Dial 999 for an ambulance in these and similar life-threatening situations:
crushing central chest pain that lasts longer than 5 minutes. Other suspicious features that may accompany this are: pain going into the neck or the left arm, being grey and clammy or feeling faint.
angina pain (or another symptom that you have had before due to your heart) that does not go away in 15 minutes.
serious shortness of breath so that you cannot talk or can manage only a few words.
coma, collapse, first fit or repetitive convulsions, other than a diabetic "hypo" attack that has responded to sugar or "GLUCOGEL".
serious injuries where these are life-threatening or it is inappropriate to move the injured person
coughing or vomiting a lot of pure blood
This list is not exhaustive.
For any other urgent need or to contact a doctor "out-of-hours": telephone 01845 577297 in the usual way
If you need to contact the doctor urgently you can always do so through the normal Surgery telephone number, irrespective of the time of the day or the day of the year.
When there is no one at the Surgery to take your call it will be automatically diverted to the Doctors' Answering Service at no extra cost to you. The Doctors' Answering Service will contact the doctor for you. This will be either one of Topcliffe Surgery's doctors or, during the "out-of-hours" period, a doctor employed by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust, which is responsible for the provision of medical cover out-of-hours. The out-of-hours periods are from 6.30 p.m. to 8.00 a.m. weekdays, all weekend and Bank Holidays.
