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)

Latest News

Thank you

Our patient participation group (PPG) has been extremely active in fund raising and has managed to fund all the medical equipment for our new and refurbished premises.  Their contribution to medical equipment has enabled us to refurbish of the existing consulting rooms and the dispensary – neither of which were originally part of the scope of work funded by NHS England. 

Thank you to our PPG, and to the many, many patients and local bodies who have contributed

PPG fund raising activities are still going strong, now raising funds to refurbish the old nurses’ rooms. 

East of England Ambulance Service can now access your data from My Care Record

East of England Ambulance Service can now access your GP medical record under the NHS West Essex My Care Record Initiative. This is for the purpose of direct patient care, and clinicians from the ambulance service should always ask for your consent prior to accessing your record. With your consent, this information can be very helpful to the ambulance service in dealing with you in an emergency. 

National Data Opt out

The National Data Opt Out allows patients to record, at a national level, their desire to opt out of data sharing that is not for the purposes of direct patient care  - particularly, data sharing for research or planning services. 

The opt out register is led nationally by NHS digital, NOT by Thaxted Surgery.  Patients can record their opt out at https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/, or via the NHS App, by calling NHS digital on 0300 303 567, or by writing to NHS digital.

Thaxted Surgery is committed to checking the national opt register and applying opt outs prior to any data sharing other than that for direct patient care.  At the time of updating this policy, our systems supplier, EMIS, have not yet released the capability to do this, but expect to so before compliance becomes mandatory in April 2020.

Coronavirus: when to call 111

The advice to the public is to call NHS 111 now and self-isolate if they have been:

  • to Wuhan or Hubai Province in China, specific northern Italian towns (websitehttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/868103/Map_showing_specified_areas_of_Italy_250220.pdf),  some provinces of South Korea or Iran in the last 14 days (even if they do not have symptoms)

  • to other parts of China, including Macau and Hong Kong, in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if it's mild)

  • to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Republic of Korea or Malaysia in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if it's mild)

  • to the rest of Northern Italy
  • in close contact with someone with confirmed coronavirus

Anyone who meets the above criteria is advised not to go to a GP surgery, community pharmacy or hospital. Instead they should call NHS 111, stay indoors and avoid close contact with other people.

My Care Record

After discussion with our Patient Participation Group, Thaxted Surgery joined My Care Record from 1 September 2019.

My Care Record is a data sharing arrangement between various health and social care providers across West Essex. It allows health and social care professionals to access a patient's medical and social care information for the purpose of direct care of that individual.

Consent must be provided by the patient whenever and wherever the record is accessed.

Patients can also opt out, so that there record is never available for sharing.

The participating organisations are responsible for training staff and implementing audit and training processes to manage the risk of inappropriate data access by rouge or poorly trained staff. 

Currently, Harlow hospital, EPUT (the local district nursing and mental health trust), Essex Social Care and HUC, our new  Out of Hours provider are participating in MyCareRecord.

The My Care Record team are also in discussions with other East of England health and social care organisations with a view to joining up on a wider basis. This may allow our patients records to be available at Addenbrooke’s and Broomfield within the next few years.

To find out more visit www.mycarerecord.org.uk

Please let us know if you would like to opt out.  However, you should be aware that if you opt out hospital doctors, district nurses, weekend/evening doctors and social care professionals will not be able to access your GP medical records should they need to provide you with urgent care.  Alternatively, if you have previously opted out of data sharing and summary care record, and would now like to opt in, please let us know.

Building Work Completed

Our extension and refurbishment project is now completed and we are enjoying our new space. Thank you for the huge support we have received from our community and the many kind words of appreciation for our staff, who have undergone over a year of disruption and consistently managed to keep focused on providing the best patient care that we possibly can.  Please give us your feedback as we settle in and adjust how we work.  

Parking

For the safety of patients and staff, out of respect to our neighbours, and to allow for emergency ambulance access, please DO NOT park on the yellow lines on Margaret Street at any time.  Patients with blue badges may use our marked disabled parking spaces.

New Integrated 111, Out of Hours and Evening/Weekend Service

From April 1 2019, Herts Urgent Care (HUC) have taken over provision of 111, the out of hours emergency doctor service and the extended access pre-bookable weekend/evening appointments for the whole of the West Essex area.  We hope that this will result in a more integrated service for the times when we are closed. 

