Local volunteer befrienders offer free weekly visits to anyone feeling lonely or socially isolated, providing company and helping you connect to your community.

• Flu – We offer flu immunisations each autumn to all patients over 65 years old or those, including children, who have conditions such as asthma, diabetes, chest and heart disease
• Pneumonia (pneumococcal vaccine) – People aged 65 and over only need a single pneumococcal vaccination. This vaccine is not given annually like the flu jab. If you have a long-term health condition you may only need a single, one-off pneumococcal vaccination, or a vaccination every 5 years, depending on your underlying health problem.
• Shingles – A vaccine to prevent shingles, a common, painful skin disease, is available on the NHS to people in their 70s.

How to get these vaccinations

• Flu – We will contact patients who are eligible for NHS flu vaccinations around autumn time and will include information on how to make appointments
• Pneumonia and Shingles – We will invite you for a pneumonia shingles vaccination when you are due for these

When travelling abroad it is essential to investigate the health risks associated with your trip. You should seek advice at least 8 weeks before you travel due to time frames needed between vaccines and your body developing an immune response to the vaccine to provide you with protection.

Our practice does not offer speciality travel clinics as this is not a part of standard NHS services. However, we do offer the NHS vaccines.

The NHS covers the cost of these vaccines which are:

• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid
• Tetanus
• Diphtheria
• Polio
• MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella)

Prior to your appointment, please ensure you look at the latest guidance on the country you are visiting on the travelhealthpro website. For travel vaccines other than those above, or malaria prophylactic medication you need to attend a specialist travel service, these services are private and therefore subject to charges.

We have a social prescriber who can assist you with a variety of issues including:

• Social support
• Befriending
• Debt advice
• Support for long term health conditions
• House issues

How to make an appointment with the social prescriber

• Contact our reception team by calling 01379 676227
• Ask in person at the surgery reception

Some services provided are not covered under our contract with the NHS and therefore attract charges.

Examples include the following:

• Medicals for pre-employment, sports and driving requirements (HGV, PSV
  etc.)
• Insurance claim forms
• Prescriptions for taking medication abroad
• Private sick notes
• Vaccination certificates

There will be a charge for non-NHS services. These charges are based on the British Medical Association (BMA) suggested scales.

How to enquire about non-NHS work

• Contact our reception team by calling 01379 676227
• Ask in person at the surgery reception

We have an in-house mental health practitioners, who can offer help with a variety of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. They can see people over the age of 16.

How to make an appointment for a mental health practitioner

• Contact our reception team by calling 01379 676227
• Ask in person at the surgery reception

Please note we will only do home visits for patients who are genuinely housebound because of their illness. We will always ask that someone who can leave their home to get to us either via a lift or taxi. This is to ensure we priorities patients who are genuinely housebound.

To request a home visit

• Contact us as early in the day as possible to request a visit, this will help us to prioritise visit requests
• Contact our reception team by calling 01379 676227
• Ask in person at the surgery reception

The NHS Health Check is a health check-up for adults in England aged 40 to 74. It’s designed to spot early signs of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or dementia. As we get older, we have a higher risk of developing one of these conditions. An NHS Health Check helps find ways to lower this risk.

The check is for people who are aged 40 to 74 who do not have any of the following pre-existing conditions:

• heart disease
• chronic kidney disease
• diabetes
• high blood pressure (hypertension)
• atrial fibrillation
• transient ischaemic attack
• inherited high cholesterol (familial hypercholesterolemia)
• heart failure
• peripheral arterial disease
• stroke
• currently being prescribed statins to lower cholesterol
• previous checks have found that you have a 20% or higher risk of getting cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years

How to make an appointment for an NHS health check

• Available if you are 40-74 years of age without a pre-existing condition
• Not available if you have had an NHS health check within the past 5 years
• Not available if you have one of the pre-exiting conditions listed above (patients with these conditions will be getting regular monitoring)
• Contact our reception team by calling 01379 676227
• Ask in person at the surgery reception

Our practice nurses and doctors can advise you on the various method of contraception for you.

We provide a full range of family planning services including:

• Contraceptive pill
• Fitting of caps
• Contraceptive injection
• Contraceptive implant
• Coil removal and fitting

We can also refer sterilisation procedures (vasectomy / tubal ligation)

How to make an appointment for a family planning consultation

• Contact our reception team by calling 01379 676227
• Ask in person at the surgery reception

Diabetes is a long term condition and regular reviews are needed to ensure good sugar control.

If you are a diet or tablet controlled diabetes patient, we will contact you when you are due your diabetic review. If your condition is well controlled this will be around your birth month. If you need more regular monitoring, we will inform you when your next check is due.

If you are on insulin, the hospital will look after your diabetic care.

How to arrange a diabetes review

• Contact our reception team by calling 01379 676227
• Ask in person at the surgery reception
• Please contact the doctor or nurse at any time if you are concerned about
  your diabetes symptoms.