To make an appointment with a member of our clinical team, if you have internet access please use our new online patient triage system, otherwise call reception on 01323 490022 or come in a see us at our reception desk at the practice.

More information regarding appointments can be found here

Our Fair Use Policy can be found here

As a patient, once you have booked your appointment to see/speak to one of our practitioners, you will be keen to extract the most from it. In order to help you and to help your doctor, here are some suggestions for a successful outcome:

• First of all, you may want to consider taking someone along with you, or having someone else on speakerphone if it’s a call. You might feel a bit stressed at the appointment and another person can help by making notes or prompting the patient. They will also be able to discuss it with you afterwards, making sure you haven’t missed anything.
• It’s advisable to say at the beginning of your meeting or conversation, if you have a number of issues to discuss. You might want to prioritise or let the doctor do that.
• Begin with, ‘My main concern is ….’
• If possible, keep a note of your symptoms and bring it with you to the meeting. It would be useful to know when they occur, how often, how long it has been going on, severity etc.
• If you can be specific, that will also help. For example, is the pain: dull, aching, throbbing etc. What time of day did it begin? What were you doing? Do you have other symptoms at the same time?
• If you have done any internet research and would like to raise this with your doctor, again, keep a note of it.
• Any issues with medication would also benefit from a note about side effects.
• It is fine to ask doctors to repeat or explain something several times, also to ask questions.
• Your doctor will suggest a way to manage the problem, perhaps medication, or more investigation might be necessary. There is also the possibility that you might be offered an appointment with the social prescriber who will be able to assess whether for example, a specific exercise programme, might be of help. Again, you must feel free to ask questions.
• You are always free to seek a second opinion.
• You are always welcome to bring a translator if English is not your first language.

Plenty more information can be found at:

‘Getting the most out of your appointment’

For more information regarding Prescription request, queries, information etc please visit our “Prescription” page

For more information regarding the Covid-19 vaccination program, please visit our “Covid 19 Vaccination” page

How to register with the Practice.

To check that you live within the Practice Area and to register – click here

Please visit our “Online Services” page for more information on how to register.

We will normally only communicate test results to patients if there is an abnormality in the results. Results will normally be known to the Practice within five working days.

To ensure confidentiality, we only release results to the patient, unless alternative arrangements have been agreed in writing.

Referral requests are made promptly following a consultation with your doctor. The time to receive a response to the referral can vary considerably. The referral appointment will normally be posted to you by the hospital directly.

Should you feel that a test result or a referral appointment is overdue, please feel free to contact our secretarial team between 8.30 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. The telephone numbers for the secretaries can be viewed on the “Secretarial Staff Phone In Times” page.

To request a sick (fit) note, please visit the Sick (fit) notes page

If you change name, address or telephone number, please notify the surgery as soon as possible so that we can ensure that our records are accurate. Please note, it may be necessary for us to leave a message on any telephone number you provide if we are unable to reach you.  Please let our registration clerk know if you would rather we did not leave messages.

You can update your details via our Website Form, or in person.

GPs and their practice teams provide the vast majority of NHS care outside of hospitals, supporting you and your family throughout your lives. In a perfect world, we want to be able to offer every patient:

Safety – prompt access to a GP or practice nurse you trust, with well-staffed surgeries and enough resource so that no patient feels left behind.

Stability – a family doctor who knows you, your medical history, and your community – without the stress and difficulty of finding it difficult to get an appointment.

Hope for the future – care that focuses on keeping you well, not just treating illness. We want more time for meaningful consultations, joined-up support closer to your home, from modern GP surgery premises with safe and effective technology to make this possible.

The government talks of “bringing back the family doctor” but what politicians promise is often not planned properly or funded fairly to be able to be delivered in reality.

We want to guide you through the NHS, co-ordinate your care, and support you to stay healthy. We want every patient to feel safe and confident in their GP practice – now and in the future.

GPs are on your side.

The Challenges Your Practice Faces

Rising demand, fewer GPs – GPs care for 17% more patients than in 2015, but with fewer GPs. Funding has not kept pace, so many patients find it hard to see their GP quickly, leading to the stressful scramble to secure an appointment.

Practice closures – Around 2,000 practices have been lost since 2010, that’s one in four surgeries, leaving fewer local practices and longer waits or travel for patients.

Funding pressures – Practices receive just 31p per patient per day to provide unlimited consultations with our doctors and nurses, making it hard to employ enough staff and sustain services.

Workforce challenges – More GPs are leaving the NHS than joining. While our staff work tirelessly, system pressures and patient frustration can affect everyone’s morale and wellbeing. We have unemployed GPs now – and practices lack funds to hire them.

Unsafe workloads – Many GPs see far more than the accepted safe limit of patients per day, often working over 60 hours a week. Recent government changes risk making this worse.

