News
Christmas jumper day.
Every Friday throughout December 2024 staff will be wearing Christmas jumpers/festive clothing to raise money for Shelter who are an amazing charity supporting housing problems and homelessness.
If you are interested in donating yourself there will be a donation box for patients in reception.
Important: Christmas opening hours:
The Practice is closed on the following days:
25th December 2024 (Christmas Day), 26th December 2024 (Boxing Day) and 1st January 2025 (New Years Day)
The practice will be closed from 4pm onwards on the following days:
24th December 2024 (Christmas Eve) and 31st December 2024 (New Years eve)
During this time the Out of Hours service (111/DHU) will take all calls and manage requests for urgent review.
Autumn/Winter 2024 Flu and Covid information
Vaccine information
GP ballot vote YES for collective action
Almost 8,500 GP Partners returned their ballot, representing nearly seven in 10 of all eligible members. This result clearly shows a united singularity of voice of a beleaguered GP profession willing to say – enough.
We are calling for safety, stability and hope
Safety now with a commitment to recover resource lost from the core contract to ensure practice stability and viability.
Stability for practices to be able to employ and retain the GPs and clinical staff they need to deliver the care our patients deserve – especially when there are GPs without jobs!
Hope for the future: a new contract that works for all parties, that provides the investment, workforce, infrastructure and stability needed to reset and rebuild general practice.
Across the profession, and all our practice teams, we have never been more unified by our desire to protect our practices, protect our patients, and safeguard our collective future.
The results of the BMA ballot were announced today and show overwhelming support for GP practices to take industrial action. This will be heavily reported in the media over coming days to weeks and beyond. The industrial action will not take place in the form of strike action in the same way hospital doctors have and the details will need to be worked through by the Partners. Unlike many practices our GPs are fortunately already working within the recommended safe limits of patient contacts per day with 15 minute appointments (the exception being duty doctor).
As a partnership we fully support the collective action nationally to make General Practice sustainable and improve funding to Primary Care. We will of course keep you posted with any changes as processes evolve but for now it is business as usual.
British Medical Association 'Work-to-rule action'
The Partners and management team wish to reassure patients there are no changes to the number of appointments offered to our patients.
We do recognise funding of General Practice requires urgent attention to ensure safe sustainable NHS services for our patients.
We continue to make all efforts to provide the best patient care with the resources we have available.
Infected blood public inquiry report - briefing for GP practices
- We know that people may be concerned about their own health following recent media coverage, so we have set up a new online resource for patients and the public to find help and support - https://nhs.uk/infected-blood-support
- Since 1991, all blood donated in the UK is screened and distributed by NHS Blood and Transplant following rigorous safety standards and testing to protect both donors and patients.
- Since testing has been introduced, the risk of getting an infection from a blood transfusion or blood products is very low.
- All blood donors are screened at every donation and every donation is tested before it is sent to hospitals. Blood services and blood safety has been transformed, not only in terms of technological advances in testing but also in the way donors are recruited and checked they are safe to donate.
- Given the time that has elapsed since the last use of infected blood products, most of those who were directly affected have been identified and started appropriate treatment. However, there may be a small number of patients where this is not the case, and particularly where they are living with asymptomatic hepatitis C
- If you are concerned about a possible hepatitis C infection, you can book a home NHS test online. The tests are free and confidential. To receive a self-testing kit which can be quickly dispatched to your home visit hepctest.nhs.uk.
- Hepatitis B is also linked to infected blood, this usually clears up on its own without treatment, but could develop into chronic hepatitis B. Patients can find out more information here - hepatitis B information
- HIV testing is also provided to anyone free of charge on the NHS. Home testing and home sampling kits are also available. You can find out more about HIV testing and the HIV testing services search tool on the NHS website.
- Patients who want more details about the safety of blood from donations in England can find more information here: https://www.blood.co.uk/the-donation-process/further-information/your-safety/
The NHS App
The Surgery would like to invite you to use the NHS App
The new, simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services on your smartphone or tablet.
Get a free home test for hepatitis C
Patients who are concerned that they may be at risk of hepatitis C can now do a simple test at home to find out if they have hepatitis C using the new hepatitis C testing website.