Demand for our services

The NHS is currently experiencing an overwhelming and unsustainable surge in demand. With our local NHS counterparts now declaring critical status, as a practice we are feeling the impact of this and are seeing unprecedented numbers of requests to assess and treat acutely unwell people, and in particular, those who are most vulnerable, including children. This demand is currently overwhelming our telephone lines, as well as creating a tremendous pressure on our clinical and administrative teams who are doing their very best to care for as many patients as possible, as safely as possible.

We are asking for our patients to support us in creating additional capacity to care for these unwell individuals by doing the following:

• Considering if your concern is truly urgent in nature, and whether an appointment is clinically necessary or just opportunistic; we are seeing a huge demand in requests for urgent appointments ‘just in case’ around the festive bank holiday period.
• Using online resources to assess your symptoms for urgency, such as https://111.nhs.uk/ or https://www.what0-18.nhs.uk/ for parents and children.
• Contacting us via email for administrative requests
• Using other services where they are available; our reception team will be able to direct you appropriately and we ask that you please follow their advice. We have a huge network of services in Suffolk that offer specialised care by dedicated clinicians. This is often more efficient than waiting for a GP appointment, the end result of which is likely to be the GP referring you to the same service, and ultimately delaying your care.
• Being kind and courteous to our staff who are doing their utmost in these difficult circumstances to ensure we provide the best service we can to as many of our 13,000 patients as possible.

Everyone at The Guildhall & Barrow Surgery would like to thank you for your continued support and patience as we navigate these trying times, and look forward to a return to being able to provide our normal service provision.

The Guildhall & Barrow Surgery