From Monday 3rd February we will be trialling a change in the opening hours of our online request forms for both urgent and routine appointments.
At present, these forms are available between the hours of 9:00am-11:00am, and 2:00pm-4:00pm.
From Monday, these forms will be available from 8:00am-12:00pm ONLY.
We hope that this change will enable us to effectively prioritise and manage patients with urgent clinical needs earlier in the day, and to reduce the frequency with which the forms are closed for issues relating to capacity.
Please rest assured that we are open to reverting to the current operating procedure should this change not produce the desired results, but we are also committed to exploring new ways of working that accurately reflect demand, and in particular the fact the majority of our initial patient contacts are now taking place via online submissions.
Our phone lines will remain open as normal between 9:00am-12:00pm and 2:00pm-4:45pm, however we do ask that requests for urgent appointments are made BEFORE MIDDAY wherever possible.