health advice, information and treatment of minor ailments by experienced NHS nurses and health information advisors. It is open 365 days a year from 07:00 – 21:00.
Pharmacy Service
Your local pharmacy can also offer you advice, and treatment if required for a range of minor ailments. Under the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) if you are exempt from prescription charges you will be able to get the same medicines the GP would have prescribed free of charge for head lice, temperature/fever, sore throat, earache, teething pain and pain relief for toothache.
Out-of-hours services are generally busy so please think carefully before asking to see a doctor and only do so if you genuinely cannot wait until the surgery re-opens.
In a genuine emergency you should call 999. Chest pains and / or shortness of breath constitute an emergency.