We offer a range of clinics and services at the surgery. There are some tasks you can do, such as health reviews, using our online forms.
Advocacy service
An advocate is a person who speaks up for you, acts on your behalf and, where required, puts forward your case for you .
They are:
- Independent of Social Services and the NHS
- Not a member of your family or one of your friends
An advocate’s role includes arguing your case when you need them to, and making sure health and social care services follow the correct procedures.
They are independent, so they represent your wishes without giving their personal opinion and without representing the views of the NHS or local authority.
An advocate might help you get information or go with you to meetings or interviews to support you.
Your advocate can also write letters on your behalf, or speak for you in situations where you don’t feel able to speak for yourself.
Find an advocate
Advocacy Services help people, particularly the most vulnerable in society, to:
- Access information and services
- Be involved in decisions about their lives
- Explore choices and options
- Defend and promote their rights and responsibilities
- Speak out about issues that matter to them
Antenatal care
Telling your GP and/or midwife promptly will help to make sure you receive maternity healthcare that takes into account all your health needs and preferences. You can book an appointment with your GP or directly with your midwife as soon as you know that you’re pregnant.
It’s best to see them as early as possible to obtain the information you need to have a healthy pregnancy, and because some tests, such as screening for sickle cell and thalassemia should be done before you’re 10 weeks’ pregnant.
Midwife
Midwives give care to women having a baby, both before birth and for ten days after the baby is delivered. Antenatal appointments for our patients are now generally provided at Ordsall Health Centre in of the Community Midwife clinics.
The role of the midwife
A midwife is a qualified nurse who has undertaken further training to provide and promote normal midwifery.
They help you to prepare for motherhood and promote good health for yourself and your baby by advising on the effects of drinking, smoking and good diet whilst you are pregnant.
The midwife guides you through your pregnancy and endeavours to detect any problems and make relevant referrals if necessary.
You may find the following link useful for advice on pregnancy: www.nhs.uk/pregnancy-and-baby
Cervical screening
- Cervical screening (a smear test) checks the health of your cervix, which is the opening to your womb from your vagina.
- It’s not a test for cancer, it’s a test to help prevent cancer.
- All women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64 should be invited by letter.
- During the screening appointment, a small sample of cells will be taken from your cervix.
- The sample is tested for changes to the cells of your cervix.
- Finding abnormal changes early means they can be monitored or treated so they do not get a chance to turn into cervical cancer.
- Approximately 2 weeks after screening, you will get your results by letter.
Cervical screening saves 5000 lives a year. It is not a test for cervical cancer, it is a screening test to detect abnormalities in the cells of the cervix at an early stage.
When you receive an invitation to cervical screening from the practice, please, don’t ignore it. It takes just a few minutes and could save your life.
- First time being screen, or nervous? Tell the nurse/doctor, and try to relax and distract your mind.
- Worried about discomfort? Ask the nurse/doctor to use a smaller speculum.
- Feeling embarrassed? Wear a skirt to your appointment as you can keep this on during the procedure.
- Don’t want to go alone? Take a friend with you, to keep you company in the waiting room, and be there for you after the screening.
- Undergone FGM/cutting in the past? Tell the nurse/doctor.
- Not sure what to expect? Go to www.jostrust.org.uk or call 0808 802 800.
Child health checks
Health visitors
You can normally see the health visitors at their drop-in clinic; for further information please contact the practice.
Health visitors are all trained nurses who have extra training and qualifications in child health. They are a fantastic source of information about child development and health, parenting strategies, breastfeeding, nutrition and community support. They also offer help with social, emotional and environmental issues that affect families.
Appointments are sent out automatically by the local health authority for routine child health checks.
The first will be with a GP at the surgery when your baby is around 8 weeks old. You will be sent information about this and asked to make an appointment at your local clinic or practice.
You will also be offered routine health reviews for your child, with your health visitor, at 8 weeks, 8 to12 months and 2 to 2½ years old.
Child immunisations
Immunisations are given by our practice nurses or other healthcare professionals in accordance with the NHS vaccine schedule.
When to immunise
Different vaccines are given at different ages to protect you and your child. Please visit www.nhs.uk/NHS-vaccinations-and-when-to-have-them to find out when these vaccinations are offered, when and where they’ll be given.
Clinics we provide
We run many clinics for the management of chronic diseases and offer a wide variety of medical services.
Our practice has an extensive health care preventative medical service, run by the practice nurses and the doctors.
These include:
- Stroke
- Heart
- Asthma – If you have been advised by the surgery to submit an annual review of your asthma symptoms, please complete our Asthma review form.
- Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease (Chest problems)
- Family planning
- Sexual health – If you have been advised by the surgery to submit a contraceptive pill review, please complete our contraceptive pill review form.
- Cervical screening
- Minor surgery
- Vaccinations
- General lifestyle advice
- Taking blood samples
- Travel clinics
Dementia services
It is very important that anyone who has problems with their memory has a proper assessment. If these problems are due to dementia then early diagnosis and referral has many benefits for the patient, their carer(s) and family. It can help them to plan and access the treatment and support they need and to improve their quality of life.
If you are having memory problems, please book an appointment with one of the GPs, who can make an initial assessment and refer you to the memory clinic if required.
Diabetes services
There are a number of services that can help you when it comes to looking after yourself if you have diabetes.
Routine care
The majority of people with diabetes are looked after by the practice diabetes team.
We like to see all people with diabetes twice a year, once during their annual health check and again 6 months later.
You will receive an invite for both the annual health check and normally a 6 month review. Both of the appointments will be with a nurse and you will need to have a blood test before each appointment.
There are times when you will need to be seen more often than twice a year, for example after you are first diagnosed or if problems are detected during one of the routine reviews. We arrange these additional reviews as needed and they may be with either a nurse or one of the doctors.
The practice team
The practice nurse and your GP will usually provide this service with assistance from other healthcare professionals.
Please check with your practice for clinic times.
Specialist care
If there is a particular problem identified with your diabetes care that we cannot help you with within the practice, then we will refer you to a specialist service.
Housebound and older people
District Nurses
District nurses carry out many roles for housebound and older patients, including:
- General nursing procedures and investigations
- Post-surgery care
- Assessment of patients’ needs
- Care for terminally ill patients
- Loaning of equipment
- Looking after wounds and leg ulcers
- Educating patients about self-care
Interpreting service
An interpreting service is available free of charge for patients using GP and NHS Hospital Services in England. This includes interpreting for people who are deaf or deaf/blind.
We do not allow children to act as interpreters during your treatment or appointments.
A member of the team from the practice or the hospital department dealing with your treatment or appointment will arrange the interpreter. To make sure we can support you effectively we need you to do certain things so please do let us know you need interpreting help as soon as possible. Preferably, this should be as soon as you make an appointment with your GP.
- If you are going into hospital, contact the ward or department to let them know you need an interpreter, as soon as you receive your hospital appointment. You may need a friend or relative who speaks English to tell us that you need an interpreter, the first time.
- Be sure to let us know if you will not be coming for your appointment or treatment. If you do not tell us you might stop another patient getting the help they need.
- Be sure to tell us if you will be late for your appointment or treatment. Another patient somewhere else might need the interpreter. If you are late the next patient might miss their appointment or not get the help they need.
- Let us know if you have had any problems with communication during your appointment or treatment. This will help us improve the service.
- Tell us if communication was good. This also helps us provide a good service.
NHS health check aged 40 to 74
The NHS Health Check is a health check-up for adults in England aged 40-74. It’s designed to spot early signs of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or dementia. As we get older, we have a higher risk of developing one of these conditions. An NHS Health Check helps find ways to lower this risk.
Patient transport service
The patient transport service provides ambulances to patients who need support to reach their healthcare appointment, or for their admission to and discharge from hospital, due to their medical/clinical needs.
To find out more, please visit NHS: How to organise transport to and from hospital.
Texting service – coming soon
We will soon be operating a texting service for all of our patients to remind them of their appointments or of clinics that we run – we require your UK mobile phone number to do this (we are unable to text or call non-UK numbers).
This facility will allow you to cancel your appointment via your phone, which saves you time.
If you have not provided us with your mobile number or have changed your number recently, please update your details by completing our change of personal details form.
If you do not wish to receive text messages, please let us know and we can update your details on our system.
New data protection regulations from May 2018 (GDPR)
Under the new Data Protection Regulations introduced from 25th May 2018, we will continue to contact patients via text messages regarding the delivery of care if they have provided consent for us to do so.
If the practice is sending a text message about recommended treatment for the management of a specific health issue, then this is defined as providing appropriate care for a patient and not as marketing purposes.
Travel clinic and holiday vaccinations
Please complete our travel risk assessment form prior to travelling to allow as much time as possible to arrange your appointment for the travel clinic (preferably at least 6 weeks or more), which will be with the practice nurse. The nurse will require to know which countries, and areas within countries, that you are visiting to determine what vaccinations are required.
It is important to make this initial appointment as early as possible – at least 2 months before you travel – as a second appointment will be required with the practice nurse to actually receive the vaccinations. These vaccines have to be ordered as they are not a stock vaccine. Your second appointment needs to be at least 2 weeks before you travel to allow the vaccines to work.