Dronfield Medical Practice

09/10/2025

⚠️ There has been an accident on the A61 this morning, which has severely impacted traffic between Chesterfield and Sheffield. Some of our staff are stuck in long traffic queues and therefore we may be a bit late seeing you for early appointments. We are sorry for the inconvenience and ask for your patience. 😔

04/10/2025

First flu clinic done. Thank you to all the staff that gave up their Saturday morning, and to all patients who braved the weather. We delivered 800 vaccines in three hours. 🙏🏼 💨 🍁🍃💉

02/10/2025

In light of the highly publicised changes to General Practice, we would like to clarify that there has been no increase to GP practice funding in real terms. There are no more doctors to provide appointments and no more rooms if we had funds to have more. The additional funding that was received didn’t cover the increases in the minimum wage and national insurance.

We could liken ourselves to the sailors on the titanic trying to get passengers onto the lifeboats. There aren't enough, it's not our fault the boat (NHS) is sinking. We're trying our best to keep you safe.

What can you do to help 🙏🏼

▫️Self care for mild or self limiting illness.

▫️Use your local pharmacist or 111.

▫️Self refer to physio for muscular problems.

▫️Eye problems are best seen by your optician.

▫️If you already have an appointment booked with us please wait for that appointment to discuss ongoing issues.

▫️Use consultation time efficiently. Don’t waste time discussing problems you encounter in the NHS unless they are clinically relevant. We sympathise but often our hands are tied.

▫️Please phone hospitals directly about hospital appointments/issues. GPs have no control or influence on hospital waiting times. It's much more powerful for the patient to phone and explain any change in circumstance and saves GP time for primary care problems.

▫️If patients are under the Community Mental Health Team and have ongoing concerns or crisis's about mental health, please contact the CMHT duty worker.

▫️Please try and use the service appropriately and equitably. Those taking up multiple appointments reduce access to others in need.

▫️Be polite to our team. Our team work hard with the resources given to us by the government. We recognise that sometimes capacity does not meet demand, and there is a limit to how many patients can be safely seen each day. Please be kind.

01/10/2025

We are hearing that patients are interpreting from the mainstream media that they now have a right to book an appointment directly into our clinical systems. This is misleading.

The new contract change relates to the requirement for patients to be able to contact their GP practice online during core hours. This may be to request an appointment, or a fit note or other administrative reasons. The practice does not have to provide an appointment, it could provide advice or signposting, but they do have to provide a response within one working day.

Nothing is new for us. It is business as usual. We therefore ask patients to continue contacting us as normal. 🙏🏼

30/09/2025

There will be a lot of misinformation, political spin and contrasting opinions in the press in the next few days. We’re going to pop on a few posts to help explain and inform.

Our appointments 📆
We take requests for routine appointments via phone, in person, online, and via some apps. This has been the case for some time. We ask those with a routine request to contact us after 10am to allow those needing an urgent GP on the day appointment to get through quickly when we open.

We ask those needing an urgent on the day GP appointment to contact us early - as close to 8am as possible. This is to allow our clinicians to review the request and if necessary arrange for the patient to attend our ‘sit and wait’ urgent clinic.

All patients will be given the same care regardless of which method they contact the practice.
But we would prefer a phone call to the practice. We value the relationship we have with our patients as people, and pick up subtleties that may be lost in a form.

Please refer to our appointment page for more information. https://www.dronfieldhealth.co.uk/appointments

We sincerely hope that our patients can book both a GP and a haircut with relative ease.
👨🏻‍⚕️💇🏽‍♀️💇🏻👩🏼‍⚕️ We are doing the best we can with the £2.37 we get per patient per week.

30/09/2025

Dronfield Medical Practice are aware of the current news interviews discussing GP online access.

In August 2024 we made some changes that allowed us to offer a routine GP appointment, usually within a fortnight. This is not always the case elsewhere.

We ask that our patients continue accessing care within our current systems; our existing systems work! Phone call waiting times average at about 6 minutes, and we have a call back system that you can use.

If you need an urgent on the day GP appointment, please call as close to 8am as possible.

If you need a routine appointment please wait until after 10am.

Online requests do have a place, but ideally we would prefer to speak to our patients, and we value the relationship that we have with you as people. By calling the practice, we can have a conversation with you, capture insights not obvious in a form and can attempt to arrange a mutually convenient appointment at first contact.

We recognise that sometimes capacity does not meet demand, but our team work hard with the resources given to us by the government. Nonetheless we are proud of the care that we give, and we continue to rate very highly in the GP patient survey.

Please work with us and 'keep calm and carry on' using the system as you have always done. 🙏🏼

25/09/2025

If eligible, please contact us to book your appointment for a NHS flu vaccine, RSV vaccine or COVID booster. 🙏🏼

15/09/2025

We are sorry we have a series of unplanned absences within the reception team today. Phone waits will be longer than usual as a result, so please be patient with us. We hope to be closer to normal staffing levels tomorrow, and suggest you contact us then if your query can wait.

We are really sorry for the inconvenience and do appreciate your understanding.

Illustration by Aga Więckowska

10/09/2025

We are closed this afternoon for training. If you need urgent care whilst we are shut, please call 111 or go online at: https://111.nhs.uk/

We reopen at 8am tomorrow.

03/09/2025

28/08/2025

This autumn patients eligible for a COVID booster are:

✅ Those who are immunosuppressed.
✅ Those who are 75 years old and over.
✅ Those living in a care home for older adults.

If you are eligible, this will be offered alongside your flu appointment in surgery.

The flu vaccination eligibility remains unchanged.

We will be contacting eligible patients via SMS or phone in the next few days to offer you an appointment.

Image © 2025 Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) Together