We would like to wish all of our patients a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. 

Our opening hours over the Christmas period are listed below: 

Monday 23^rd December – Open as usual

Tuesday 24^th December – Open as usual

Wednesday 25^th December – Closed

Thursday 26^th December – Closed

Friday 27^th December – Open as usual

Monday 30^th December – Open as usual

Tuesday 31^st December – Open as usual

Wednesday 1^st January – Closed

Thursday 2^nd January – Open as usual

Friday 3^rd January – Open as usual 

As with any weekend or bank holiday if you are unwell during this period or for example you run out of medication then please call 111 who can arrange prescriptions and also make appointments for you with a GP if you need to be seen. 

We would like to remind patients that you can request your prescriptions up to 7 days before they are next due and to allow enough time for the surgery to process your prescription but also for your Chemist to get this ready for you. 

As we have now entered the winter period there are lots more viruses/illness about which puts more demand on the surgery for appointments.  During this busy period the GP’s will continue to access your medical triage assessment forms and make a clinical decision on which patients need to be seen face to face/via telephone and how soon the appointment needs to be.  We ask that you be patient with us during this busy period, as unlike in summer for example, where you may have been able to be seen the same day for a non-urgent issue at this busy time you may have to wait longer for an appointment.  This decision is made by the GP’s and we ask that you bear this in mind when speaking to our receptionists as they are not the ones who make the decisions but are often the ones that patients take their frustrations out on.  

From 2^nd January 2025 anyone having an operation at Hereford Hospital will be booked appointments at the hospital if you need to have dressing changes. This new services has been created as any hospital doing an operation is commissioned (paid) to do the operation but also the dressings that may be needed.  In Herefordshire the GP practices were being expected to provide dressing appointments for patients following operations even though we do not actually get funded to provide this service.  Dressings can take anything from 10 minutes to an hour depending on how complex they are so the hospital dressings are taking a lot of our nurses time.  We hope that eventually the GP practices will be funded to provide these dressings, so patients aren’t inconvenienced by having to travel back to hospitals but currently this is the service that is available.  We are currently awaiting further information regarding Worcestershire Hospitals. 

All practices in Herefordshire have agreed to participate in joint action with the British Medical Association.  This is NOT about pay but about General Practice receiving the amount of funding needed to employ enough doctors, nurses and other staff to provide sufficient appointments and for our staff to work safely.  This joint action across the country is aiming for the government to look at General Practice and reconsider the amount of funding it receives.  This is not industrial action, we are not on strike.

The BMA recommend a safe working for General Practice to be 25 patient contacts per day per clinician and once at capacity to divert patients to local urgent care.

We are working very hard to ensure as little disruption to our service as possible but on occasion we may reach capacity and patients will be asked to call 111.  

The decision to take action has not been taken lightly. All practices in Herefordshire met and discussed options at length.

Sick children, vulnerable or palliative patients will not be turned away as patient safety is still our priority.

In the meantime please continue to use our service as normal and rest assured that patient care is still our priority.

We thank you for your understanding, we are hopeful that the issues can be resolved quickly.