Appointments

To cancel your appointment:

• use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
• phone us on 01638 713109
• email us on marketcross@nhs.net

If you need to change your appointment, please contact us as soon as possible so we can rearrange your appointment and offer your existing appointment to someone else.

Some of our nurses are trained in minor illness and can assist with acute illnesses such as minor injuries, simple infections and coughs. You may be booked into one of these appointments if you require on the day help.

Our nurses also offer appointments for vaccinations, dressings, smears and much more.

The nurses and doctors prefer to practice preventative medicine as well as treating you when you fall ill.

We provide an annual review for patients who have certain health conditions. We usually will invite you for this in your month of birth and may consist of a blood test.

Certain patients may also be eligible for a NHS Health Check - NHS we regularly hold clinics and will invite you once you fit this criteria. 

If you need medical help now, use NHS 111 online or Call 111.

NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over. Call 111 if you need help for a child under 5.

Call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency. This is when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.

Please tell us:

• if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
• if you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face or by text or email
• if you need an interpreter
• if you have any other access or communication needs

If you are medically unable to visit the Surgery, please telephone or use our anima service before 10am to request a home visit. Please give full details of the problem and your address.

Please remember home visits should be regarded as a service for the genuinely housebound or seriously ill. Therefore, if you can, please come to the Surgery.

Don’t forget – in very urgent cases, or if there is a problem reaching the doctor and you do not feel you can wait, call an ambulance by dialling 999.

The Market Cross Surgery is a recognised training Practice and is involved in teaching medical students, nurses and GP registrars (qualified doctors doing specialist GP training).

Occasionally one might be present during a consultation.  If you are not happy to discuss your problem in front of a third person, please ask to see the doctor or nurse alone.

You may have an appointment with a GP registrar. Our registrars are supervised and reviewed by a senior GP throughout the day. 

How does Anima work?

1. Register

Create an account on Anima or log in using your NHS app login details

Within your account dashboard, you can see the status of any request you have made, book appointments and contact the practice.

2. Submit

Whenever you have a health concern, you complete a request on the Anima website.

You can submit requests for a variety of medical and administrative queries.

If you want to request a GP appointment please select the option “I want help with a medical issue” 

3. Review

This request is then reviewed by a Clinician the same day and an appropriate outcome is emailed to you, along with a text message.

FAQs

What are the opening times for Anima?

We aim to have Anima open from 7am every weekday.

How soon will I hear back? How will the surgery contact me?

We aim to respond to all queries on the same day.

Some more routine queries may take us a few days to get back to you. You can always check the status of your query via your Anima dashboard.

When you create an account in Anima you will be asked to give your email address and mobile number. By giving these details you are consenting to be contacted by the practice. Only by logging into your anima account will you be able to see the response in full, therefore ensuring complete confidentiality between the practice and yourself.

Can my children have anima accounts

Anima accounts can be created by patients 16 years and over. Anyone under that age should be attached to parent/ guardians account as a dependant but children over the age of 13 years can be considered for their own account. This consideration is based on guidelines called 'Gillick Competency' where it is recognised that children of a certain age may be mature enough to make decisions about things that affect them.

Can we use a shared email address to sign up to Anima?

We would recommend using separate email addresses to sign up to Anima. If you would like to use the same email address then one person will need to sign up to Anima using the email address and add the other person as a dependant. However, we will need written consent from both parties as medical information for one another will be accessible to both users.

What happens if I can’t access the internet or don’t feel confident using it?

Our reception team are always happy to help.

They can submit requests for you and can call you back to inform you of the outcome of your request and book you in for the necessary appointment.

Anima is telling me to stop submitting my health concern as the system says I have a medical emergency, but I want to submit to the surgery?

If, when submitting a medical concern, you are advised by Anima that you should seek medical help via 111 or 999, please follow this advice.

We are not an emergency service and your health issue may be better treated by emergency health professionals.

We are notified by Anima when patients amend red-flagged answers to submit to the practice.

What are the benefits to me as a patient?

• Being able to log on to see the status and outcome of your current and past requests
• You can use the system in several languages
• You will be asked questions based on your issues
• Your medical records will be complete for the future
• The practice response will be clearer
• You will receive a text message and email to let you know when the practice has responded
• You can provide all the information that the practice needs without waiting on the phone.

I don't want to use Anima, I just want to see a GP

We strongly believe that accessing services, advice and guidance this way is much more efficient in comparison to previous models.  It only takes up to 10 minutes to complete an Anima submission and 2-3 minutes for a GP to process.  Research shows that 70% of patient requests can be closed without the need for a face-to-face appointment which means that you may not even have to come to the surgery.  Also, you can access NHS-based help via Anima anytime, even outside of surgery hours during the week.

What are the benefits to the practice?

 As a practice, The Market Cross Surgery will benefit from

• Seeing your request in a clear structured format
• Save all the information about your request in a structured way into your medical records- this will help staff when looking at your records for this episode of care or in the future.
• Fewer duplications of requests
• Your requests will be clear and we will be able to allocate to the most appropriate members of our team, making the turn-around more efficient.
• Your request will come into our system with a Red, Amber Green rating with clear information about what responses have triggered these ratings. This will allow the team to focus on any urgent requests.
• We will be able to provide a clear response due to the way anima builds the response as we perform actions.

What about my data?

Anima is approved by NHS Digital to be used by GP practices and the other systems involved in your care. Your data is safe and shared only with us for the purposes of your direct care. Your data is stored and sent securely using industry best practices. Only data that is necessary to provide you with care is collected.

Anima Privacy Policy

For patients whose GP practice uses Anima to manage and process online consultations, Anima acts as a ‘data processor’ on behalf of your GP practice. This means that we only process personal data to the extent that is required for your GP practice to provide you with the care that you need. When you submit a request through Anima, your data is not shared with any third parties, nor are you subject to any advertising when using Anima.

Some clauses in our privacy policy only apply to users of our website, and this is so we can account for advertising services and cookies that may be present in users’ browsers.

Anima is certified to NHS and UK government standards for data security and information governance: all data processed through Anima is secure (encrypted) both in transit (when it is sent) and at rest (when it is received), and all data is stored in the UK. No patient data is shared outside the UK.