Welcome to Northgate Medical Centre

At the practice are now pleased to offer a new service for our patients that are not able to visit the surgery during normal working hours.  This is available on Wednesdays  between 07:00 and 08:00.  These appointments are strictly by appointment only, other surgery services will not be available until 08:00.

If you would like to make an appointment or would like further information, please speak to one of our receptionists on 01244 385553.

Please note that this service is additional to the Extended Hours service run by the CCG.

During NOVEMBER 2019, approx 94 appointments were missed by patients.

Please let reception know if you are unable to attend your appointment so that we can offer it to another patient.

If you are registered for Patient Access you can cancel your appointment on here.

Please note that we do not prescribe antibiotics for dental infections. This is following advice from the British Medical Association.
If you suspect you have a dental infection you should attend your dentist for treatment.
If you are not registered with a dentist you should phone NHS 111 for advice on emergency dental clinics or attend A&E if you feel it is an emergency.

Do we know you are a Carer? Or do you have a Carer?

Are you providing help and support to a relative, partner or friend who cannot manage because of disability, illness or frailty?

Let us know by completing a  Carer Registration form (available from your GP Surgery reception)

Hand the completed form to your GP Surgery who will make a note on your medical records of the person you care for, that you are a Carer and on your records that you are a Carer.

If you would like us to refer you to Cheshire West Carers Support, please also sign the consent on the form. They will send you information such as regular newsletter, how to register for Carer's Emergency Card. They will inform you of any events happening in your area, advice and support available, including access to respite, emotional and financial support.

Current Newsletter (click this link or copy in to your web browser):

https://cheshireandwarringtoncarers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/draft-pub-jan2018_v1.pdf

For further details on their website click on this link:

http://cheshireandwarringtoncarers.org/

or contact the Helpline on 0300 102 0008

(Mon-Fri, 9am till 5pm)

Twitter page: @cheshirecarers1

The Carer's Link for Northgate Medical Centre is Julia McEwen and Lynne Symms.

Although sexual health is in then same building as Northgate Medical Centre, we care completely separate organisations.  We are unable to connect any calls to this service from our telephone system. If you need help with any sexual health problems, please call 0300 247 0020 or visit https://testvhub.virgincare.co.uk/services-near-you/cheshire-west-and-chester/

#takeover #startmakinganoise 

MARCH IS OVARIAN CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

Only three per cent of women in the UK feel very confident about naming an ovarian cancer symptom. Target Ovarian Cancer want to change this.

Take a look at how to recognise the symptoms of ovarian cancer.

What are the symptoms?

• Persistent pelvic or abdominal pain (that’s your tummy and below)

• Increased abdominal size/persistent bloating – not bloating that comes and goes

• Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly

• Needing to wee more urgently or more often than usual

Occasionally there can be other symptoms such as changes in bowel habits, extreme fatigue (feeling very tired), unexplained weight loss or loss of appetite. Any post-menopausal bleeding should always be investigated by a GP.

Symptoms will be:

• Frequent – they usually happen more than 12 times a month

• Persistent – they don’t go away

• New – they are not normal for you and may have started in the last year

If you regularly experience any of these symptoms – and they are not normal for you – visit your GP.

It is unlikely that your symptoms are caused by a serious problem, but it is important to get checked out.

Find information about Ovarian Cancer visit:

http://www.targetovariancancer.org.uk

If you would like to discuss any concerns regarding breast screening please ring: 0800 169 2692

 RING NOW TO BOOK YOUR FLU VACCINATION 

Free flu vaccinations are only available to people in specific groups.

The NHS vaccination programme provides FREE vacs to the following people:-

• Those aged 65 years or older.
• People suffering from Asthma, COPD, Chronic Heart Disease, Chronic Liver Disease, Chronic Kidney Disease, Chronic Neurological Disease, Diabetes, Problems with Spleen, those suffering with a weakened immune system, taking certain medications, pregnant patients and carers

We will send text messages to those with a mobile phone registered, emails and letters to all of those people that are registered at the practice and are eligible for a free flu vaccination. Please ensure we have an up to date mobile phone number for you or you may not receive the reminder. If you are not eligible for a free NHS flu vaccination, you are able to visit your local pharmacy and they will be able to provide and administer your vaccination for a small fee.  Please contact your local pharmacy for more information about this service.

For more information with regards to the flu vaccine, please vist the NHS Choices website at http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/pages/who-should-have-flu-vaccine.aspx

You may find if you type 'walkin clinic Chester' in to Google our practice comes up first in the google search results.

This is out of our control, we are not a walk-in clinic.

We have had people phoning us not happy about this but we aren't responsible for google searches.

We are a GP Practice and seen patients by appointment only.

We have introduced a new text messaging service that allows us to instant message you from within your medical record. This allows the doctors, nurses and admin staff to send important messages regarding results, medication, referrals, recalls, remind you to book an appt or just send advice.

If you do not wish to have this service please let us know and we can update your details to stop these being sent out to you.

The surgery will be closed for staff training on the following dates between 12:00-17:00.

29th January, 27th Feb, 25th March, 28th April, 20th May, 23rd June, 22nd July, 27th August, 22nd Sept, 29th Oct, 25th Nov & 17th December

If you require urgent medical advice during this time, you can ring the surgery number on 01244 385553 and you will be diverted to GP Out of Hours or ring NHS 111.

During a staff training day, all telephone calls will be forwarded to the NHS111 service for triage before being passed to the NHS Western Cheshire GP Out of Hours Service.

Extended Hours: 0300 123 7740 – Option 3

#SmearTestsSaveLives

Cervical screening prevents 75% of cervical cancers from developing yet one in four women don’t attend. You can help us change this!

We want to increase awareness and make it easier for everyone to take up their smear test invitation.

Twitter - @mindcharity

We are in the process of updating our answer machine message with our service provider but in the mean time you can ring for results after 9am Mon-Fri.

Please be aware that there is currently a delay in smear results coming back from the laboratory.

There has been an increased uptake in smears and there has been a change in labs so they are experiencing about a two month delay on results coming back.

Please be assured your result will be checked, but it may be more delayed than usual.

We don't sent results for smears from the practice. This is done from central screening so once they have your result you will receive a letter.

If for any reason, you are unable to keep your appointment, please let us know by calling 01244 385553.

By cancelling your appointment we may be able to offer it to somebody else.

Repeat prescriptions cannot be taken over the telephone. You can order your repeat medication via:-

• Calling into the surgery and either dropping off the printed repeat medication slip attached to your prescription or by completing a repeat medication form at reception.
• Using the on-line Patient Access System.
• Telephoning your normal pharmacy to order on your behalf.

Please remember that it takes us 48 business hours to process your prescription. Prescriptions handed in on a Friday will not be ready for collection until the following Tuesday.

We now offer the ability to obtain advice from your doctor via the internet using our eConsult service. THIS IS NOT FOR URGENT ENQUIRIES, PLEASE RING US FOR THESE.

By answering a few questions, we can best direct your query to either an out of hours doctor, a pharmacy or one of our doctors at the surgery.

Click the button below to start your eConsultation.

The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff or one of the doctors or nursing team is treated in an abusive or violent way.

The Practice supports the government's 'Zero Tolerance' campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place. All our staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time.  The staff understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.

In order for the practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:

• Using bad language or swearing at practice staff
• Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
• Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
• Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice
• Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted. Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot
• Causing damage/stealing from the Practice's premises, staff or patients
• Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently

Removal from the practice list

A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of the practice, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household

In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.