How our appointment system works

Before you make an appointment to see the GP, consider the alternatives. The pharmacist behind the counter at your local chemist is highly trained in offering a wide range of services and may be able to give you the help you need, so you will not have to spend time waiting for an appointment.

Under Pharmacy First, pharmacists can treat and prescribe medication for seven conditions. These are the conditions, and at what age, you can see the pharmacist about:

Anyone not within these age ranges should see their GP.

Pharmacists can also help with:

Widnes Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC)

NUMBER CHANGE: Widnes Urgent Treatment Centre

Please note:

The telephone number for Widnes Urgent Treatment Centre has changed from 0151 495 5000 to 01925 946436.

The old 0151 number will continue to work for a short while, but callers will hear a voice message asking them to redial 01925 946436.

The caller can also be put through to the new 01925 number when prompted.

The new number for Widnes Urgent Treatment Centre is: 01925 946436.​​​

Opening times

• Widnes UTC is open seven days a week, 365 days a year.
• This includes Christmas Day and all other public holidays.

• ​​​​​Please call 999 or visit your local A&E for all serious life-threatening illness and injuries.

Where you can find us

We can be found inside the Widnes Health Care Resource Centre.

Our contact details are as follows:

NHS Widnes Urgent Treatment Centre Health Care Resource CentreOaks PlaceCaldwell Road, WidnesWA8 7GD (Google map)

Tel: 01925 946436

If you are travelling by car, we have free parking available.

• Important: During the 30 minutes before closing, patients will be assessed but might be referred to their GP, Out-of-Hours GP or the A&E at Whiston Hospital or Warrington General Hospital.

Other local Urgent Treatment Centre’s

• If you are unsure what to do or where to go, contact NHS 111

If you need urgent – but not emergency care – please contact NHS 111 first for help and advice.

Use the online service: 111.nhs.uk or call 111 from any phone (the call is free).

NHS 111 can arrange appointments for you to see the right health care professional, in the right place.

They can help you with:

• where to get help for your symptoms, if you’re not sure what to do
• how to find general health information and advice
• where to get an emergency supply of your prescribed medicine
• how to get a repeat prescription
• get emergency dental appointments

• Runcorn Urgent Treatment Centre is open 8am to 9pm, seven days a week. 

Halton General Hospital

Hospital Way, Palacefields, Runcorn WA7 2DA The Nightingale Building

Once assessed you will receive treatment or, if deemed appropriate, be referred to another service.

We do not treat Covid- 19 postive patients, if you test positive please contact NHS 111 or your GP for advice.

What conditions cannot be treated at the centre?

Conditions that Urgent Care Centres cannot treat include:

During the 30 minutes before closing, patients will be assessed but might be referred to their GP, Out of Hours GP or the A&E at Warrington Hospital or Whiston Hospital, depending on what is closer for you.

Requests for an appointment can be made via telephone or online.  Sometimes you may need advice that can be dealt with via text message, telephone consultation or video consultation rather than requiring a face-to-face appointment.  If the Doctor feels that you need to be seen at the surgery, an appointment will be offered.  If you do not have telephone or online access, then patients are permitted to call in person at the practice.

If you are out of town and unwell, we ask that you seek medical attention from a local service.  Details of local services can be obtained from the NHS Choices website and via calling NHS 111.  Most acute problems require face to face assessment, and it is unsafe for us to diagnose and treat without a proper assessment.

Systmconnect is an electronic online service available for non-urgent problems subject to availability.  To submit an online request please visit Systmonline.

The practice is able to offer patients the choice of evening or weekend non-urgent appointments, making it easier for patients to see a GP at a convenient time.  These appointments are available to patients across Central and West Warrington PCN as part of our Enhanced Access Service.

If you would find a later or weekend appointment more convenient, please ask the receptionist when booking a non-urgent GP appointment.

Please be aware that you will need to consent to share your medical record with the GP who is on call in the Enhanced Access Service.

The appointments are for non-urgent patients only, on a first come first serve basis. The appointments must be booked in advance and can only be accessed by your own practice; it is not a same-day appointment service.

If need to see a GP when we are closed, please call NHS 111 for our out of hours service.  Please note, out of hours provision for patients is commissioned by NHS England/Warrington CCG and not provided by the practice.

Online booking is available for a range of services such as annual reviews.  Patients will receive a booking link sent via SMS when they are due to be called for an appointment.  The patient then follows the link allowing them to book a convenient appointment in an appropriate clinic. If you do not have access to a smartphone and have received a booking link, please telephone the practice after 11:00am instead, to book your appointment.

If you are housebound or too ill to come to the surgery and require a visit at home, please call the surgery before 10.30am. All home visit requests will initially be assessed over the telephone by the Nurse Practitioner or a Doctor. Home visits take up much more of a doctor’s time than a consultation in the surgery, so if you are mobile, please come into the surgery to be seen where possible.

Many patents believe there is a standard home visit service available from a GP between 8am and 6.30pm, but this is not the case – the GP will decide if a home visit is warranted. Upon initial assessment over the telephone the GP may override the request for a home visit and advise the patient to attend A&E; without first seeing them. This is providing the medical condition of the patient makes that course of action appropriate.

111 will only recommend that the patient contacts their own GP service; the type of consultation will be decided by the GP. NHS care is based on patient need as assessed by a Clinician.

Doctors will always encourage people to come into the surgery because this is where the best care can be provided. Specialist equipment is there, tests can be carried out more easily and drugs issued if necessary. However, if a home visit is not approved and the patient needs to attend the surgery, they will need to arrange their own transport; this is in line with local and national guidance from health care providers and GP professional bodies.

But nationally and in line with guidance endorsed by the Royal College of GPs, a home visit occurs for the following three reasons:

All patients who have provided us with a mobile telephone number and have an appointment booked more than 24 hours in advance will receive a free text message reminding you of the date and time of your appointment.  Please let the Receptionist know or, alternatively, email us at WARCCG.flmcPostbox@nhs.net quoting your name, Date of birth and your wish to opt out of the text message reminder service.

Patchs is an electronic online service available for non-urgent problems subject to availability.  To submit an online Patch request please visit PATCHS

Almost everyone who calls a GP practice to make an appointment asks to see a GP, but very often help is available from other highly skilled medical professionals such as Nurses or Pharmacists, or from other services such as the voluntary sector, who can support people with a wide range of social, emotional or practical needs.

Our trained patient advisers provide the first point of contact to direct you to the most appropriate source of help, they have undertaken robust training to make it easier for you to get an appointment with the most appropriate professional - this could be with a Nurse Prescriber, Pharmacist, Practice Nurse, Healthcare Assistant, Counsellor, or Dietician based at the practice. You may also be directed to another professional who is based outside of the practice or to a professional in the voluntary sector. 

To help you access the correct service the Patient Adviser will need to know a little about why you need an appointment, they are not being nosey or obstructive in your request to seeing a GP. They will ask you a few brief questions about the reason for your appointment as they have a number of alternative types of appointments available to offer you.

Patient Advisers have taken part in robust training, and they have the support of our GP and Nursing Team. They treat all patient information in the strictest of confidence, when you attend the surgery, you can ask to speak to the Patient Adviser receptionist privately if you prefer.

We very much hope that you will find the role of Patient Adviser helpful, it helps us make best use of the services available both at the practice and in the wider community for the benefit of our patients and in doing so, indirectly increases the number of available GP appointments so that you can more easily secure an appointment when this is necessary.