All posts by Jeanette Creaser

Blood Tests Update

Blood Tests Update 

14/10/2021 Blood tests – We are pleased to say that despite a global shortage of some equipment used for taking blood tests no phlebotomy/blood tests were cancelled for Marylebone patients. Thank you to our wonderful nursing team for maintaining safe stock levels.

 

Latest Information

Updated- 15/07/2021

URGENT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENTRANCE TO THE SURGERY 

A temporary front door, and a new lift and staircase are placed to the side of the church, which you can get to by walking through the Church gardens from 19.7.2021. This is well signposted 

You will not be able to access the practice through the current entrance or from the front of the church. Please see the map below and your entry to our surgery is shown by the green dashes and the new door/lift is indicated by a green square. You can enter the church gardens from Marylebone High Street or by walking through the walk way from Marylebone Road next to the Church to the gardens 

Map New Entrance

  

Once you enter the new door/lift you will be taken down to the crypt level and you will face a long white corridor. Walk to the end of the corridor to our new reception desk. 

 

There is an MHC post box at the new temporary door as you come out of the lift/down the stairs to save you walking the length of the corridor. This is locked and only accessible by MHC staff. 

 

As you know St Marylebone Parish Church is currently redeveloping Church premises and we will have a new access point for our patients. The temporary new lift and staircase allow the builders to create a new improved front door, ramp and lift will make access for all patients into surgery much easier, and a nicer experience. The scaffolding and guards around part of the front of the church are there to protect us all from falling debris. We do apologise for any inconvenience.

 

Your patient group, Patient Partnership Group (PPG), are working with us to ensure that we remember the patient voice and needs while the work is underway. You can contact them by email clccg.PPG@nhs.net and mark your email for the attention of PPG. To find out more about the works please visit https://www.stmarylebone.org/whats-on/cl-restoration-refurbishment

 

WE ARE OPEN (despite the pandemic we never closed!)– We open Monday-Friday 8am-6.30pm at reception (telephones open 9am-1pm and 2pm-6pm). We do offer 7am appointments with doctors and nurses-please ask reception if you would like to book an early morning appointment.

This is a medical facility and we remind all patients attending to wear a mask while on our premises. Exemptions are those patients carrying and using oxygen. This is a requirement at all times. You will be asked to read a series of screening questions which are on the main door to the surgery. As you enter we ask you wait to be called forward. The staff will ask you confirm your response to our COVID symptom checker. Once the staff feel it is safe for you to enter you will be invited to approach reception. This is similar to how banks operate.

The system provides additional confidentiality, ensures you can remain 2 meters from staff and other patients while you in the surgery and stops groups of patients congregating in the reception area. We operate a one way in and one way out system-this is to ensure patients do not bump into each other at the entrance or on the stairs.

                                         Keeping you and our staff safe is our priority

Appointments– As COVID numbers amongst our patients increase we have revisited our operational systems to ensure we are working safely, to reduce the numbers of patients on site, maintain 2-meter distance in waiting areas, use our GPs and Nurses efficiently to ensure we could meet patient needs and demand. This work continues and we would very much appreciate your feedback.

The ability for patients to book face to face appointments without speaking to a GP first will be reduced. If you feel you need to arrange a F2F appointment, rather than a telephone consultation, please let reception know and they will help you arrange this safely.

Currently we have a range of appointments available to patients.

