Making Access easier for all

Evening and Weekend Appointments are available with all clinical staff for routine pre-booked services.
We are committed to improving access to primary care services.

This includes making appointments available at times that are convenient for you.
If you:
● find it difficult to attend an appointment during the working day.
● are a busy parent with small children;
● or rely on working carers to take you to appointments.

then this service is here to support you!

Evening and weekend appointments – ‘8 Til L8’

About the service

The Fylde Coast NHS has arranged for additional appointments to be provided outside of normal GP practice hours by the Fylde Coast Integrated Urgent Care Service.

The service offers pre-bookable and same-day routine primary care appointments with a range of clinicians including GPs, nurses and health care assistants. Appointments are available for both face-to-face and virtual (telephone or video) consultations.

Please be aware that this is not a walk-in service – you must have an appointment.

The service employs local clinicians from the Fylde Coast, where possible.

Appointments

An appointment must have been booked in advance of visiting the service.

When your GP practice is open
To book an appointment, contact your GP practice.

When your GP practice is closed
Appointments may also be booked when the service in Blackpool, Fleetwood, Freckleton, Garstang and Over Wyre is open, by calling 01253 952950.

Appointments are for pre-bookable and same-day routine and not for urgent care. If urgent care is required please call NHS111 for advice.

When you book an appointment the practice will ask you for consent to share your detailed GP record with the clinician providing the care.

Should you need to cancel your appointment please contact your GP practice. If your GP practice is closed, please call 01253 952950 to cancel.

Where to go

Blackpool:

Whitegate Health Centre
150 Whitegate Drive
Blackpool
FY3 9ES

Fleetwood:

Fleetwood Health and Wellbeing Centre
Dock Street
Fleetwood
FY7 6HP

Freckleton:

Freckleton Health Centre
Douglas Drive
Freckleton
PR4 1RY

Garstang:

Garstang Medical Practice
Kepple Lane
Garstang
PR3 1PB

Support your GP surgery so it can be there to support you.

General practice in England has faced an extremely challenging time during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Face-to-face contact has been limited to protect patients and reduce the risk of infection. But even after the pandemic, general practice will continue to struggle to meet the needs of patients. 

With the number of GPs falling (due to lack of recruitment and retention) whilst the population rises, demands on GPs are higher than ever. There are millions of patients whose treatment has been delayed due to the pandemic, more tests to administer and additional bureaucracy. GP workload is becoming unmanageable.

GPs and their teams cannot meet this challenge without more support. In signing this petition, we are calling on the UK Government to provide the funding and commitment needed to urgently increase the number of GPs, practice nurses and other practice staff and to improve the premises in which they work. This will help GP practices in England to meet the growing needs of people in our ties, providing the care we and our families need.

Please click on the link below to sign the petition :-

https://e-activist.com/page/88027/petition/1?locale=en-GB

We are aware of concerns being raised regarding the sharing of GP patient data starting next month.

NHS Digital plans to collect data from GP practices nationally to support planning and research for future services.

This does not include sharing personally identifiable information.

If you do not wish for your data to be shared, you can opt out. In order to ensure your data is not shared at the time of the first data extraction on 1 July, you should do this by 23 June. You can opt out at a later date if you wish to.

For the full details, click below

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research/advice-for-the-public?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Orlo

NHS extended vaccination programme for flu in ages 50-64 years.

The practice has made excellent progress in reaching vaccination targets for children, over 65 year old patients and for patients with high risk conditions. In this unusual COVID19 year the NHS is undertaking an extended flu vaccination programme this winter to include patients over the age of 50.

This is a free flu jab programme aimed at protecting a larger proportion of the population from flu when there is the risk from COVID19. COVID means getting a flu jab is more important than ever this year.

The practice is now booking patients in for their flu jab for the 50-64 year age group with text invitations and by phone to ensure we are booking into clinics alongside vaccine deliveries. We are working efficiently to make sure everyone gets vaccinated as soon as possible. Look out for your invite in the next week or so.

