Frequently Asked Questions
Most importantly no more waiting!
The appointments are very easy to book and often same day.
Seeing a Private GP like Dr Nicholson offers you the chance to have a full 30min face to face or online consultation with an experienced GP.
Often some patients want more time spent with a GP to discuss more than one problem.
Or they may want a second opinion.
At the end of the consultation you then have a completely personalised plan of action, or some more detailed ideas of what might be causing your symptoms.
No, sadly not.
Sometimes we can see a brief summary of the NHS notes if you have given access to other Services at your NHS Surgery.
If you can login to the NHS App before your appointment and then Dr Nicholson can see a lot more of your medical notes.
Dr Nicholson does like to send a clinic letter to your NHS GP.
This is good medical practice, and can help the NHS GP should a patient not want to continue down the Private route.
However, patients do have the right to opt out; they just need to make Dr Nicholson aware during the appointment or at Registration.
Generally not as we don’t have the direct access to the NHS Secretaries.
However, Dr Nicholson has completed urgent 2 week wait referrals for patients with suspected cancers, or liaised directly with the NHS GP to facilitate.
Dr Nicholson can see children at Spire Nottingham but currently we are not seeing patients under 18 years at The Lincoln Hospital.
Within the same appointment there is no charge.
If Dr Nicholson prescribes a medicine and several weeks later the patients requests some more then she would usually like to have a follow up consultation to check the progress and resolution of symptoms before she issues some more.
No, there is no charge.
Sometimes patients like to think about the private and NHS options before deciding and this is perfectly reasonable.
In these instances patients can contact the Private Secretary of the Hospital and they will pass the message onto Dr Nicholson.
Again, there is no charge for this.
Please do contact the appropriate Hospital directly as feedback is always appreciated – Positive or Negative.
Dr Nicholson also sends out Doctify text messages.
These are anonymous reviews for patients; these take approx 1min to complete.
They do not use your phone number for any other purposes.
Yes, please contact the appropriate Hospital directly for this.
Yes, Spire do National quarterly audits of all the Spire GP’s to ensure quality and correct service.
Dr Nicholson also has a yearly appraisal for work and revalidation.
Dr Nicholson has already completed all of the requirements for her Revalidation in 2024.
Ideally yes.
This allows Dr Nicholson to touch base and modify the plan of action and decide upon ongoing treatment and/or investigations.
Most NHS GP’s are quite right when they say “I didn’t order the test so I’m not happy to review them”.
Some can be very helpful and oblige.
However, patients can request for their results with no follow up.
Dr Nicholson would always encourage you to speak to a Medical Doctor about the results.
Yes, please ask your NHS surgery to print them out for you.
Or, make sure you can login to your NHS app on the day and Dr Nicholson can see them.