  • E Consult– from the home page of our website patients can send us an E Consult for routine health matters. The E Consult system will answer health questions, may direct you to a more appropriate service which can help you.  For example if a patient has muscular pain and submits an e consult for advice you may be contacted by a physio service within a day or two of your E Consult as the physio maybe the best person to help with your medical problem. To find out more about E Consult please look at the blue Contact your Doctors on line box
  • Clinical Pharmacy–  Most days we have pharmacists working alongside our GPs at Marylebone. You can ask for a pharmacist to speak to you about all matters related to medication, including having a medication review. Ask at reception and they can arrange this for you.
  • Nurses– The nursing team at Marylebone are very skilled and experienced practitioners. They can provide advice and support about asthma and diabetes, contraception, urinary tract infections in women, travel health and immunisation programmes for patients of all ages. Nurses offer face to face and telephone appointments.The majority of GP appointments are telephone consultations in the first instance -You may be invited into see a GP after the telephone consultation.
  • Urgent GP for same day medical matters– Each day we have a GP on duty to deal with urgent matters which arise. Urgent matters are usually medical problems which need to be dealt with on the day. The same day duty doctor should not be asked to provide advice for routine matters. Please be advised that many patients call experiencing chest pain, or are palliative and need urgent medication. If patients insist on speaking to the on-call GP about routine matters it means seriously unwell patients treatment may be delayed.
  • Routine pre bookable telephone calls- you can pre book a telephone call with a GP. This helps you have continuity of speaking to the same GP, to your usual GP, and allows you to plan your consultation time to suit your diary. Please note that while we give you a booked time slot a GP may have a cancellation or overrun if the person before you need longer than expected, so please have your telephone to hand 15 minutes before your ‘appointment’ time and 30 minutes after. You can book these telephone calls two/three week ahead

Same Day routine appointments with a GP for non urgent matters are no longer available and each day as we have used these slots to increase the number of pre-bookable appointments

Data sharing, Access and Appointments – Data Sharing-  DEADLINE delayed until 30th September 2021  

NHS Digital is the national custodian for health and care data in England and has responsibility for standardising, collecting, analysing, publishing and sharing data and information from across the health and social care system, including general practice. Your data may be used and stored differently from the 30th September 2021 and your information may be used for research and planning purposes. your data is automatically shared unless you opt out.

This is the link to the Joint Statement by the BMA and RCGP 27th May;  https://www.rcgp.org.uk/-/media/Files/News/rcgp-bma-letter-gpdpr.ashx?la=en

To Opt in to having your data shared for planning and research purposes (not related to providing you with medical care) –do nothing as this is automatic

To OPT OUT– to prevent your data shared for planning and research purposes (not related to providing you with medical care) -you need to visit the link below and opt out on line + send us a letter Data sharing Opt-out letter

For more information and to opt out please visit- https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/06/why-are-there-calls-for-a-pause-to-patient-data-sharing-scheme

Improving Access and Appointments

23.8.2021

Data Sharing, Access and Appointments

Data Sharing-  for the latest information on NHS data sharing systems  

NHS Digital is the national custodian for health and care data in England and has responsibility for standardising, collecting, analysing, publishing and sharing data and information from across the health and social care system, including general practice. There was a plan to share data automatically and patients would need to opt out-This programme has now changed and has been delayed

For more information and to opt out please visit- https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research

 

Improving Access for patients- St Marylebone Parish Church is currently redeveloping Church premises and we will have a new access point for our patients. A temporary front door has been placed to the side of the church and there is also a new temporary lift while the new lift is being created.

You now access the practice through the church gardens. We do apologise for any inconvenience.

Your patient group, Patient Partnership Group (PPG), are working with us to ensure that we remember the patient voice and needs while the work is underway. You can contact them by email clccg.PPG@nhs.net and mark your email for the attention of PPG. To find out more about the works please visit https://www.stmarylebone.org/whats-on/cl-restoration-refurbishment

 

WE ARE OPEN – We open Monday-Friday 8am-6.30pm at reception (telephones open 9am-1pm and 2pm-6pm). We do offer 7am appointments with doctors and nurses-please ask reception if you would like to book an early morning appointment.

To help keep everyone safe we remind all patients attending to wear a mask while on our premises. Exemptions are those patients carrying and using oxygen.

As you enter reception, we ask you wait to be called forward. The staff will ask you confirm your response to our COVID symptom checker.  The new system provides additional confidentiality, ensures you can remain 2 meters from staff and other patients while you in the surgery and stops groups of patients congregating in the reception area. We operate a one way in and one way out system-this is to ensure patients do not bump into each other at the entrance or on the stairs.

Keeping you safe is our priority

 

Appointments-  We had to think of new ways of safer working, to reduce the numbers of patients on site, be able to maintain 2-meter distance in waiting areas, use our GPs and Nurses efficiently to ensure we could meet patient needs and demand. This work continues and we would very much appreciate your feedback.

