The out-of-hours service is commissioned by NHS Northamptonshire. Byfield Medical Centre does not directly provide the out-of-hours service cover.
Out-of-hours cover is provided by South East Health Limited under the guise of Northamptonshire OOH Service.
This is a co-operative of local GPs set up to ensure that there is always a doctor on call to advise or see patients in an emergency. The service operates during the week from 18:30 until the surgery re-opens the following morning at 08:00. It also runs during weekends from 18:30 on Friday evenings till re-opening on the Monday (or Tuesday in the case of bank holiday weekends).
Callers to Byfield Medical Centre will be asked to call the NHS '111' service by telephone on 111. Trained staff will then deal with your call, and direct you to the most appropriate service. For many problems telephone advice may be all that is required. If a consultation is considered necessary patients may be invited to attend the Out-Of-Hours Centre at Danetre Hospital to see the duty doctor there. During overnight periods i.e. from 23:00 to 08:00, where a consultation is considered necessary, patients may be invited to attend the Out-of-Hours Centre in Northampton to see the duty doctor there. Home visits during the overnight period by the Northamptonshire OOH Service will only be made to those patients who are genuinely too ill to travel.
For less urgent health needs, you should still contact your GP or local pharmacist in the usual way.
We are required to inform you that all telephone calls to the 111 service are recorded for security purposes.
For immediate, life-threatening emergencies please continue to dial 999.
