As a Practice, we offer telephone and face-to-face consultations as necessary for same-day and pre-booked appointments. 

All of our clinicians can help you deal with acute and long-term health problems and illnesses. This will involve advice on how you can help yourself. Sometimes it will require treatment in the Surgery, prescribing medication or referral to other local health care services may be necessary.

Patients may see the doctor of their choice, and it is usually best to see the same doctor for ongoing and long-term health conditions. However, when you need to see a doctor urgently, it may not always be possible to see your usual doctor.

While we make every effort to keep appointment times, there may be occasions when they overrun.

Appointment booking for routine GP appointments is available through SystmOneOnline and Airmid UK.

For all urgent matters, please telephone the surgery between 8 am and 12 noon, when you will be asked to give a brief outline of your symptoms. If appropriate, you will be added to the triage list for a Nurse Practitioner (NP) to call you back that morning.

Following your call with the NP, if they are unable to help you over the telephone, they will direct you to the most appropriate healthcare professional. This could mean prescribing medication over the phone or asking you to attend the surgery at short notice.

Please ensure that the telephone number you provide for the NP to call back on is in a good signal area and that you are available for their call. They will not be able to make repeated attempts to contact you.

NB: If you are suffering from chest pains or shortness of breath please call 999.

We offer a Minor Injury & Illness service at Lyme Regis Medical Centre.  For more information on this service, follow this link to our Minor Injury and Illness service web page:>>

We also offer patients the ability to book an appointment online for a consultation using the eConsult system. Using eConsult allows you to explain why you want an appointment – you don’t have to try to explain everything within the first few minutes of an appointment. eConsult requests can be completed online between 8.00 am – 6.30 pm Monday to Friday. The Practice can then decide how best to help you – you may not even need to come into the Surgery.

Please complete the eConsult form with as much information as you can, sending photos where appropriate (e.g. for a rash or mole). Our Nurse Practitioners review these forms, normally within 48 hours, whereby you can expect to be contacted.  Completing an eConsult form online avoids telephone queues, connects you to relevant information, and if an appointment is needed, it will be with the most suitable clinician to treat you.

There can be a variable wait for a routine or follow up face to face appointment, therefore please book your appointment as soon as possible. You are more likely to be offered an appointment with your preferred clinician if you are able to book early.

Please note that eConsult appointment requests are only available during Practice Opening Hours.  However, the ability to browse for self-help advice is available through eConsult 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Click on the image below or follow this link to access the eConsult system:>>

If you cannot complete an eConsult or think you may have difficulty with an online consultation, don’t worry:   our reception team will happily assist you or complete the process on your behalf. Please call Reception directly on 01297 445777 or 01297 443399. Our receptionists are here to help you: they are fully trained in Care Navigation and will ask you for brief details of your condition when you telephone. This is so that they can record these details to inform the clinician who will contact you. This approach ensures that we can assist you as speedily and professionally as possible.  It also ensures that you are directed to the correct clinician.

For more information about eConsult, please follow this link to download and print off a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the system:>>

You may be offered a LIVI GP appointment when you call to book an appointment as these appointments are generally available within a few days. The LIVI GPs have the same access to your medical records as have all clinicians at the Practice.

For more information about this service, please follow this link:>>

It is essential that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment. Doing so allows the appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you cannot attend, you will be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters may be removed from the list.

Please get in touch with us as soon as you know you cannot attend your appointment. If your appointment has been arranged for a time within the next 24 hours, please call Reception directly on 01297 445777 or 01297 443399. If your appointment has been set for more than 24 hours in advance (excluding weekends and public holidays), you can cancel an appointment quickly and easily using our online. Follow this link to our online appointment cancellation form:>>

Please attend your appointment on time. If you are late, you may not be seen, and you will not be able to re-arrange your appointment until the next working day except for a medical emergency that requires immediate attention.

Help us to help you and other patients by considering the following points:

• For all appointments, please ensure you can provide the patient's name, home address and date of birth.
• If you cannot keep your appointment, please notify the Surgery as soon as possible by telephoning Reception.
• One appointment is for one person.  If you want another family member to see the doctor or nurse, please book a further appointment.
• When arriving at the Surgery for your appointment, always inform Reception or use our self-check-in screen.
• Sometimes, people forget to tell the doctor all the essential information about their problem.  So, it may help if you write their symptoms down.
• If you don’t understand what the doctor or nurse says to you, please don’t hesitate to ask for a further explanation.
• It can sometimes help to have a partner or friend with you.
• If you are seeing the doctor to discuss the result of an investigation or a recent hospital treatment, check with Reception first that any significant results or letters have been received.
• Appointments may not be required to complete insurance forms or renewal of sickness certificates.  Please ask at Reception.

We have an SMS  texting service which allows you to receive confirmation and reminders about your appointments.   If you have not already done so, you can sign up for this service quickly and easily by completing our online Text Reminder consent form:>>

Please remember to update your contact details with us when you change address, mobile or landline telephone number or email address.  This will ensure we can contact you as quickly as possible when required. 

Follow this link to let us know of any changes to your contact details:>>

We have updated our policy regarding face masks in the Practice.  We no longer require all patients to wear face masks when attending the Practice, however we do ask patients with respiratory symptoms to continue to do so.  Staff are able to choose whether or not they continue to wear them.

Lyme Bay Medical  Practice is committed to providing a safe and comfortable environment for patients and staff, where best Practice is being observed at all times and the safety of everyone is of paramount importance.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, procedure or examination if they feel they need one.  The chaperone can be the patient’s own choice.  However, on some occasions, this may be a formally trained  member of our Practice staff whom a clinician feels  can be sensitive and respect the patient’s dignity and confidentiality

All chaperones are DBS checked, trained to understand their role and responsibilities and are competent to perform that role.

Whenever possible, we ask you to make your request for a chaperone at the time of your booking so that the Surgery can make the necessary arrangements.

If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see your doctor, please let us know at the time of booking your appointment so that the Surgery can make the necessary arrangements. 

Whenever possible, we ask you to make your request for an interpreter at the time of the appointment booking so that the Surgery can make the necessary arrangements.

We understand that sometimes it may be appropriate for care to be given in the community.  However, it is important to bear in mind that most medical problems are dealt with more effectively in the clinical setting of a well-equipped surgery.

Home visits are offered to housebound patients or those with a clinical condition that prevents them from attending the Surgery.  Please do not request a home visit unless the patient is genuinely too ill to visit the Surgery.  Most children can safely be brought to the Surgery by car, taxi or pushchair. 

If you need a home visit, please telephone before 10 am, as this helps the doctors plan their rounds.  Brief details of the problem should be given to the receptionist to help the doctor assess the urgency of your request.  Please note that the home visit may not be on the day of your choice nor with a doctor of your choice. 

Please help us by giving the receptionist as much detail as possible, and please include the following details as appropriate:

• The name, address and date of birth of the patient needing a home visit.
• Your name, contact details and relationship to the patient if you call on behalf of the patient.
• The nature of the problem, which gives the doctor an indication of the degree of urgency.
• Any relevant past medical history or relevant recent events.
• Any key entry codes needed to access the patient’s home.

Patients needing to travel to and from medical appointments typically make their own travel arrangements by using public transport or privately through taxis, relatives, friends or neighbours.  However, for patients without access to transportation or who cannot drive through illness or injury, we provide information transport assistance options for patients of Lyme Bay Medical Practice. 

Follow this link to our Patient Transport page:>>