As part of this, please be aware that, unless you have opted out of data sharing, HUC clinicians will now have the facility to access to your summary care record, with your consent, when you contact them for 111/out of hours emergency consultations.  For prebooked extended access appointments, they will also have the ability to access medical records held by us.  In all cases, the clinician MUST ask for your consent before opening either your summary care record or your medical record. 

Please let the surgery know if you want to opt out of sharing medical data for the purpose of direct patient care.  Alternatively, if you have opted out before but now feel that you would like out of hours clinicians to be able to see your records when you consult with them, please write to us to opt back in.

Weekend and evening appointments are still booked through reception at Thaxted, and are available at Saffron Walden Community Hospital, Dunmow Clinic and now Stansted.

Visting Paramedic

Starting in February 2018, Thaxted Surgery teamed with Saffron Walden, Newport and Steeple Bumpstead surgeries to employ a visiting paramedic, Vicky Bryning.  Vicky can visit patients who are acutely unwell across the North Uttlesford area and often gets there earlier in the day than a GP could. 

Housebound patients with an acute issue should continue to call the surgery to request a visit.  The GPs will then brief Vicky if it is appropriate for her to go.  Vicky will report back to your GP, who remains fully in the loop.   In order to make it work effectively, we do ask that patients who think they might need a visit call us as early as possible in the day – and certainly before 10am. 

This is a pilot project that will be extended if we can demonstrate that it is successful, so please let us have your feedback. 

Physiotherapist Assessment in General Practice

The practice has been piloting physiotherapist assessments in the surgery since December 2017.  Early indications are extremely positive. There are 20 minute appointments for assessment (not treatment) with our physiotherapist, Amanda Adams.  Amanda can provide advice and exercises, prescribe pain killers if appropriate, and refer for investigations (X-ray/ultrasound/ blood tests/MRI/Nerve conduction), for physio treatment or to an orthopaedic consultant if appropriate.  Appointments can be booked directly through reception at the surgery – but please book see a doctor first if there are any possible underlying medical issues such as rheumatoid arthritis.   

Frailty Prevention Extended Reviews 

For patients over 75 who may be beginning to experience the first signs of frailty, the practice now offers extended review appointments with Health Care Assistant followed by GP.  The appointments are an opportunity to review a range of factors including:

  • Mobility
  • Vision and hearing
  • Memory and mood
  • History of falls and bone health
  • Life style (smoking, alcohol, exercise)
  • Social factors and Support network
  • Medication

The aim is to be more proactive, anticipate issues and hold frailty at bay for longer.  Please call the surgery if you would like a review.

Thaxted Surgery participates in the National Diabetes Audit 

Thaxted surgery participates in the National Diabetes Audit, an important and valuable ongoing research project.  This involves sharing anonymous patient data.  If you would like more information, or to opt out, please let us know. 

Evening and Weekend Appointments in Saffron Walden Community Hospital

There are now GP and nurse surgeries in Saffron Walden Community Hospital and Dunmow clinic at weekends and in the evenings.  These are in addition to our own Saturday surgeries, and can be booked through the surgery.   A GP will see you, and with your consent, will have access to your medical records.  Call us in Thaxted if you would like to make an appointment.  

On-line Access to Medical Records

We are able to offer on-line access to information from your medical record about medication, immunisations, allergies and documents.  See our policy on our home page.

All patients now have a named GP

All patients now have a named GP. While, in practical terms, patients will still need to see other GPs depending on availability at the time, the named GP will have oversight of any on-going and longer-term health issues and plans, and should be requested for pre-booked appointments.

Currently, patients have been allocated to GPs on the basis of who they have tended to see in the past. The surgery is happy to alter this on request.

Friends and Family Test

We always welcome your feedback and suggestions.   Please fill out our friends and family forms available on line or in our waiting room. OR use our suggestions box. OR call the practice manager and talk!  

Our policy is to avoid antibiotics for minor infections

Most coughs, sore throats & ear aches get better without antibiotics. Antibiotics make little difference, and the more we use them, the more resistance.

infection

lasts

 

 

Middle-ear

4 days

  • Have plenty of rest.
  • Drink enough fluids to avoid feeling thirsty.
  • Fever is a sign the body is fighting the infection and usually gets better by itself. Use paracetamol or ibuprofen if you or your child are uncomfortable as a result of a fever.

 

Sore throat

7 days

 

Common Cold

10 days         

 

Sinusitis

18 days

 

Cough/ bronchitis

21 days

111 - when you need medical help fast but it`s not an emergency.

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