Cavendish Health Centre

We offer a variety of appointment types including telephone appointments, Skype/video appointments, email consultations and face to face appointments at the practice.

​

Remember that you may not always need to see a GP as there are services you can self-refer to or other places where you can obtain expert professional advice (see “Who Do I See” section on our homepage).

​

We have tried to listen to feedback that there is a long wait for routine appointments and have responded by changing our booking system. The demand on our surgery has increased dramatically since pre covid times.  In addition, there has been a huge increase in missed appointments which is making our wait time longer. We had 244 missed appointments in September.  

We have made changes to our appointment system to make it more accessible and hopefully reduce the wait time. Appointments are now released in advance: at 4 weeks, 2 weeks and 48 hours before the appointment time. This should mean you won’t have such a long wait for an appointment but can also book in advance if this is what suits you. 

Of course, we always have access on the day for urgent problems via our duty doctor.

Please help us to help you:
 

• Cancel your appointment if it is no longer needed so it can be given to someone else.

• Please be ready to explain to the receptionist the nature of your problem when requesting an appointment (urgent or routine) – this is so that our team can book you in directly with the appropriate clinician which may also mean an earlier appointment

There are also routine appointments available at hub practices with short waiting times: Connaught Square and Pimlico (evening and weekend)

• GP (telephone)

• Advanced Nurse Practitioner (Pimlico only)

• Nurse

• Healthcare Assistant

• Clinical Pharmacist

​

How to Make an Appointment

​Appointments may be booked in several ways:

​

• By Phone - Patients can book an appointment by calling reception on 020 7487 5244.

​

• In Person - Patients can visit the surgery and book an appointment with the receptionist.

 

At the moment we have paused online booking of appointments to enable our team to better direct you to the right clinician that can help you, as soon as possible. Online bookings did not allow any triage of appointments. We are keeping this under review at the moment.

​

Do You Need to See a GP?

​

Please consider whether you need to see a GP or whether it will be more efficient for you to seek advice from one of our wider team members. Examples include:

1. First Choice Practitioner - At the practice we are lucky to be able to offer directly bookable sessions with senior physiotherapists for your musculoskeletal needs

2. Healthshare - we are partnered with Healthshare too and they provide a range of musculoskeletal services. You can self-refer to them via their website by clicking here

3. Practice Pharmacist - our friendly practice pharmacy team can help with medication reviews and medication queries as well as minor ailments

4. Mental Health - you can self refer to IAPT for help with anxiety and depression. Click here

5. Our nursing and HCA team can help with asthma and diabetes and mental health checks, wounds, dressings, immunisations, cervical screening, phlebotomy, annual health checks and much more.

6. For antenatal care you can self-refer to your hospital of choice - see here

7. For sexual health screening and contraceptive advice please see London SHL and Mortimer Market websites.

​

GP Appointments

​

Appointments are booked at 10 minute intervals so please try to bear in mind each appointment can only deal with one issue.

Longer appointments can sometimes be arranged in special circumstances. Please tell the receptionist if your appointment is for more than one person (e.g. if bringing children, or if you need an interpreter) so that adequate time is allocated.

Although you will be registered with one doctor, you may see any doctor you choose. However we recommend you try to see the same doctor each time, as far as possible, so that you have better continuity of care.