Noticeboard

Dispensing Turnaround Times

Please be aware that due to increased workload, patient safety and increasing stock shortages we have increased our dispensing turnaround from 48 hours to 72 hours. We now require at least 72 working hours to fulfil repeat prescriptions, not including weekends or Bank Holidays. More details can be found on the Prescriptions page.

Tuesday 12th March 2024  - Surgery Shutdown

The surgery (along with other surgeries across West Essex and Hertfordshire) will be closed for essential staff and clinical training between 1.30 to 5.30 pm on Tuesday 12th March 2024. If you need medical advice or assistance while the surgery is closed, please visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 (free call from any landline or mobile). If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please phone 999. 

Thursday 15th February 2024  - Surgery Shutdown

The surgery (along with other surgeries across West Essex and Hertfordshire) will be closed for essential staff and clinical training between 1.30 to 5.30 pm on Thursday 15th February 2024. If you need medical advice or assistance while the surgery is closed, please visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 (free call from any landline or mobile). If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please phone 999. 

Wednesday 17th January 2024  - Surgery Shutdown

The surgery (along with other surgeries across West Essex and Hertfordshire) will be closed for essential staff and clinical training between 1.30 to 5.30 pm on Wednesday 17th January. If you need medical advice or assistance while the surgery is closed, please visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 (free call from any landline or mobile). If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please phone 999. 

Thaxted Surgery is closed on 23 & 24 December and on Christmas and Boxing Day. We reopen as usual at 8am on  27/28 and 29 December. We will be closed New Years Day and open again at 8am on the 2nd January 2024.

Please see a link below to local pharmacy opening times over the Christmas period.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/east-of-england/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2023/12/Hertfordshire-West-Essex-1.pdf 

Increase in Prescription Charges

Please be aware that prescription charges (set by the Government) increase from £9.35 per item to £9.65 from April 1. 

If you have more than three prescriptions items in three months (or 11 in 12 months), you could save money with a pre-payment certificate issued by the NHS Business Services Authority. You will have to to show the certificate when collecting your medication. See here for further details.

New pre-payment certificate for HRT

The Department of Health and Social Care are introducing the HRT PPC to reduce the cost of HRT prescriptions. This service will be available from 1 April 2023 and you can find out more information and buy one by following the link below.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-hormone-replacement-therapy-prescription-prepayment-certificate-hrt-ppc

Wednesday 8th February - Surgery Shutdown

Thaxted Surgery will be closed for essential clinical and staff training on Wednesday, February 8th 2023 from 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm. If you need medical advice or assistance while the surgery is closed, please visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 (free call from any landline or mobile). If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please phone 999.

Wednesday 11th January - Surgery Shutdown

Thaxted Surgery will be closed for essential clinical and staff training on Wednesday, January 11th 2023 from 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm. If you need medical advice or assistance while the surgery is closed, please visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 (free call from any landline or mobile). If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please phone 999.

Christmas and New Year 2022/23 Closures

Thaxted Surgery will be closed Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th December and Monday 2nd January. If you need medical advice or assistance while the surgery is closed, please visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 (free call from any landline or mobile). If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please phone 999. 

Pharmacy opening times over the Christmas period

https://www.england.nhs.uk/east-of-england/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2022/11/West-Essex.pdf

https://www.england.nhs.uk/east-of-england/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2022/11/Mid-Essex.pdf

Wednesday 9th November - Surgery Shutdown

Thaxted Surgery will be closed for essential clinical and staff training on Wednesday, November 9 2022 from 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm. If you need medical advice or assistance while the surgery is closed, please visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 (free call from any landline or mobile). If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please phone 999.

Bank Holiday 19th September

Please note that Monday 19 September 2022 has been declared a bank holiday – the day of the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Surgery will be CLOSED on this day. If you are in need of medical help on the 19th please call 111 or in the event of an emergency dial 999.

We will be contacting patients who have pre-booked appointments for that day to make alternative arrangements.

Flu and COVID vaccinations

We will be restarting vaccination clinics at Lord Butler from Saturday 1st October. These clinics will be for both flu and COVID vaccinations. You will receive text messages over the next few weeks inviting you to book online. The clinics will run all day every Saturday until mid November and possibly beyond.

Please support your local surgery and come along to Lord Butler for your vaccinations. If you have any queries please contact us via email/at reception or via the link below under "Contacting the surgery for routine issues.

Hearing Help returns to the surgery

Starting Wednesday 14th September Hearing Help will be running monthly clinics here in the surgery. Clinic times are 1330 - 1530. They will have a technical wizard to look at hearing aids  and a receptionist to help patients. All appointments must be pre-booked directly with Hearing Help NOT via the surgery.

You can book via telephone on  01245 496 347 or via

their website https://hearinghelpessex.org.uk/

Provisional Clinic dates are as follows:

12 October/ 9th November/14th December/11th January 2023/8th February 2023

Pharmacy Opening Information over August Bank Holiday

https://www.england.nhs.uk/east-of-england/nhs-england-and-nhs-improvement-east-of-englands-work/pharmacy-information/

We are currently running on skeleton staff in dispensary and reception due to illness. Things make take a little longer than usual to be actioned/answered - please bear with us during this time. Many thanks.

Advance Notice - closure of B184 Walden Road

Please note that there will be a full road closure on the B184 at Armitage Bridge, just outside of Thaxted from 8 August. Please remember to allow enough/extra time to get to your appointments.

