Surgery Times

Morning surgeries are currently open to anyone who turns up before 10.00am. All other surgeries are by appointment. While the doctors largely run to time, occasionally events may conspire to delay them and apologies will be made accordingly. The expectation is that each appointment will last for about 10 minutes. If you have a number of unrelated, non-urgent, medical problems it   is only fair to make a further appointment on another day to address those. 

Emergencies during appointment surgeries.

During the booked surgeries, emergencies will be seen when there is a cancellation or the doctor is ahead of time. Consideration will, of course, be given to the severity of the emergency. Emergencies will be first seen by Sister Ashfield who will determine whether they need to be seen by a doctor.

Home Visits.

The doctors will visit you at home if your condition prevents you from coming to the surgery. We ask that you ring before 10.30am, giving the reception staff as much detail of the illness as possible. If you do not feel able to give details then please arrange to speak to the nurse or one of the doctors when they have finished morning surgery. If the doctor does not feel that the condition merits a visit, or that the patient should be seen more quickly, then they may arrange for the patient to be seen in the surgery. We have side rooms available if you are worried about passing on infection or you are feeling too ill to sit in the waiting room. Home visits can take up considerable time and we feel that our surgery system is flexible enough to accommodate most situations.

Nurses.

We are fortunate in having two nurses at the surgery and they have developed a range of clinics and activities to help patients. They hold open clinics during the surgery times and appointment clinics during the afternoon.
They run the following clinics:

• Diabetic.
• Well woman.
• Asthma and respiratory assessment.
• Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease follow-up
• Smoking cessation.
• Hypertension and ECG.
• Routine vaccination (child and adult).
• Family planning.
• Diet.
• They are happy to advise you about other aspects of your lifestyle.
• Sister Ashfield is now fully qualified as an independent prescriber. She has been trained to diagnose and treat a large variety of conditions.
• Travel Clinic: Tuesday 5-6pm by appointment.

Nurse's Assistant.

We have a qualified member of staff to take bloods on four mornings of the week (not Thursdays) before 10.30. She is able to take blood, blood pressures, test urine and perform ECGs.

Chiropody.

The community Chiropodist holds weekly clinics at the surgery and will take referrals from the primary care team. The chiropodist is responsible for arranging and maintaining the appointment book. Some of the chiropody sessions are held in the Smithy Road Clinic by arrangement due to lack of space and the number of clinics that we currently run.

Counsellor.

The Counsellor takes referrals from the doctors and has flexible session times. These are strictly by appointment.

Physiotherapist.

The physiotherapist holds clinics at the Smithy Road clinic on our behalf and takes referrals from the doctors, hospital doctors and the hospital physiotherapy department. These clinics are by appointment-only and are organised by the Physiotherapy department and not by us.

Repeat Prescriptions.

Audits of the prescriptions have shown that written requests are far more accurate and result in far fewer errors than telephoned ones. We have, therefore, stopped accepting requests by phone and request the they be written or the counterfoil ticked off and delivered to the surgery. Prescription requests received before 10.30am will be available after 2pm on the same day. The use of the website is recommended for those with suitable access. Prescriptions will only be issued to a responsible adult.
Should you wish your prescription collected by the chemists, please make arrangements with them to do so and tick the boxes on the counterfoils.

Insurance, HGV, PCV and Taxi Medicals

Dr. Dyfrig and Dr. Anna are happy to do these medicals BY APPOINTMENT. There is no direct charge for Insurance medicals but the others are currently charged at £80 for our patients and £90 for non-patients.

Dressings

Please contact the district nurses on 01978 754053 for any change of dressings or removal of stitches inserted in hospital as our practice nurses do not do these.