Ageing buildings – One in five GP surgeries is now over 75 years old – older than the NHS itself which started in 1948. There is very little investment to provide modern facilities fit for today’s needs.

Access versus continuity – Government policy means speed of an appointment comes before choice. This lack of continuity of care, means patients often don’t get to see a familiar face who knows them well.

Demand management – We always aim to respond to all appointment and advice requests promptly, prioritising those most in need. Sometimes we may need to offer you an appointment on another day or direct you to another suitable service.

For safety reasons, urgent medical requests cannot always be accepted via our online system. For something urgent, pick up the telephone or walk in to our surgery.

The need to prioritise urgent cases to keep patients safe can result in longer waiting times for routine/non-urgent appointments.

The new requirement to allow patients unlimited online access for non-urgent requests, throughout core hours, makes it more likely that we will have no choice but to create hospital style waiting lists to meet demand.

We may unfortunately sometimes face challenges beyond our control:

• difficulties with accessing services at the local hospitals and long waiting lists
• workforce challenges – not enough GPs to look after you
• the need to provide our teams with compulsory NHS training and education
• unforeseen events
• NHS IT challenges with old and slow equipment
• lack of investment in practice buildings and development
• public health emergencies

• Our core contract hours are Monday – Friday, 8am– 630pm.
• Our consulting times are between these hours.
• Please note at certain times, e.g. lunch or the ends of the day, a clinician may not be present in the building (e.g. out on home visits).
• In any emergency, please dial 999 for an ambulance or attend the nearest – Accident & Emergency department.

We believe patients deserve more

• At present, GPs and their teams are under huge pressure – caring for more people with fewer resources.
• Without proper investment, the safety, stability and continuity of care that patients value most are at risk.
• As your GP practice, we will always do what we can to deliver the best service possible for you and your family. With the right resources and support, we could expand our services, employ more staff, and deliver the safe, timely, and personalised care you deserve.
• Please remember that our current GP contract funds patient care on average at 31p per day per patient, which is not enough to meet rising demand and to provide the care you and your family deserve.

So please bear with us – and thank you for your support as we try our best for you and your family.

See NHS England’s You and Your General Practice document here: You and Your General Practice

Your NHS number is a 10 digit number, like 485 777 3456. It is on any letter you receive from the NHS.

You do not need to know your NHS number to use NHS services, but it can be useful to have it.

Find your NHS number online

Our practice is a research active practice. This means we actively support and conduct different types of research with the intention of improving outcomes for patients. New treatments, technologies, care approaches and devices all need to be carefully and safely tested in real life healthcare environments. Clinical research in these environments is separately funded and adds value to patient care. For more information please visit our “Research Active Practice” page.

Find out what Protected Learning Time is and when the Practice will be closed for PLTs.

PLT Information

To find out what dates the Practice will be closed during the year please visit our “Public Holidays and Other Closures” page.

Seaford Medial Practice is starting to use Artifical Intelligence (AI) to assist with the recording of information during our consultations.

We will let you know this each time we speak with you.

The AI is an Ambient Scribe which will listen to what we say and summarise the relevant element of our discussion. This summary is presented back to the clinician after the consultation. They will then review the words and make any corrections needed.

Why are we doing this?

• It means that we can hopefully spend more time talking with you and less time looking at the computer (though the latter is not completely unavoidable.)

Precautions put in place:

• This software has been approved for use in the NHS nationally.
• All data is processed within the UK.
• After the machine has presented its words, the recording is deleted.
• A Data Protection Impact Assessment has been undertaken and agreed by the Sussex Integrated Care Board.

Certain services carried out by the Medical Practice are not covered by the NHS. Special appointments must be made for these services and a fee is payable. For details of up to date charges, please click on the link below:

Non-NHS Services Charges December 2024

Examples of these services are:

• Power of Attorney
• Driver Medical for Insurance Company
• Medical Reports taken for patient notes (with the patients’ permission) for third parties
• Letter requested by patient addressed ‘To whom it may concern’
• Sick notes issued in the first 7 days of illness.

The above list is neither exclusive nor exhaustive.

Please make arrangements to have your sharps bins collected from home.  Lewes District Council offer a free collection service for patients who use sharps bins in their home.  Please contact their Community Services Dept on 01273 484999

Summary Care Record (SCR) is a national database that holds electronic records of important patient information such as current medication, allergies and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines, created from GP medical records. It can be seen and used by authorised staff in other areas of the health and care system involved in the patient’s direct care.

Please visit the NHS England Summary Care Record pages before choosing to Opt Out.

The Opt Out form is available from NHS England – SCR patient consent preference form page

If you would like provide feedback via the Friends and Family Test form please click here

Please note that any feedback provide is completely anonymous.

For local support links please click here