Please be advised that, until further notice, our dispensary at both locations will be closed from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM, Monday to Friday.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.

Thank you for your continued support! 

You call your local surgery hoping for an appointment, only to be told there is a wait, or maybe you walk past and notice the waiting room looks quiet.

“How busy can they be?” you wonder. “Why can’t someone just see me now?”

It’s a fair question.

At first glance, general practice might appear calm – but that quiet exterior hides a hive of activity happening behind the scenes.  Let us take you on a quick journey through what is really going on at your local GP surgery.

The work you do not see - General practice today goes far beyond face-to-face appointments.  The idea of a GP simply seeing patients every 10 minutes all day is a thing of the past.

A huge part of a GP's day is spent on essential clinical work that patients do not usually see.  For example, a single practice might handle up to 300 prescription requests each day – and each one needs to be reviewed carefully to ensure it’s safe and appropriate.

This includes checking doses, test results, recent hospital letters, and more.  It is thoughtful clinical work, not just ticking boxes.

GPs also spend time reviewing blood tests, scans, and other investigations – often needing to contact patients urgently based on what they find.  Sometimes, this means spending an entire morning just trying to reach people who aren’t picking up the phone.

Telephone calls, referrals & ongoing care - Behind every quiet desk is often a long list of calls to make – checking in on patients, discussing results, following up on symptoms, or supporting those with complex needs.  When people do not answer, it means more time spent leaving messages or writing letters.

Referrals to hospital or specialist services are not quick either.  They often involve detailed write-ups, supporting documentation, and precise clinical coding – all done by the GP after your appointment ends.

Caring for patients beyond the surgery - Some patients need more regular, intensive support – such as those with long-term conditions, mental health needs, or complex social situations.  Their care often takes place outside of appointments but includes regular reviews and urgent decision-making.

GPs also take part in multi-disciplinary team meetings, where they work with district nurses, mental health teams, social workers, and others to make sure patients get the coordinated care they need – whether for safeguarding, palliative care, or dementia support.

The whole practice team at work – It is not just GPs working hard behind the scenes. Every smooth-running surgery depends on a whole team:

• Practice Managers keep everything on track – from HR and operations to IT systems, buildings, compliance, and more.
• Receptionists, administrators, and secretaries are constantly handling calls, booking appointments, updating records, preparing referrals, and coordinating care.
• Prescription clerks, dispensers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals ensure that everything from repeat meds to wound care is delivered efficiently and safely.

General Practice Is evolving - Yes, the demand is high – and it is growing.  But general practice is also adapting.

Technology is helping us provide care in new and more flexible ways – like online consultations, telephone calls, and remote monitoring.  Teams are growing to include clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, podiatrists and social prescribers, helping us manage more within the practice and offer faster, more specialised care.

So why does the waiting room look so quiet?  Because today’s "waiting room" is not just the one with chairs and magazines.  It is digital and behind-the-scenes – filled with patient queries, prescription reviews, results to check, hospital letters to action, and calls to return.

When you are told there is a wait, or the waiting room seems empty, rest assured:

General practice has not stopped, it is just working in different – and often invisible – ways.

 Your GP and the wider team are still here, still working, and always doing their best to deliver safe, timely, and compassionate care.

Between January & March 2025, we recorded 915 missed appointments.  That’s time lost, resources unused, & others missing out on much-needed care.

Missed appointments are a common & recurring issue — but they don’t have to be. If you can’t make it, please let us know in advance so we can offer your appointment to someone else.

Let’s work together to make every appointment count.

Thank you.

Featuring in our spring newsletter:

1. Covid spring boosters
2. PPG goes virtual
3. Bank holidays and protected learning times
4. Staff starters and leavers
5. Patient notice from Dr Harper
6. Pharmacy first
7. Patient triage
8. Our last quarter in numbers
9. Spring health tips
10. Ways to contact us and stay up to date

GNWMP Newsletter - Greens Norton & Weedon Medical Practice

A patient notice with regards to Dr Sebastian (Ned Harper).

Some GPs are currently trialling an AI app with our clinical system, to help us document consultations.

This requires the app to listen to the consultation and transcribe notes, which are then saved to your records. The recording is deleted.

It has been approved by the NHS, and meets the Data Protection Act and GDPR rules. If you do not wish to participate, please let your doctor know when they ask for consent.

To find out more click here.

Data & Privacy FAQs

Please ensure we have the most up to date contact details for yourself, these include name, address, mobile telephone number, landline and email address.  These need to be your own details for all patients over the age of 16.

To update your details, select admin request on patient triage - https://accurx.nhs.uk/patient-initiated/k83066 or email the surgery at gnwmpadmin@nhs.net - thank you.

Routine GP appointments will now be bookable 28 days, 14 days, and 2 days in advance.  They will not be available to book online. To book, patients will need to use patient triage (scan the QR code or visit our appointment page), by telephone or in person at front desk.  This is to enable our team to care navigate you to the most suitable service/clinician, not always the GP. 

