You can make an appointment online via the link at the top of this page, by telephoning us on 01271 323443, or by visiting our help desk in the main surgery building.

Important!  Please remember to make a separate appointment for each person to be seen, as appointments are 15 minutes when face to face and 7.5 minutes for a telephone call. This is to ensure we can best meet the demand on our services.

When booking a telephone call appointment please be aware that you will be called as close to the time as possible but please allow a 2-hour window for the call.  This allows for other appointments taking longer than expected, or urgent issues arising that may delay the time that your call takes place.

We are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6:30pm. Between 8am – 8:15am, 6pm – 6:30pm, and during pre-booked evening appointments, access is via our intercom system at the side entrance door. Please use the buzzer to speak to the Healthcare Administration Team, who will assist you and provide necessary access.

Enhanced Access evening pre-booked appointments are available on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with the last appointment at 7:45pm.

If patients need to contact the practice by telephone with a routine enquiry (such as appointment bookings, medication queries, and other non-urgent requests), we kindly encourage patients to telephone the surgery between 8:30am and 6pm. This helps us to manage calls more efficiently.

All our phone calls are recorded for training and quality purposes.

All patients requesting urgent same-day help will be dealt with by the Urgent Care Team. This team of doctors and nurses will prioritise patients based on need.

The doctor or nurse will telephone you back to assess the problem and, in many cases, they can help you immediately over the phone. If needed, you will be invited in for a face-to-face appointment.

The Urgent Care Team will deal with problems which require treating that day. If your problem is routine, you will be asked to make a routine appointment for another time.

The Urgent Care Team can also help with minor illnesses, such as cold and flu symptoms, urine infections, D&V and ear infections. To find out more information and to see which minor illnesses the Urgent Care Team can help with, please click Urgent Care Team

We want your appointment at the practice to be as smooth and supportive as possible. Whether you're coming in for a routine check-up or something more specific, our team is dedicated to providing safe, personalised care.

Here’s a quick guide to help you prepare and know what to expect during your appointment.

✅ Preparing for Your Appointment
To help you get the most out of your time with the GP or healthcare professional, it’s helpful to come prepared with:

• A clear list of your symptoms, including when they started and whether they’ve changed over time
• Any photos (e.g. of rashes or swelling) that might help us understand the issue
• For high blood pressure concerns: please bring at least a week’s worth of readings, if available
• A list of questions or concerns you’d like to cover

We kindly ask patients to focus on one main issue per appointment. This helps ensure we can give each concern the time and attention it deserves. If you have several issues, we’re happy to arrange follow-up appointments.

💬 Making the Most of Your Appointment
We know that appointments can sometimes feel a bit rushed. That’s why we’re using a new tool called Heidi - a secure AI assistant that helps us take notes during your consultation.

How does Heidi work?

Heidi quietly listens during your appointment and creates a written transcript. This allows your clinician to focus fully on you and the conversation - not the keyboard. After your appointment, your GP or healthcare professional carefully reviews the transcript to ensure it's accurate and complete.

Your privacy is our priority.

• No recordings are stored after the consultation
• Heidi doesn’t make any decisions - your clinician remains fully in control
• If you'd prefer not to use this tool, that’s absolutely fine. Just let your GP or healthcare professional know at the start, and we’ll switch it off

🤝We're Here for You

Our goal is to make every appointment feel calm, respectful, and tailored to your needs. If you have any questions before, during, or after your visit, don't hesitate to ask. We’re always happy to help.

We look forward to seeing you.

We have touch screen computers in the reception/waiting room entrance area.  They are very straight forward and easy to use and require no computer knowledge at all!

Once you enter your information on the touch screen, our computer system will let our healthcare professionals know that you are waiting to see them.

We have an on-site branch of Allied Pharmacy for patients’ convenience and there are several pharmacies in the Barnstaple area. You do not need an appointment to speak to your local pharmacist for free health and medication advice. To find a pharmacy near you, you can use the NHS find a pharmacy link provided here.

Home visits are reserved only for those patients who, in a doctor’s opinion, are unfit to travel to the surgery. 

The surgery is where we have specialist equipment and investigations to provide you with the best care.

If you do think you need a home visit, please call the surgery on 01271 323443 before 11:00.  Details will be taken, and you will be asked to leave your telephone number so that the doctor can contact you if necessary.

If you have booked an appointment with a GP, practice nurse or healthcare professional and are then unable to attend, please let us know either by telephone on 01271 323443 or by coming in to the help desk with as much notice as possible.

In just one week we can have up to 90 appointments where people have not attended without giving us notice.  These wasted appointments could have been made available for other patients.

Primary care has the opportunity to extend the hours for patient appointments. This includes starting at 8am, evening clinics till 8pm and some weekends.

Litchdon provide extra evening GP and nurse clinics every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with appointments available up to 7.45pm and we take part in the rota across North Devon to provide some Saturday GP appointments.

Litchdon patients can also use any of the evening and weekend appointments provided across North Devon which are run by other practices - just ask our Healthcare Administration Team who can book these for you.

There are also no changes to the Primary Care out of hours service, so for any urgent health concerns please contact 111 or 999 as before.

GP Registrars, Hospital Doctors, Medical Students & Nursing Students

We are a training and teaching practice; one of our core values being the education and development of the next generation of clinicians.

We are very grateful to our patients for their participation in this education, but if you prefer not to, please let us know at the help desk.

Video Recording of Consultations

As a training and teaching practice, there are times when you may be asked to allow your consultation with a doctor to be recorded. This is done discreetly and is for training purposes only. 

Video recordings are required as part of a GP’s training programme and assessment.  The recordings are confidential and will be deleted after use.

We hope that you will feel able to allow your consultation to be recorded, but you are always free to refuse before, during or after a consultation is recorded. If you do refuse the recording of your consultation, any material recorded will be deleted immediately.