Services

Opening hours

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
08:30 - 13:00
14:30 - 18:00
Lunchtime: Phone for emergencies only

Wednesday
08:30 - 13:00
Afternoon: Phone for emergencies only

Saturday and Sunday
Closed

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The doors are closed between 13:00 and 14:30 each day and after 13:00 on Wednesdays. This is to allow the doctors to do home visits for elderly and house-bound patients, and to provide protected administrative time. If you need to speak to us urgently during this time, a member of staff can be contacted on a mobile phone. Call 028 9027 9880 and follow the instructions in the recorded message.

We are usually closed on public holidays. Please ask us or check the website for further information.

Click here to see our address and location map.

If you need medical advice when we are closed, contact the Belfast GP out-of-hours service on 028 9074 4447.

Appointments

Appointments with the doctors are available every morning and afternoon. Appointments with the nurses are available every morning and most afternoons. You can make a booking at reception or by calling us on 028 9027 9880. In the future, certain appointments should become available for online booking.

Standard appointments last 10 minutes. to ensure those who have an appointment after you are not kept waiting, please arrive on time for your appointment, and be mindful of the 10 minute limit. Trying to squeeze to many things into an appointment keeps others waiting longer and can result in poorer medical care for you.

Appointments can be booked days or weeks in advance, but there are also several appointments every morning and afternoon for people who are acutely unwell. We urge you not to use these for routine medical care or as a follow-up from a previous appointment.
 

What if I am late?

If you arrive late but within your allocated appointment time, you may still have a consultation, but it will have to be shorter. For example, if you are five minutes late, your consultation will be five minutes long instead of the usual 10 minutes.

If you are more than 10 minutes late, you may have to wait until the end of that series of appointments, which can be up to two hours.

If you arrive more than 20 minutes late, you will not be seen. You will need to reschedule an appointment and this will count as a non-attendance.
 

Cancelling appointments

If you are unable to attend an appointment, please cancel it so that someone else can use it. Please give us as much notice as possible, but even notice of one hour will usually prevent the appointment being wasted. You can cancel your appointment at reception, by phone or using our website contact form.

You can read more in our article, Can't make it? Cancel it!

Prescriptions

Prescriptions are an authorisation from a doctor that allows a pharmacist to dispense medication to you that would otherwise not be available. They are printed on a green security-coded sheets of paper and can be taken to any dispensing pharmacist in order to get the medication.

Many prescriptions are issued just once to treat a short-term condition. These are sometimes called acute prescriptions.

Other prescriptions are issued on a regular basis, to treat chronic (long-term) conditions such as asthma and high blood pressure. These are known as repeat prescriptions. When the medication runs out, they can be ordered again at reception, by phone or by using the repeat prescription order form.

You can get more information about prescriptions and medication on our prescriptions page.

Telephone advice

Please phone between 8:30am and 12:30pm

You can contact the practice from 8:30am to 12:30pm to ask for a telephone call with one of the doctors or nurses. Only urgent telephone requests will be accepted after 12:30pm.

The receptionist will ask for some details about the nature of your call. This is enable prioritisation of your call and to ensure that it is directed to the right person. If you do not provide detail, your telephone call request will be treated as routine and may not be returned that day.

It can be more difficult for the doctor to diagnose you over the phone because you cannot be examined. This is especially true if it is a new problem. Please consider that a full appointment may be more appropriate.

Please note that in many cases, contacting your local pharmacist for advice can be quicker and more convenient. They may be able to issue certain treatments free of charge.

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In the event of an emergency (such as a collapse, difficulty breathing, chest pain, suspected heart attack or stroke), contact emergency services by calling 999 and asking for an ambulance.

You can find more information on the HSC emergency information page.

Home visits

Home visits are available for those who are elderly or usually unable to leave their home due to poor health. You can request a home visit by phoning reception.

It can take a lot of time to travel to and from home visits, so availability may be limited depending on the workload that day. Priority will be given to those who are most unwell.

General Healthcare

General Medical Services (GMS) is the term used to describe the range of healthcare that is provided by General Practitioners (GPs or family doctors) as part of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Old Church Practice offers the full range of healthcare services as defined under the standard General Medical Services contract, as well as a range of enhanced services.

