NEW PARK Medical Practice has changed GP appointments to a same-day or next-day booking system.

The surgery on Robertson Road in Dunfermline hopes the move will "improve appointment availability" and reduce appointment waiting times.

Patients are now asked to phone the practice at 8am on a Monday to Friday.

All GP appointments will be phone consultations in the first instance and urgent problems will continue to be dealt with on the day by the triage nurse or duty doctor.

Those with an existing pre-booked phone consultation will still be phoned on the date and time slot they were booked in for.

As reported recently by the Press, the surgery stated that phone calls from patients had more than doubled in two years.

New Park said it received 6,860 calls in September 2019 but for the same month this year, the number had shot up to 14,660.

A spokesperson for New Park Medical Practice said: “The demand for appointments at New Park Medical Practice, much like practices elsewhere, is incredibly high and it was really important that we took action to help make our services as accessible as possible for our patients.

“Earlier this month, we changed our appointment system to focus on same-day and next-day appointments for routine consultations. Urgent appointments will continue to be managed in the same way by our triage nurse or duty doctor.

“By changing our approach, we expect to improve appointment availability and reduce the time patients are required to wait for a routine appointment, which was up to four weeks under the previous system.

“The coming month or so is likely to be challenging as we transition over to the new appointment system, however, we believe making these changes will result in fewer cancelled appointments and will prove to be beneficial for both patients and practice staff ahead of winter.”