We have a number of services and clinics available at our practice with some requiring no appointment. In order to attend an appointment only clinic or surgery, please ring the reception or follow any details provided with the clinic information.
List of Services and Clinics
| Type of Clinic | Clinic run by… | Day of week |
| Antenatal | Midwife | Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday |
| Minor Surgery | Nurse Practitioner | By Appointment |
| Family Planning (Coil & Implants) | Dr Nye | By Appointment |
| Cervical Smears | Practice Nurse | Most weekdays |
| Warfarin (Anticoagulation) | Pharmacist | Monday |
| Blood tests | Health Care Assistant | Most weekdays |
| Smoking Cessation | Health Care Assistant | By appointment |
| Better Health (Asthma/COPD) | Practice Nurse | Most weekdays |
| Childhood Immunisations | Practice Nurse | Monday, Wednesday & Thursday |
| Baby Clinic (6-8 Week) | Dr Harness | Thursday AM |
| B12’s | Health Care Assistant | Most weekdays |
| Spirometry | Health Care Assistant | Most weekdays |
| ECGs | Health Care Assistant | Most weekdays |
| Blood Pressure | Health Care Assistant | Most weekdays |
| NHS Health Checks | Health Care Assistant | |
| Contraceptive Advice | Practice Nurse | |
| Non NHS Services (Chargeable) | ||
Disabled Access
All access to the premises is at street-level and has no steps. All consulting rooms are based on the ground floor. Four disabled parking bays are provided at the front of the surgery. If you require this leaflet in a large print format, please contact Reception.
NHS Health Checks
Introduction
Everyone is at risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease and some forms of dementia. The good news is that these conditions can often be prevented, even if you have a family history of them.
Who can have a check?
You are eligible for a NHS Health Check once every five years if you are between 40 and 74 years old and haven’t already been diagnosed with vascular diseases or have certain risk factors such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol treated by medication.
We are gradually inviting all our eligible patients in for Health Checks, but this takes obviously takes time.
What happens at a check?
There are two parts to an NHS Health Check. First, you will be asked a few simple questions and have a few straightforward health tests. These will allow an assessment of your risk of developing four diseases: heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
The check is normally with one of our Health Care Assistants and takes around 20 to 30 minutes:
- You’ll be asked some simple questions about your family history, whether or not you smoke and how much alcohol you drink.
- Your height, weight, sex, ethnicity and age will be recorded.
- Your blood pressure will be taken.
- A simple blood test will check your cholesterol level.
- Your body mass index (BMI) will be calculated. BMI is a measure of whether you’re a healthy weight for your height.
Wherever possible the blood tests will be done on the day of your health check. This means you will be given the results straightaway along with an explanation of what they mean. You will have the opportunity to ask for advice and support on maintaining good health and on lifestyle measures that can reduce the risk of developing health problems in the future.
Sometimes the blood needs to be sent to the laboratory for testing. This can happen if our machine is out of order or in some people identified as being at increased risk of having diabetes. In this instance, we will write to you with your individual results and advice. If you have questions you can book an appointment with the nurse or doctor.
If the health check identifies any problems, such as a high blood pressure or cholesterol level, an appointment with our nurse practitioner or doctor will be offered.
Shingles Vaccinations
You’re eligible for the shingles vaccine if you are aged 70 to 79.
The shingles vaccine is not available on the NHS to anyone aged 80 or over because it seems to be less effective in this age group.
Find out more about who can have the shingles vaccine.
Prescribing of Sedation For Fear of Flying
Due to a medical safety alert update received from an aviation trained doctor, we at Birtley Medical Group have been advised that we should no longer prescribe sedating drugs called benzodiazepines (diazepam/lorazepam/temazepam or midazolam) for the use of treating fear of flying. We have taken the decision to put our patients’ safety first and to follow this safety guidance and will no longer provide prescriptions for benzodiazepines for these reasons.
1) The use of benzodiazepines cause longer reaction times & slowed thinking, which during a flight will put the passenger at significant risk of not being able to act in a manner which could save their life in the event of a safety critical scenario.
2) The use of benzodiazepines has the potential to increase the risk of DVT (deep vein thrombosis).
3) The sedating effects can reduce respiratory function which has the potential to be life threatening– even more so if there is a combination with alcohol.
4) There is the possibility of increased aggression may be reported by patients taking benzodiazepines and therefore has potential to put other occupants of the aircraft at risk.
5) Benzodiazepines are not recommended for those people with phobic states.
6) For some countries it is illegal to import these drugs and so the passenger will need to use a different strategy for the homeward bound journey and /or any subsequent legs of the journey.
We recommend patients who have fear of flying to research going on fear of flying courses. These
are run by several major airlines and sometimes by local airports. We are unfortunately unable to
recommend any specific courses.