Richmond out-of-hours

The Richmond out-of-hours service provides advice, information and treatment for NHS patients who become unwell during the out-of-hours period when their own GP surgery is closed.

We provide services to patients whose health care needs are commissioned by the Richmond Clinical Commissioning Group.

How does the out-of-hours service work?

The out-of-hours services (OOH) provision in Richmond NHS is divided into two parts. East Berkshire Primary Care provides the out-of-hours clinical triage service and acts as the ‘First Point of Contact’. Practice Plus Group provides the home visits and staff for the out-of-hours Primary Care centres. All out-of-hours calls from patients are first triaged by a Doctor from East Berkshire Primary Care, following this clinical assessment, a decision is then made as to what should happen; if a patient needs to be seen by a GP, the call is forwarded to Practice Plus Group.

Richmond out-of-hours service does not offer walk-in appointments, so access to the service is via the national NHS 111 call line.

Calls to NHS 111 are free from mobile phones and landlines and the service can be accessed 24 hours day, 365 days a year by dialing 1-1-1.

The NHS 111 team will assess your condition over the phone and if it is clinically appropriate, they will refer your case to the out-of-hours service. This will then result in either:

A face to face appointment to attend a primary care centre to see a doctor

A home visit from one of our doctors

We provide GP out-of-hours services Monday to Friday from 6.30pm to 8.00am, and for 24 hours at weekends and during bank holidays.