Practice News

EXTENDED SURGERIES
The practice will be implementing a trial of extended hours of opening at Whalley surgery, on Monday and alternate Wednesday and Thursday evenings, from 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Please bear in mind that these appointments are intended for workers and those patients who find it difficult to attend during normal opening hours.

APPOINTMENTS ONLINE
The practice now offers an online appointment system to enable patients to book and cancel routine GP and blood test appointments. Please see a member of staff at the surgery to register for this service.

The Practice now runs a Patient Group Forum. The group is made up of patients and staff and meets quarterly to highlight issues and barriers the Practice might not be aware of, allow patients to put forward their ideas and concerns and where possible allow the Practice to implement realistic changes. Minutes of the meetings are displayed in Reception.

HEALTH CARE ASSISTANT
The Practice now has a Health Care Assistant who holds clinics specifically to take blood tests on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning.
This also includes in house INR testing for patients on Warfarin.

NON-URGENT AMBULANCE BOOKINGS
As from the 4th January 2005 all bookings for non-urgent hospital transport will be made through the Referral Management Centre.
If you require transport for a hospital appointment please telephone,
0845 059 9078 (between 8.30am-5.30pm)

YELLOW FEVER VACCINATIONS
The Surgery is a registered Yellow Fever centre and appointments for
this vaccination can be made with the Practice Nurse. The vaccination is
not available through the NHS and a charge must therefore be made. Please
contact our Dispensary on 01254 823273 for the current price.

NON - NHS EXAMINATIONS
Appointments for medical examinations for special purposes e.g.
Insurance, HGV, PSV and Taxi medicals can be arranged through reception.
The appointments are made for the last appointment of morning surgery and
the relevant charges are displayed in reception.

FY2 AND REGISTRAR TRAINING
The Whalley and Sabden Surgeries have a history of teaching and training. For many years we have had attached GP Registrars (previously called trainees) for the final year of their GP training. They have a minimum of four years registration as Doctors and extensive hospital experience.

From August 2005 we will also have FY2 attached Doctors. All Doctors, even if they will become Brain Surgeons or Pathologists, will in the future have some experience in General Practice. The Doctors are fully trained and able to safely prescribe. Your appointment with them may be for fifteen minutes instead of ten minutes to allow them to jointly consult or discuss your treatment with one of the Partners.

We are also committed to Nurse training and may have Nurse Practitioners or other Nurse Trainees attached to the Practice.