Online Booking

We are delighted to say that online booking is allowed again. We have reinstated it across both pre bookable and urgent on the day appointments. Access is available for urgent on the day appointments from 6am. Please note that all online appointments are automatically a face to face appointment. If you want a telephone appointment please state this very clearly in the booking reason and include phone number in the details.

Mother and Baby Group

First Tuesday in every month at Crocus Medical Practice, Community Hospital Site, Radwinter Road, Saffron Walden CB11 3HY 1230-1400.

COVID Recovery Group

This is an informal group for patients recovering from COVID. It is run by Kim Clark, our PCN Social Prescriber and offers tea, coffee and a chat. The group meets every other Thursday and the next date is 21 October. They meet at Cornell Court, Smallbridge road, Saffron Walden CB11 3NS.

Contacting the surgery for routine issues
If you need help with non-urgent clinical issues, medication requests or an admin request you can now contact us online at https://florey.accurx.com/p/F81131.

Concerned about your information being shared?  What you need to know.

Patient data from GP medical records kept by GP practices in England is used respectfully, securely and safely every day to improve health, care and services through planning and research, helping to find better treatments and improve patient care.  Data collected by the NHS is only used for health and care purposes. It is never shared with marketing or insurance companies.

The NHS is planning to introduce an improved way for GP practices to share information about patients- called the General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.  News of these plans has caused some concern to some of our patients, who have decided that they don’t want their data to be involved.

We have now been informed that no data will be shared in this new way until 1 September this year.  This delay is to enable the national organisation NHS digital to clearly explain their plans to the public and health professionals, as well as to thoroughly investigate any concerns that have been raised.

If you have already been in touch with the practice to ask to be ‘opted out’ of your identifiable information being shared outside of our practice for any purpose, your request will be honoured.  This will not affect your own care. However, nobody’s data will be shared in this new way before 1 September.  If you would like to find out more about why the NHS collects and uses data, please go to this website.

Please see the link below for information regarding the COVID vaccination and blood clots. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-and-blood-clotting/covid-19-vaccination-and-blood-clotting

Repeat Medication - please don't telephone the surgery to order repeat medication. The Prescriptions tab at the top of the website has the details of how to order your repeat medication.

Where to get Help and Support.

The Council for Voluntary Services (CVSU) and UDC has set up a dedicated service to identify those in need and to co-ordinate the volunteer help to support them.  If you need help or wish to offer your services, please contact CVSU:

communityresponse@uttlesford.gov.uk or tel: 03333 408 2118 (8am to 8pm Monday to Friday)

Accessibility Statement

This website is run by My Surgery Website, however the content is maintained by the business it represents. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • Zoom in up to 200% without text spilling off the screen
  • Navigate the website using just a keyboard
  • Navigate the website using speech recognition software
  • Listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Call or email us

Email: enquiries@mysurgerywebsite.co.uk

Telephone: 0333 433 0021

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us via the email below with the subject “Accessibility Problem”.

Email: enquiries@mysurgerywebsite.co.uk

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Northern Ireland

The Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

My Surgery Website is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

This website is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies;

  • NVDA with Internet Explorer
  • NVDA with Google Chrome
  • NVDA with Firefox
  • NVDA with Edge
  • NVDA with Safari
  • JAWS with Internet Explorer
  • JAWS with Google Chrome
  • JAWS with Firefox
  • JAWS with Edge
  • JAWS with Safari

How our site looks and work is based on HTML5, and we test for and support the following browsers:

  • Google Chrome (versions in support)
  • Mozilla Firefox (versions in support)
  • Internet Explorer (version 10 and above)
  • Microsoft Edge (versions in support)
  • Apple Safari (versions in support)

Technical specifications

This website relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

  • HTML
  • WAI-ARIA
  • JavaScript

UserWay accessibility Widget

The UserWay Accessibility Widget offers a broad selection of functions that patients can use to meet their individual accessibility needs.

UserWay provides the following accessibility functionality:

  • Increase Text Size
  • Stop Animations
  • Tooltips
  • Convert to Accessible Fonts
  • Highlight Links
  • Larger Cursor
  • Reading Guide
  • Dark Mode
  • Light Mode
  • Invert Colours
  • Text Spacing
  • Colour Desaturation

Compliance Status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

  • The structure of all the pages throughout the site may affect users using assistive technology and keyboard navigation.
  • The text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window.
  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text.
  • Some form elements are missing descriptions.
  • Some elements may be missing keyboard focus.
  • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader.
  • Some links identified only by colour.
  • Some link text is used for multiple different destinations.
  • Colour contrast in some areas is insufficient.
  • Some image links are missing alternative text.
  • Heading is missing text in some areas.
  • Some heading elements are not consistent.
  • An iFrame used on the site is missing a title.
  • HTML tags are used to format text in some places.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

How we tested this website

We conduct internal testing against known accessibility issues which are not able to be found through automated testing. 

This statement was prepared on 16th February 2024. It was last reviewed on 16th February 2024 by My Surgery Website. We tested the home page and 10 random pages. Next review due 30th December 2024 by My Surgery Website

Accessible features we test manually

  • manual check against the W3C validator
  • examining microdata markup and alt text using special tools
  • checking content in a text-only browser
  • using screen readers to read text aloud
  • using disability simulation tools to browse the website

Accessible features we test using third party tools

Axe: Web Accessibility Testing

Site Improve Accessibility Checker

WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

 
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