Our services include:

• Medical advice
• Physical examinations
• Diagnosis of symptoms
• Prescribing of medication
• Health education
• Giving vaccinations
• Carrying out simple surgical procedures
• Providing ongoing care for longstanding or chronic conditions

You can consult with us regarding any aspect of your physical or mental health. If necessary, we can arrange laboratory tests, imaging investigations or referral to hospital clinics for a specialist opinion.

Referrals & investigations

If necessary, your GP can refer you to various hospital and community services for further investigtion or treatment. This could be a consultant appointment, x-ray, scan or other test in a hospital, or a community service like physiotherapy or podiatry.

Some investigations can be done in the practice (usually in the treatment room).This includes blood tests, ECG, ambulatory bloodnpressure monitoring, spirometry and other tests.

Self-referral

You can refer yourself to several services including physiotherapy, occupational therpy, podiatry and social services. To maje a referral, simply call Belfast Health and Social Care Trust Call Management on 028 9615 8100.

Waiting times

Your GP does not have any control over your place in the waiting list to see a consultant or have a procedure in hospital. Waiting times vary considerably depending on the service; from less than a month to several years for some hospital specialists.

If you need information about waiting times or an indication of when you might receive an appointment, please contact the hospital appointments office directly.

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Results

For tests carried out at the practice, it is your responsibility to contact us to obtain the results. If a result needs action urgently, we will try to contact you a limited number of times. Please respond to this contact.

For tests carried out at the hospital at the request of a consultant, results can be obtained by contacting the consultant’s secretary via the hospital switchboard.

Sexual health

You can consult with one of the GPs regarding any aspect of sexual health. there are three female GPs and two male GPs.

There are also several free sexual and reproductive healthcare clinics in Belfast. You can contact them directly for advice about sexual health, contraception and family planning. They can also fit contraceptove coils and implants.

We can perform basic testing for sexually transmitted infections. However, if you are worried about a sexually transmitted infection, it is recommended to contact the genitourinary medicine clinic at the Royal Victoria Hospital on 028 9063 4050.

Children & immunisations

You can see any GP at the practice if you are concerned about the health of your child. An unwell child can usually be seen on the same day, to avoid delay.

Immunisations

Please contact reception if you need to book immunisations for your child pr speak to your Health Visitor. You can check when immunisations are usually given on the childhood immunisation schedule.

For pre-school children, routine immunisations are usually given at two, three and four months of age, with pre-school boosters given when your child is three years and four months old.

Useful advice about caring for an unwell child and information about how to identify serious illness is available through When Should I Worry?.

Chronic disease clinics

Our practice nurses can assist with managing many long term (chronic) conditions:

• Asthma
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Diabetes
• Hypertension (high blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Heart conditions (angina, coronary artery disease, heart failure)
• Neurological conditions (epilepsy, multiple sclerosis)

If we know you have one of these conditions, you will normally be invited to an annual review. we encourage you to attend these as good quality care can help improve your quality of life.

Minor surgery & injections

Church View Medical Practice offers the following procedures:

• Cryotherapy
  This is the treatment of certain skin problems by the application of very low temperatures.
   
• Joint and soft tissue injection
  In certain cases, injection treatments can be helpful in treating pain or stiffness in musculoskeletal conditions. These are no longer available to be done in Church View Medical Practice. Instead, referrals for injections will be made to a local GP Federation Clinic or to a hospital injection clinic.
   
• Minor surgery
  This service is also no longer available in our practice and will require a referral to a hospital minor surgery clinic. Please note that purely cosmetic procedures are not available through the NHS.

Travel

You can make an appointment with our practice nurse for travel advice, including immunisations. Please note that some travel immunisations are provided by the NHS, whereas others require a private prescription, which involves paying a fee to the dispensing pharmacist.

The Fit For Travel website provides a range of information on travel health.

Medical reports & letters

The practice can prepare reports and letters that you might require. Examples include reports for insurance, driving, employment and benefits like PIP, ESA and the Blue Badge scheme.

This is not an NHS service, so a fee is payable. A list of prices is available at reception, ranging from £10 for simple letters to £70 for driving licence medicals.