From September we will again be inviting patients to book face to face appointments If you feel they need to see a GP F2F appointment, rather than a telephone consultation, please let reception know and they help you arrange this safely. The majority of appointments remain telephone appointments.

Currently we have a range of appointments available to patients.

  • E Consult– from the home page of our website patients can send us an E Consult for routine health matters. The E Consult system will answer health questions, may direct you to a more appropriate service which can help you.  For example if a patient has muscular pain and submits an e consult for advice you may be contacted by a physio service within a day or two of your E Consult as the physio maybe the best person to help with your medical problem. To find out more about E Consult please look at the blue Contact your Doctors on line box
  • Clinical Pharmacy– Most days we have pharmacists working alongside our GPs at Marylebone. You can ask for a pharmacist to speak to you about all matters related to medication, including having a medication review. Ask at reception and they can arrange this for you.
  • Nurses– The nursing team at Marylebone are very skilled and experienced practitioners. They can provide advice and support about asthma and diabetes, contraception, urinary tract infections in women, travel health and immunisation programmes for patients of all ages. Nurses offer face to face and telephone appointments.
  • Urgent GP for same day medical matters– Each day we have a GP on duty to deal with urgent matters which arise. Urgent matters are usually medical problems which need to be dealt with on the day. The same day duty doctor should not be asked to provide advice for routine matters. Please be advised that many patients call experiencing chest pain, or are palliative and need urgent medication. If patients insist on speaking to the on-call GP about routine matters it means seriously unwell patients treatment may be delayed.
  • Routine pre bookable telephone calls- you can pre book a telephone call with a GP. This helps you have continuity of speaking to the same GP, to your usual GP, and allows you to plan your consultation time to suit your diary. Please note that while we give you a booked time slot a GP may have a cancellation or overrun if the person before you need longer than expected, so please have your telephone to hand 15 minutes before your ‘appointment’ time and 30 minutes after. You can book these telephone calls two/three week ahead
  • Routine pre bookable face to face appointments-Please ask reception and they can arrange this for you
  • J Creaser- Practice Manager  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free vitamin D for those at risk from COVID-19

Free Vitamin D for those at risk from COVID-19

You may have seen the news which mentioned free daily Vitamin D supplements for patients.

Please note this is only for people who are at high risk from COVID-19 and the following criteria must be met to access this free medication:

  • Aged 18 years and over and living in England
  • Have received a shielded letter from NHS England

 

The link below will go through the application process :

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/people-at-higher-risk/get-vitamin-d-supplements

 

You will receive 4 months worth of medication at home. You should NOT request this medication from your GP.

 

We are Open as Usual.

The surgery is open, and has remained open throughout the COVID pandemic.

The only change to our practice is that GP appointments are telephone appointments, which are available each day from 9am and following your telephone consultation a GP may ask you to come into the surgery to be seen.

The GP may ask you to send us some photographs, or perform a video consultation. This is to ensure that the GP can give a thorough consultation, while reducing your need to attend our premises.

Your safety , and the safety of our staff is of the utmost importance.

We operate safe procedures on site and should you be invited to attend you will find that the staff greeting you will ensure you are COVID symptom free, wear a mask at all times, and have a separate waiting space away from other patients.

Our nursing team still see patients for the majority of nursing care, although they do provide telephone consultations on request.

 

The surgery still provides a full range of services including smears, baby vaccinations, adult vaccinations, ECG’s, 24 hour blood pressures, smoking cessation, and health and well being clinics.

We are Open

We are open and have remained open throughout the COVD outbreak.

To reduce the numbers of patients attending our surgery can we ask that you utilise on line services as much as possible. This is a much more efficient way of contact the surgery, reduces calls through reception so they are free to deal with calls from unwell patients and fewer people attending our premises helps us to socially distance and keep you safe.

You can order medications and update your contact details, view your medical records and check your results on line. If you do not currently have access to on line systems please contact reception and they can arrange this for you. Email clccg.ppg@nhs.net

You can email us medication requests and we will send your medication to your chosen pharmacy. The NHS will soon no longer provide paper prescriptions as sending prescriptions electronically is much safer and more convenient.