Lancashire and South Cumbria has been chosen by NHS England to be a national pilot for the digitisation  of Medical Records. Scanning these papers based records and making them digital will enable better utilisation of space, creating more clinical space, staff areas, multi team space and video hubs, removing the need for some practices to build extensions. In addition it will also make your record more easily and speedily accessible to clinical staff with your practice.

Your complete GP medical record will be digital and stored in a secure cloud based clinical system (only accessible by your GP practice) with the paper based records being securely destroyed following secure destruction of confidential material. Your GP will still be able to access your records easily within the system. The scanning and destruction of the paper records will follow strict data protection guidelines adhered by the NHS. As with paper based records, digital records are stored for the duration specified  in the records management code of practice – see link below. For GP patient records, this states that they may be destroyed 10 years after the patient’s death if they are no longer needed.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/records-management-code-of-practice-for-health-and-social-care

If you wish to discuss this scheme, please inform the Practice with by letter or via e-mail at [email protected]

Please note that it is not a GPs responsibility to issue school letters of absence for your children. Government guidance is that school attendance is mandatory unless your child is self-isolating, has symptoms of COVID-19 or is close to someone who has COVID-19.’

‘The Government has stated that from September school attendance will be mandatory once again.  This decision has been taken because the current level of risk of infection is low and therefore “perceived risk of COVID to child or parent” will not be considered adequate grounds for a child to not attend school’ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/schools-and-colleges-to-reopen-in-full-in-september

Please note that parents should still make arrangements to contact their GP in the normal way if their child is ill.

In order to operate flu vaccination clinics this year we have had to factor in social distancing in our plans, so things are going to be a little different.

Who should get the flu vaccine?

This year the flu vaccine is being offered on the NHS to:

• – adults aged 65 and over (including anyone who will be 65 by the 31st March 2021)
• – people with certain medical conditions (including children in at-risk groups from 6 months of age)
• – pregnant women
• – carers – including people living with someone who’s at high risk of coronavirus (on the NHS shielded patient list)
• – children aged 2 and 3 on 31st August 2020
• – children in primary school (via school ONLY)
• – children in year 7 (via school ONLY)
• – frontline health or social care workers

If you are unsure whether you are eligible for a free flu jab, please contact the surgery and we will be able to advise you.

All eligible patients should receive an invite either by text, phone or a letter.

Housebound/Care Home Patients

Our close relationship with the Central West Community team means that once again this year they will providing our housebound patients and care home patients with their flu vaccinations. We expect these visits to begin in September/October.

Home visits are very limited and so are strictly reserved only for those who physically couldn’t get into a car or public transport to attend an appointment even with help from a friend, family or a taxi.

I’m aged 50-64 am I also now eligible?

Later in the year the flu vaccine is expected to be available to people aged 50-64 regardless of any pre-existing medical condition.

More information will be available to the 50-64 ‘newly eligible’ patients later in the autumn and until then, appointments are only being opened up to be booked by those patients who were already eligible. We have to prioritise vaccine stock for the most vulnerable patients first.

• If you’re aged 50 to 64 but also in another at-risk group, you should book for your flu vaccine and not wait.
• If you’re aged 50 to 64 and were not already in an at risk group, please ensure the practice has a correct mobile number for you, as details will be sent by text about the availability of additional vaccines later in the season.

What’s changed from previous years?

We are running separate clinics for patients 65+, 64 and under and for children.

All patients attending for their vaccination will have to be ‘ready’ before entering the surgery. This means wearing a face covering, removing jackets and rolling sleeves up. The nurses have to clean down the room after every patient, so this will help to keep our appointments as close to time as possible. We also ask that you only arrive around 5 minutes prior to your appointment time to minimise queuing.

When are the flu appointments available to be booked into?

We’ve recently started inviting those patients who are eligible for a flu vaccine so appointments are available to book now.

Can I have my flu vaccine when I am coming to the surgery for another medical reason?

Yes, but only if you have an appointment with a GP, Nurse, Nurse Practitioner or PCA, you are eligible and only if time and stock allows on the day.

This will only apply to appointments after the following dates:
– From 07th September onwards for the over 65s
– From the beginning of October onwards for the under 65s.
– From mid November (we believe) for the newly eligible 50-64 year olds