Extended Hours
We now offer pre booked appointments with a GP in the evenings between 6:30pm and 7:45pm Monday to Thursday. These are not meant for walk in patients and access will be denied to those without a pre booked appointment.

Triage
Further we have introduced the “Triage System to manage your medical complaints more effectively. At times you will be speaking to our Advanced Nurse Practitioner or occasionally the doctor who will take appropriate action in view of the complaint you have. Please do not expect an automatic appointment as you maybe given a prescription or telephone advice.

Duty Doctor
As usual duty doctor appointments for 48hr access are available .You will always see a clinician in these appointments and this will generally be a physician though at times it may be a nurse practitioner.

Darzi
The anticipated opening of a Darzi centre in Sowerby Bridge has now been put on hold and we hope to fill the gap in services ourselves PCT allowing.

GP Registrar
Our current registrar is Dr Garbutt and appointments can be made with her in the usual way. As a training practice we often have young doctors, medical students and nurses in attendance during surgery times. You will be alerted on the LED screen in reception if a doctor is accompanied by someone in training. You are encouraged to inform the receptionist on desk if you would rather see the doctor, nurse practitioner or practice nurse alone before going in for your appointment.

Patient Survey
We recently completed a survey regarding patient experience of their consultations with the doctors, registrar, nurse practitioner, practice nurses and health care assistant and it was reassuring that the vast majority of patients were happy that the problems they came in with were dealt with satisfactorily and that very few had problems with their consultations. We are planning to install a suggestion box in the waiting room so that patients can – anonymously if desired --make constructive suggestion, comments and criticisms which will then be reviewed at our regular practice meetings.

For full details of our patient survey, see patient feedback.

Contraceptive Services
We provide contraceptive services for those patients requiring long acting reversible contraception. This is in the form of intra- uterine coils or the intradermal implanon implant which goes into the upper arm. Anyone interested should book a routine appointment and will then be referred onto the appropriate clinic.

Chlamydia
We now offer Chlamydia screening for any patient aged between 15-25 years and packs can be found in the surgery toilets. These can then be handed in at reception or there are postal packs which can be posted anonymously. The form sent includes your mobile telephone number and you will be contacted by text with your results and advice regarding any treatment or follow up required.

Accident and Emergency
We have slightly higher than average casualty attendance rate and we should encourage patients to try and attend surgery unless their problem is a clear emergency or an accident which could not be dealt with at the practice. A recent survey by the Primary Care Trust looked at life expectancy rates in Calderdale and it is pleasing to see the patients of Sowerby Bridge have a higher than average life expectancy and graphs of the different rates across Calderdale can be viewed in reception.

Prescription Collection
Due to increasing demand and problems of collecting prescriptions late in the afternoon we have revised our prescription system from Wednesday 18th May 2011.

Prescriptions ordered on the day before 11.00 a.m. will only be issued and ready for collection the next working day not 16.00 p.m. the same day.

Prescriptions ordered on the day After 11.00 a.m. will only be issued and ready for collection two working days later from the date of order.

On Collection Day
Anytime during our surgery opening hours between
08.30 a.m. and 18.00 p.m.
We are closed for lunch between
12.45 p.m. and 13.45 p.m.

Walk in Centre
Your nearest walk in centre is Park Community Practice this is situated in within the Horne Street Health Centre, Hanson Lane, Halifax. There is no need to make an appointment and if you feel it necessary the times opening 8am to 8pm every day including bank holidays.

Clinical Governance
Clinical governance and staff training days are held once a month in the afternoon. On these days the surgery will be closed and immediate problems will be dealt with by our out of hour’s provider. All calls will automatically be transferred. Please see Hours for details of training days.

Cost of Calling The Surgery
We would like to make our patients aware they are not paying a Premium Rate for our Surgery Services by calling on 0844 477.

Cost to call the Surgery on 0844 447
5.1 pence per minute

Cost for a BT daytime call to a landline number
7.6 pence per minute

For further information please visit www.bt.com/pricing

During January/February 2012

Our patients did not cancel & we lost the following Appointments

366 - Doctor Appointments

202 - Nursing Appointments

164 - Health Care Appointments

We would therefore like to ask all patients, if you are not able to attend your appointment could you please contact the surgery so that we can offer it to another patient.

The Surgery appreciates how hard it can be to get an appointment and this would go a long way in helping us meet your needs.

Short notice is better than no notice.

Many thanks

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