A full range of travel advice and immunisations are available from the practice nurse. Please make an appointment to organise vaccinations 2 months before you intend to leave or as soon as possible. Everyone whether travelling or not, should have regular tetanus boosters every 10 years. If you haven’t please make an appointment.
Minor Surgery
Certain minor surgical procedures can be carried out by the doctors at the surgery. After an initial consultation a special appointment will be arranged.
Influenza Vaccinations
These are done at the surgery, generally from October each year and recommended for elderly, those with chronic heart disease, lung disease, diabetes and some patients with asthma.
Health Promotion
The practice nurse and doctors are available for advice on healthy eating, weight reduction, stop smoking and heart disease prevention.
Diabetes and Asthma Clinics
Regular health checks will be offered to all patients with diabetes or asthma by the nurse or doctors. If you are newly registered with the practice and have either of these conditions please make sure you tell the healthcare assistant.
Childhood Vaccinations
These can be done at any time by our practice nurse.
Cervical Smears
All women within one year of becoming sexually active, should have a cervical smear test. These should be done three yearly. Please make an appointment with the nurse to see whether you need one.
Chargeable Services
We offer many services at our practice, however certain services provided are not covered by the NHS and you may be asked to pay a fee. Please ask at reception for details. This includes certificates, forms, medical examinations and various travel vaccinations.
Why does my doctor charge fees?
When your doctor is asked to give medical information about you in the form of a report, letter or certificate, the request kick starts a series of processes.
This takes time and is not always straightforward or simple to complete. Some of the information is not available easily and will mean the doctor has to sort and select the right information for the request.
The doctor also must establish who is funding this work and if it is not part of their NHS work, agree a fee for this.
Surely the work is paid for by the NHS?
Many patients see their doctor as the embodiment of the NHS and all that it provides – free care at the point of delivery. However not all work doctors are asked to do is paid for by the NHS and many GPs are self-employed.
This means they must cover their time and costs – staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc – in the same way as any small business. The NHS only pays for NHS work, any work outside of the NHS must be funded by other means and this is why fees are charged.
Why does it take so long?
Your doctor receives large amounts of request and which is often to do with whether your general health allows you to do something e.g. to work, receive benefits, drive, play sport, attend school, own a house, a firearm or it is for insurance, court or other medico-legal reasons.
All requests will vary in complexity, volume and consistency ranging from signing a certificate which can take minutes, to an in-depth report with an examination that can take hours.
What your doctor is signing
When your doctor signs a certificate or completes a report, it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true.
In order to complete even the simplest of forms, they may have to check your entire medical record (some of which may not be accessible on a computer or on site).
Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor with the General Medical Council (the doctors’ regulatory body) or even the Police.
Why does my doctor seem reluctant or say no to this request?
Your doctor is inundated with work. They have to balance their time with treating the sick, keeping their practice afloat and making sure they are doing all of this safely and within their professional duties as a doctor.
With certain exceptions written within their contract, doctors do not have to carry out non-NHS work. However, many choose to for the benefit of you and other families they treat.
Where a doctor chooses to undertake the work, we advise them to inform and always agree a fee in advance of undertaking work.
Should their volume of work prove to be greater or more complex than expected, the doctor will contact you to discuss how to proceed.
What can I do to help?
– Not all documents need a signature by a doctor and can be done by other professionals. Please check the form and accompanying guidance as you may get a quicker response that way.
– If you have several forms requiring completion, present them all at once and ask your doctor if he or she is prepared to complete them at the same time to speed up the process.
– Do not expect your GP to process forms overnight. Urgent requests may mean that a doctor has to make special arrangements to process the form quickly, and this will cost more.
– Don’t book an appointment with your doctor to complete forms without checking with your doctor’s administrative staff as to whether you need to or not.
Get test results
General Information about Test Results
When you attend a test of any kind, you will be told how long you should expect to wait for the results. On average please allow 5 working days for your test results to come back from the hospital unless your doctor has advised otherwise. Please note that X-ray results take a little longer, usually 14 days.
Please note that we have a strict policy regarding confidentiality and data protection. We will only give test results to the person they relate to unless that person has given prior permission for their release or if they’re not capable of understanding them.
Sometimes, we cannot always give full results over the phone.
If the result is complicated, or if the doctor wants to see you about the result, we will offer you an appointment.
There are different ways you can access the results of tests that have been done at our GP surgery.
- You can telephone the practice on 01902 454242 after 2.00pm.
- Visit the practice and ask at reception.
Please note that the results of tests carried out during hospital visits are not normally sent to the practice.
Why have I been asked to have a repeat test?
If a doctor asks you to have a repeat test, it is usually because:
- The result was borderline or unclear, and the doctor wants another sample to monitor the situation or to re-check the results.
- The result is abnormal, and the doctor cannot interpret the result without further tests and has asked you to come in for more tests.
Please do not worry if the doctor has asked you for a repeat test. The doctor will speak to you or request to see you directly if they need to discuss the results.
Access your results
You can use your Patient Access account (or the NHS app) and access the results from there. Please note that results are only available once the doctor has reviewed them. If you don’t have access to your record online, please request this in your online account or ask our reception team for help, ideally after 2 pm.
Get a sick note for work
The NHS provides sickness certification only after seven continuous days of illness. If you need a sick note to cover this period of sickness you should complete a Self-Certification (SC2) form which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.
