Carrington House Surgery

First Contact Physio

0nline appointments to see our Physio will be available to book online from Monday 2nd December, you need to have patient access to use this service.
What is a first contact physio appointment? 
First Contact Practitioners (FCPs) are physiotherapists usually based in GP surgeries. They can assess and diagnose what’s happening, Give expert advice on how best to manage your condition and refer on to specialist services if necessary.
If you have further questions please call the surgery.

Referrals

Online access to your NHS referrals

Log in

If you’ve been referred to a specialist through the NHS e-Referral Service, you can
Log in to:  

Practice process for referrals

NHS referrals

If as a result of an appointment your clinician feels you need an NHS referral you will receive a contact (by text or letter) from the surgery within 7 – 10 days either with your appointment details or with instructions on how to book your appointment. Please note for NHS referrals once the referral has been done GP practices do not have control over appointments. How to change appointments and are other common queries are explained in the section below on NHS referrals, 

Private referrals

Please let us know at the outset of your practice consultation if you want to discuss a private referral. You can book a private consultation yourself with your chosen specialist, once you know which type of specialist you plan to see. A referral letter for your specialist will be available to collect from reception 5 working days after your consultation, unless otherwise discussed in your practice consultation. Please note you can book your private appointment before you collect your referral letter. Links to information on private care can be found at the bottom of the page.

Speak to our secretaries for any queries about referrals

Please ring the main surgery number 01494 523211 and select option 4 between the hours of 8.30 and 15.30 on Monday to Friday to speak with the secretary if you have any queries about referrals.

NHS referrals

Hospital appointments

Information on how to manage your NHS hospital appointment can be found under “How to change your appointment details, change or cancel your appointment, or cancel your referral” (outpatient local support) under

Your two options to manage hospital appointments

In brief, GP practices do not have any control over the appointments system once they have done the referral, so you are always best contacting the hospital directly with any appointment issues. A summary of your two options with managing hospital appointments is found below.

NHS e-referral service
You can use the NHS e-Referral Service if you have received a letter saying you can use this system.

Contact the hospital directly
You can book, cancel or change a hospital appointment by contacting a hospital directly by phone. There are links to local hospital contact details under

Other common NHS referral topics

Other topics are covered below:

Contacting the patient advice and liaison service

If you are unable to manage your appointment satisfactorily using the NHS e-referral service and contacting the hospital directly, then you can contact the PALS team associated with the hospital you have been referred to. Their contact details can be found under

Community services referrals (including to the physiotherapy team)

Once a referral has been completed by a GP practice (if a self-referral route is not available) then the organisation you have been referred to takes over full responsibility for this referral including any follow up appointments. If you have any issues including around delays in appointments or needing to change an appointment you should contact the organisation directly. There is further information including contact details for some of the common local community services under

Waiting times and operation information

You can find local hospital outpatient waiting times and information on the operations/ procedures they undertake, see under

If you require more prolonged treatment (such as surgery) remember if you do choose a hospital further away than your local hospital that if you decide to switch back to your local hospital this is not a quick process and can disrupt your treatment.

Urgent referral pathway to exclude cancer

Early diagnosis of a disease may mean more effective treatment and better outcomes. For this reason, where there is a possibility that symptoms could indicate cancer, people are referred urgently to see a specialist (on what is called a ‘two-week pathway’). The great majority of people referred this way do not have cancer, but it is important to see a specialist as soon as possible to confirm or exclude a cancer diagnosis.

This is explained further under

This includes information on what to expect and who to contact if there are any issues with getting the appointment within 2 weeks. There are also links to other support available.

Treatments which may not funded under the NHS

Some treatments may not be funded under the NHS and these are included under

Self-referrals pathways

Self-referral involves accessing NHS health services and other support yourself without needing an appointment with your GP. This is explained further by patient info Self-referral | Patient.

Local and national self-referral pathways

Local and national self-referral routes can be found under the relevant topic, see

Commonly used self-referral pathways

Some of the more commonly used local self- referrals have been listed in the section “Outside practice self-referrals” under

Private referrals

Private care contact details

Contact details for local private hospitals can be found under

Private referrals

A number of aspects of private referrals are covered under

Private care can be a complex world to navigate. Some of the questions commonly asked of GPs about private medical care (hospital based) are included under

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