The information that follows is intended to help you understand what happens if you are asked to come to NEMS for a face to face consultation with a nurse or doctor.
Our waiting area is for Nottingham Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) and Nottingham Emergency Dental Services (NEDS). You have been invited to attend following a telephone assessment by a qualified nurse and we have all the details of that assessment, so we know about your problem and its urgency. NEMS and NEDS only see patients who have been referred following a telephone assessment by a qualified nurse - we do not see patients who just walk in.
This service is for dental emergencies only. You can only be seen here following a telephone assessment of your needs or referral from the Walk-in-Centre. NEDS are normally open:
If you are here to see the dentist, you will be asked to take a seat to the right of the main door- on the blue seats.
NEMS is your 'out of hours' doctor (your General Practitioner or GP) service. We are here to deal with your urgent needs when your own doctor's surgery is closed - that is, problems that cannot safely wait until your surgery is next open.
Our opening times for patient care are:
Weekends and Bank Holidays are our busiest times.
NEMS is not intended to be a convenient alternative to your own GP surgery and does not deal with:
During our opening hours, we deal with approximately 1200 patients each week, with 40% of patients' problems being managed safely with telephone advice, 48% requiring a face to face consultation here at NEMS and 12% requiring a home visit. We only do home visits for the terminally ill, seriously ill patients who are physically unable to travel to this centre and the 'bed bound', such as some nursing home residents.
Where transport is a problem, we can collect patients from home and bring them to NEMS
By coming here to NEMS you benefit from being seen in our well equipped centre, where tests and investigations can be carried out by experienced staff. Instead of waiting at home for us to visit, you can be assured that if your condition worsens, you will be seen promptly and your clinical situation re-assessed. If referral to hospital is needed, we can arrange for you to go directly to the appropriate area, rather than joining the queue in the Emergency Department (A&E). If medication is needed urgently, we can provide a small supply to last until your pharmacy or surgery is next open to deal with a prescription.
You are asked to announce your arrival using the intercom system at the front door, so we can check we are expecting you and note your arrival time. If you did not do this, it is important that you go to the reception desk and let staff know you have arrived. Providing we are expecting you, your time of arrival will then be recorded. Once in the waiting area, you will be asked to take a seat. We already have all the information you have provided during the telephone assessment process, so we know the reason you have been referred to us.
Patients often ask our reception staff how long they will have to wait, or how many other patients are due to be seen before them. We see patients in order of arrival time unless there is a clinically urgent need for you to be seen sooner. When we are busy, there will be a period of waiting. You may feel that other patients are being seen before you, when they arrived after you. A number of different clinical staff are involved in patient care so when someone is called to a room, it may be a NEDS patient for the dentist, or a NEMS patient going to have some tests done by our health care assistant before their consultation with one of our nurses or doctors. You should listen out for your name to be called.
If you need help at any time during your visit to NEMS, please ask at the reception desk.