The first available appointment will be booked for you and sent via SMS/email.  When making a request, please ensure you advise your availability, although this may affect what we can book for you. If your availability is really restrictive, we may ask you to telephone the surgery to discuss further.

We believe this will significantly improve your experience with us.  Our goal is to provide you with the highest quality of care and service, and we are confident that these improvements will help us achieve that.

If you have any questions or need assistance in booking an appointment, please do not hesitate to reach out to one of our Reception Administrators who would be happy to assist you.

The surgery are only offer blood tests for tests requested via the surgery. All other bloods will need to be booked at Northampton General Hospital (NGH).

To book an appointment at NGH:

• Adults only - https://www.swiftqueue.co.uk/northampton.php 
• Children - https://www.swiftqueue.co.uk/northampton.php

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.

We appreciate your frustrations as many of you struggle to obtain an appointment where it felt previously you were able to get one more freely. 

General Practice has had to change over the past few years due to lack of funding & forever changing targets set by NHS England & the Government. But, we have been busy, delivering 7️⃣,4️⃣9️⃣9️⃣ appointments to our patient population in April, as well as unseen work not shown here. 

General Practice existed decades before the NHS arrived, & over time, GP practices have had to adapt, modernise, use technology, & embrace the talents of the multidisciplinary team. 

You can still book appointments over front desk or over the telephone, but only when we have one available. The faults with the NHS, lack of appointments, & demand, are not the responsibility of our hard working reception staff.

Only a percentage of our appointments are now available to book online, this is to ensure we can care navigate & signpost patients to the most appropriate clinician, not always the GP. 

Appointments with GPs are bookable by reception on the day, 7 days & 14 days in advance depending on need, but when they are booked we have no choice but to direct you elsewhere & to utilise online services to help you. 

Please #BeKind to #TeamGNWMP, we are all doing our best to help 💙🌈

For some years, practices throughout Northamptonshire have been asked to organise work that should, by right, be completed either by the Hospitals or the Community Trusts (NHFT), even though no additional resources were offered to help us do this.

Unfortunately, mounting primary care challenges mean this activity can no longer be sustained. Our practices are working harder than ever, and some are reaching breaking points. 90% of patient contacts occur in primary care, even though we get just 8% of the NHS budget.

Northamptonshire’s population is experiencing increasingly complex challenges that must be supported, so we can no longer commit to conducting unfunded activity that should be completed elsewhere. After much consideration, practices right across the county have advised the leadership that they can no longer undertake this unfunded activity.

From 1st May 2024, we are asking the Hospitals and NHFT to complete all their own work. We will return correspondence to them where necessary. If needed, we aim to direct you to the best hospital point of contact to help resolve your issue. Meanwhile, if you have any concerns or comments about these changes, then please email them to the address below: northantsicb.primarycareteam@nhs.net

• Around 30.5 million standard (non-COVID-19 vaccination) appointments were booked in February 2024, with an average of 1.45m appointments being delivered per working day. This is lower than the average of 1.48m appointments per working day the previous month.
• An average of 1.40m appointments per day were booked in the past year (March 2023– February 2024).
• The number of COVID-19 vaccination appointments decreased significantly from about 11,700 in January 2024 to approximately 140 in February 2024.
• In terms of access, the proportion of appointments booked to take place the same day has decreased slightly from the previous month: 43.5% of appointments in February 2024 were booked to take place on the same day, compared to almost 45% in January 2024.

Appointments booked to take place face to face stayed the same – about 67% of appointments in both January 2024 and February 2024. 45.2% of appointments were delivered by a GP in February 2024: a slight decrease since the previous month (45.5%).

• There are 32 fewer fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs in February 2024 than January 2024, the first month showing a fall in FTE numbers after seven months of sustained increases. We have the equivalent of 1,862 fewer fully qualified full-time GPs than we did in September 2015.
• The number of GP practices in England has decreased by 105 over the past year – reflecting a long-term trend of closures as well as mergers. This fall in both staff numbers and GP practice coincides with a rise in patients: as of February 2024, there was another record-high of 63.20 million patients registered with practices in England – an average of 10,018 patients registered per practice.
• As a result, each full-time equivalent GP is now responsible for an average of 2,298 patients. This is an increase of 360 patients per GP, or nearly 19%, since 2015, demonstrating the ever-mounting workload in general practice

Download the latest NHS App update.

The new Pharmacy First scheme has launched, meaning you can now get treatment for 7 common ailments directly from your pharmacist instead of needing your GP. 

The 7 conditions are:

• impetigo
• ear ache
• sinusitis
• sore throats
• insect bites
• shingles
• uncomplicated urine infection

Welcome to our new website. 

Through our website, we hope to improve our services for our patients and enable you to find information you require.  If you would like us to feature anything on our website please let us know via email to gnwmpadmin@nhs.net.