ST ANDREW’S MEDICAL PRACTICE Sensier House Oxford Road St Andrew’s Lane Spennymoor DL16 6BQ Spennymoor DL16 6QA Tel: 01388-817777 Email: [email protected] Hours: 8AM* to 6PM** Monday through Friday (*Emergency phone calls only between 8:00AM and 8:30AM) (General calls and doors open from 8:30AM) (** 5PM at Oxford Road) StAndrewsMedicalPracticeSpennymoor.nhs.uk V5.00uk Welcome The Doctors and staff welcome you to St Andrew’s Medical Practice Spennymoor. Our Practice operates from two premises: Sensier House and Oxford Road. We welcome patients from the Spennymoor area including the surrounding villages of Kirk Merrington, Hett, Byers Green, Newfield, Binchester and Croxdale. We also take patients who live to the west of the A167 in Ferryhill (Dean Bank Area). Our team includes six Doctors, five Advanced Nurse Practitioners, two Advanced Paramedic Practitioners, an Advanced Physiotherapist Practitioner, four Practice Nurses, a Nursing Associate, and three Healthcare Assistants as well as our dispensary, reception and admin staff. We offer a full General Practice service including minor injury and minor surgery services, dietary advice, continence support, maternity care, well person screening, anticoagulation monitoring, ante- and post-natal care, childhood and travel immunisations and smoking cessation support. We also offer extended primary care services, including counselling and Citizens Advice Healthier & Wealthier phone service. We aim to provide you with a comprehensive range of healthcare, treating all our patients promptly, courteously and in complete confidence. The information in this booklet should enable you to make the most effective use of our services. For more information visit our website or contact Reception. Practice Locations The Sensier House premises are located on St Andrew's Lane just off Cheapside. It is adjacent to ASDA and is approached through their car park. There is no car park at Sensier House but short-term parking (up to two hours) is available in the ASDA car park. The Oxford Road premises are located on Oxford Road. There is limited parking at the surgery but plenty of parking on the surrounding roads. Please note you may be offered an appointment at either of the premises, but the location of your appointment will be made clear when you book your appointment. Accessibility There is easy access for disabled patients to all areas of both premises and there is a toilet for the disabled. We can supply a wheelchair to transport patients from the car. Sensier House has a lift for those unable to use the stairs. There is a T-loop available for hard-of-hearing patients with hearing aids. Please let reception staff know if you require this facility. There are three disabled parking bays available in the Sensier House car park and one at Oxford Road. Access to the Sensier House disabled bays is via the ASDA car park, where there is a large car park including disabled bays (up to two hours). If you require any assistance at all, please ask a member of staff. Appointments Practice Opening Hours The Practice hours are from 8AM to 6PM (5PM at Oxford Road premises) - emergency phone calls only between 8AM and 8:30AM. Our doors open at 8:30AM. We are closed between 1PM and 2PM each day. Please note you may be offered an appointment at either Sensier House or Oxford Road. The location of your appointment will be made clear when you book your appointment. You can also book appointments for a Doctor or Advanced Nurse Practitioner on our website 24/7, 365 days a year. Practice Consulting Time (by appointment) Consulting times are: Doctor 8:30 AM to 11 AM 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM Nurse Practitioner 8:30 AM to 1 PM 2 PM to 6 PM Nurses / HCA 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM 2 PM to 6 PM Extended Hours There are a limited number of appointments available until 7:30PM, two evenings per week. Children If your child is of school age, you will be able to obtain an appointment after school (during term time). If your child is under five and you think their need is urgent, we will ensure that you have contact with a healthcare professional. Care Navigation / Reception Triage Protocol When you contact the Practice for an appointment you will speak to a receptionist. Our receptionists have been specifically trained to provide “Care Navigation”, which means we can improve access to appointments and can deal with your medical needs quickly and efficiently. The receptionist will ask for a brief outline of why you’re contacting the Practice and will then be able to offer potential choices regarding appropriate services. You may be provided with a choice in relation to an appropriate member of staff you can see within the Practice. The choice may also involve an alternative service which can meet your needs for example: community pharmacy, stopping smoking, Minor Eye Condition Service. This is not clinical advice or triage. It’s your choice, you do not have to accept the choice provided by the receptionist and you can still request to see a GP if you wish. Please be aware that if you do not accept the recommendation of the receptionist or feel uncomfortable in giving a brief outline of why you’re contacting the Practice, the receptionist is unable to book an appointment with a doctor. They will ask the duty triage doctor to ring you to assess your requirements. Note that our clinical staff now undertake some of the routine work previously undertaken by a doctor. Types of Appointments In common with other practices we operate a full appointment system with different types of appointments available throughout the day. Pre-Bookable Appointments Many of our appointments are routine pre-bookable appointments and can be booked up to two (2) weeks in advance for a doctor and four (4) weeks in advance for Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Practice Nurse or Health Care Assistant. These appointments are generally for non-urgent problems that can wait several days. Same Day Appointments Available to book online, in person at Reception or by phone from 8:30AM Monday to Friday. Telephone Appointments Telephone appointments can be booked for issues which do not require examination, are straight forward, can be completed in five minutes and which you are certain about. You will be given an appointment date and time when a doctor will ring you. The doctor will try to ring you twice. If we are not able to get through to you, you will need to rebook the telephone appointment. Home Visit Home visits on weekdays should be requested by telephoning the Practice on 01388 817777 between 8:30AM and 10AM whenever possible. Home visits use up our most valuable resource - time - and should only be requested when the patient is unfit to attend the Practice where there are better examination and treatment facilities. If in doubt, please ask to speak with the duty doctor. When you request a home visit, the receptionist will ask you for certain information such as a brief outline of why you’re contacting the Practice. This information is required to help the doctor plan and prioritise the home visits. You will then be added to the triage list and the duty doctor will ring you to assess your problem. After assessment, the doctor will allocate either a doctor or another healthcare professional to carry out the visit. Notes About Appointments Standard appointments are for a maximum of 10 minutes. Let the receptionist know if you will require a double appointment. Medicals or longer appointments will be by special arrangement. You may choose to see any of the healthcare professionals, subject to their availability. The receptionists will try to give you a convenient appointment, but if unable to do so they will suggest an alternative time or another healthcare professional who is available. If you need to see a healthcare professional urgently, make this clear to the receptionist and you will be given an emergency appointment with the first available healthcare professional. If you have more than one problem to discuss, please tell the healthcare professional at the start of your appointment so that the most important problem can be dealt with first. If it is not possible to deal with several complex problems during a single consultation you may be asked to make a further appointment(s) to deal with less pressing issues. We do try and run appointments to time but you will appreciate that we have no way of knowing in advance what problems will be presented during a surgery. Some problems do require immediate attention and may result in subsequent appointments running late. Your understanding when this happens is appreciated. Cancellations If for any reason you are unable to attend your appointment please phone the surgery or use our online services to cancel in plenty of time so that appointment can be used for someone else. If you know you will be late for an appointment, please telephone the surgery to let us know as the doctor or nurse may be able to see the next patient first. This avoids making the surgery run late, but we cannot guarantee that you will be seen if you arrive more than five minutes after your appointment’s original start time. Missed general practice and hospital appointments cost the NHS nearly £1 billion a year. It has been known for some patients to beg for urgent appointments yet fail to turn up. Cancelling means you free up a space for another patient. Chaperones There are occasions when patients need to be assessed by a healthcare professional which might involve intimate examinations.