Reports and letters cannot be prepared urgently and will not be prioritised above NHS work. Letters must be requested in writing, for the purposes of our record-keeping.

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Requesting copies of medical records

You may request copies of parts pf your medical records via reception. Release of medical records is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became law in the UK in May 2018.

To request your records, please complete a Subject Access Request (SAR) form at reception. This can only be completed by the person in question (or someone with the legal power to manage their affairs). We will not release medical records to anyone else without written consent.

Printing medical records consumes significant staff time and resources, so please make your request as specific as possible (for example, records from the past year, or records relating to a specific condition or incident).

We will fulfill valid and reasonable requests for medical records within 30 days (the time period specified by GDPR).

You can find information on how we use and process your data in our privacy notice and information on your rights with regard to your personal data from the Information Commissioner's Office.

How to register

If you are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, you are entitled to health care from the National Health Service (NHS). In Northern Ireland, the NHS is known as Health and Social Care (HSC).

To register at Church View Medical Practice you must live within a 5 mile radius of our building. You are welcome to register using your existing medical card or by completing a form at reception.

Accessibility

Our practice is located on the second floor of Cornerstone Medical Centre. The ground floor foyer is level with the street, and there are stairs and lifts to enable access to the second floor. All of our rooms and corridors are wheelchair accessible. Please ask for assistance if you require it.

We are happy to hear ideas for how we can improve our accessibility. You can speak to us in person, by phone or use our website contact form.

Medical students

Church View Medical Practice is a teaching practice for medical students at Queen’s University Belfast. From time to time you may be asked if a medical student can observe or lead your consultation. You may decline this at your discretion, but we would be grateful for your assistance with the education of future doctors.

GP training

The practice is also involved in training fully-qualified doctors to become General Practitioners, in partnership with the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency. They will generally work in a similar manner to the regular GPs.

Our responsibilities

At Church View Medical Practice, we aim to provide medical care in line with the General Medical Council guidance on Good Medical Practice.

We aim to do the following:

• Make the care of our patients our first concern.
• Provide a good standard of practice and care.
  This includes keeping our knowledge and skills up to date and working within the limits of our conpetence.
• Take prompt action if we think that patient safety, dignity or confort is being conpromised.
• Protect and promote the health of patients and the public.
• Treat patients as individuals and respect their dignity.
  We aim to treat patients politely and considerately and to respect patients’ right to confidentiality.
• Work in partnership with patients.
  We aim to listen to and respond to patients’ concerns and preferences, provide information in a way that can be understood, respect patients’ right to reach decisions about their care and support patients in caring for their own health.
• Work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients’ interests.
• Be honest and open and act with integrity.
• Never discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues.
• Never abuse our patients’ trust in us ot the public’s trust in the profession.
   
• We will also take reasonable steps to protect your personal information, in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Please read our privacy notice.

In return, we ask that all patients and visitors abide by these guidelines:

• Please treat our staff with the same respect that you would want to receive
• Please avoid foul or abusive language. We have a zero-tolerance policy on verbal and phyiscal abuse. Such behaviour may result in your removal from the practice.
• Please be tolerant of unavoidable delays during clinic times.
• Please contact us for the results of tests (such as blood tests, x-rays and scans) that your GP or nurse has requested. If a test was arranged by a hospital consultant, you should contact their secretary for results, via the hospital switchboard.
• Please let us know of any changes to your contact details (such as address, telephone number or email address) as soon as possible. This is important to ensure that correspondence from us and other parts of the health service gets to you as expected.

Data protection

While you are registeres with Church View Medical Practice, we will retain and process your personal data for the purposes of providing you with healthcare services. You can read more about how we use and process your data in our privacy notice

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Privacy Notice

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We have a responsibility to take care of your personal data. The practice is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became law in the UK in May 2018.

For information about using your data in medical reports and the release of medical records, please see the medical reports and letters section on this page.

You can find more information on your rights with regard to your personal data from the Information Commissioner's Office.

Complaints

We hope that you are satisfied with the service we provide. If you want to make a complaint, please contact the practice manager. You can ask for a leaflet about our complaints procedure at reception, or use our online contact form.