You can use our new on line appointment system called e-consult. This system allows you to detail your problem/question. Your e-consult is sent to a central e-consult triage service team who are the team who currently triage referrals for all GP practices. The team are based at Central London Healthcare and work with us to ensure the service is safe and you receive a response quickly. They can deal with many admin queries, such as when is my hospital appointment, and will alert us if your e-consult request is of a clinical nature. A GP at Marylebone will then deal with your request and may telephone you, send you a text or arrange medication.

Appointments can be arranged with a GP ‘on the day’. To arrange this please call reception on 02079356328 between 9am and 10am Monday-Friday. We do offer a limited number of pre-bookable appointments to help you arrange around working/occupational and caring/childcare commitments.  Of course if you are unwell and need medical attention you can call us at any point Monday-Friday between 9am and 6pm. Please be aware that depending on our COVID response we may reduce the number of appointments of routine pre bookable appointments so that all appointments are available on the day.

Pharmacists are a great source of health promotion and can deal with minor ailments and some minor illnesses. Over the counter medication for non-diagnosed long term medical conditions are no longer available on NHS prescription so in some cases it is more sensible to contact your pharmacist first.

Flu Vaccinations

We will soon be contacting patients to arrange flu jabs. We will contact patients in order of their risk of becoming very unwell should they contact Flu or COVID. We will begin our clinics with all patients who were shielded. Then we will be vaccinating:

Shielding patients and their live-in household /carers.

Patients aged 65 and over with a long term condition.

Patients with a long term condition and all other patients aged 65 and over.

Carers, Pregnant women, 2 and 3 year olds.

 

Please do not call us to book your flu jab-we will contact you

 

Please note that people in the 50-64-year old age group will not be vaccinated until November and December, providing there is sufficient vaccine, and no appointments will be offered for this age group until then. This is to ensure that those who are most at risk are vaccinated first.  If you are 50-64 and you are in one of the other groups which is eligible for the flu vaccination, for example you have a health condition which puts you at risk from the flu, you will be invited earlier.

Changes to Services

Dear Patients

There are changes to some services due to COVID restrictions and as services are restored we thought it would be helpful to update you;

  • Retinal Screening for diabetic patients- service is being restored and please refer to the attached poster
  • National screening programmes such as cytology screening, also called smear tests, for female patients aged 25-64 years is being resumed
  • Post-natal check-ups for new mums at Marylebone are now done 8 weeks after your baby is born, at the same time as your baby’s first immunisations and 8 week check with a GP. If you need to speak to a GP before your post natal please

Call reception and they can arrange for you to speak to a GP. We book all appointments no more than 2 weeks before they are due.

North West London Diabetic Eye
Screening Programme

When attending your appointment, we have taken a number of
practical steps to ensure those attending and our staff safety. Please click on the link below for further information.

7 Changes to Appointments Poster – NWL v1

Face Mask Exemption Letters

Face Mask exemption Letters: No GP medical letter needed-

Face masks or coverings are now mandatory in most public areas. We understand that some patients will be anxious about wearing a mask especially those with certain medical conditions.

 GP’s are not required or in a position to provide exemption letters for patients who believe they should be exempt from wearing a face covering.

The current guidance suggests there is no requirement for the public to provide medical evidence for exemption from wearing face masks therefore a self- declaration should be sufficient.

Please go to the GOV.UK link below for more information on the use of face coverings.   https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own

For specific requirements in reference to public transport, shops or other areas where masks are required please contact those specific companies for further information.

Childhood Vaccinations

Notice for parents from the Marylebone Health Centre Team:

 

We hope your child is well and we know you want to keep them safe and healthy.

One way you can protect your child is to make sure they always have their routine vaccinations.

Over 80 % of children living in London are up-to-date with their vaccinations. This simple act can reduce your child’s chance of getting seriously ill by up to 90% but delay can put children at risk from potentially serious diseases.  

We want to reassure you that all possible precautions are being taken to protect you and your child from coronavirus during your child’s vaccination appointment.

Please read the attached advice sheet that the NHS have produced for you. It contains further information on the importance of having your child vaccinated during the coronavirus outbreak. 

Public guidance – attending vaccination appointment

Advice for parents about routine vaccinations during coronavirus 9 6 20 (1)