Latest News

TEXT MESSAGING, ONLINE BOOKING & ONLINE REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS

Published 05/01/12

Our NEW MESSAGING SERVICE will send a text message to your mobile phone, reminding you of your appointment, inviting you to regular health checks and allowing you to cancel appointments by text, without calling the surgery.

To register: pick up a form from Reception or download one from the website (click here), complete and sign it and bring it to the surgery.

Our ONLINE BOOKING SERVICE allows you to make and cancel your own appointments online, as well as to order your repeat prescriptions – saving you a trip to the surgery – what could be easier?

To register you will need to bring in two forms of identification: a photo id such as a passport or photo driving licence and a utility bill showing your current address.

READY TO QUIT SMOKING?

Published 05/01/12

The NHS Quit Kit has been developed by experts, smokers and ex-smokers, and contains practical tools and advice to help you quit smoking. For the first time, the Quit Kit includes a new text support programme to give you that extra help in those tough first weeks. It also includes:

§ a health/wealth wheel, to help you calculate how much you are saving and what improvements you will see to you health

§ tips on how to improve and boost willpower, including a quitting planner to help you identify smoking triggers and gives tips on managing cravings

§ MP3 downloads that are scientifically proven to reduce cravings

§ a wall chart to map your progress

§ a 'tangle' toy to help keep hands busy

§ information on other free quitting help such as local NHS stop smoking services

To find out which pharmacies stock the quit kits, visit www.nhs.uk/smokefree (search by postcode to find your nearest stockist). If you do not have a nearby participating pharmacy, you can order a quit kit online at www.nhs.uk/smokefree or www.smokefree.nhs.uk.

NEW SEXUAL HEALTH SERVICE

Published 03/01/12

This is a service that tests and treats for sexually transmitted infections. The service is provided at Dyneley House Surgery Skipton - telephone 01756 799811, Crosshills Group Practice - telephone 0844 4773030 and Townhead Surgery Settle - telephone 01729 822611. This is a patient self-referral service, which means, to get an appointment you simply ring the surgery you would prefer to be seen at and ask for a sexual health appointment. Each of the surgeries has specially dedicated sexual health appointments and should be able to offer you one within 48 hours. As noted, the service is a confidential one and records are kept on paper at the practice in which you are seen and not on your normal GP’s practice system. Unless you would prefer your record to be kept there, no record will be sent to your normal GP.

INFLUENZA VACCINATIONS

Published 03/01/12

If you suffer from chronic illnesses such as Diabetes, Heart Disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Chronic Renal Failure, or are taking medicines which affect your immune system, or if you are caring for a person in any of those categories, your doctor strongly recommends that you take the opportunity to have the vaccination to protect yourself against influenza .

EXTENDED ACCESS SURGERY TIMES AND 'SAME DAY APPOINTMENTS'

Published 07/09/11

EXTENDED ACCESS APPOINTMENTS:

These are available in the mornings on Mondays and Tuesdays and in the evening on Mondays.

The scheme (from 1/9/11) is as follows:-

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
7:00AM	7:00AM	8:00AM	8:000AM	8:00AM	Occasional
To	To	To	To	To
7.30PM	6.00PM	6:00PM	6:00PM	6:00PM

These appointments will be bookable at Reception, by telephone or on-line through this website: fmcentre.org.uk

SAME DAY APPOINTMENTS:

If you need to contact the doctor urgently, you will be offered a number of options. 1. A routine appointment with your own doctor, or another practice GP, but these may not be available immediately.
2. A telephone call from one of the duty doctors if you need advice.
3. Where there is a sudden and serious medical need, a short appointment with one of the duty doctors on that day. These short appointments will be made available in thirty minute blocks throughout the afternoon, and you may have to wait for a short time to be seen. We will try to ensure that this wait is no more than half an hour.

4. Home visits may be made where a patient is unable to attend the surgery and a doctor has confirmed that a visit is necessary

TEST RESULTS AND PRESCRIPTION COLLECTION

Published 06/08/11

From Monday 8th August 2011, the following times will apply:-

For Test Results

Please telephone between 10:30am and 12:30pm, Monday to Friday

For Prescription Collection

Please collect between 3pm amd 6pm, Monday to Friday. Please leave two clear working days between requesting and collection. i.e. A request before 11am on Monday can be collected after 3pm on Wednesday and a request made before 11am on Thursday would be available the following Monday. Extra days will be required for Bank Holidays.

THE SUMMARY CARE RECORD

Published 28/07/11

The NHS in England is introducing the Summary Care Record, which will be used in emergency care situations.The record will contain information about your medication, any allergies, or any bad reactions to medicines. This information will be available to authorised health care staff providing your care anywhere in England to help them to treat you safely

Please follow these links for more information. The Summary Care Record The Care Record Guarantee Opt-out Form

There is more information at www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk and a telephone helpline on 0300 123 3020

PASSPORT COUNTERSIGNATURES

Published 17/01/11

One of the things we will be focusing on in 2011 is helping patients to make the best, most effective use of our services. In the cold and dark of the New Year our thoughts usually turn to the great things that wil happen for us in the coming year – a holiday being one of them. We frequently get requests for doctors to sign passport application forms. Doctors at Fisher do not provide this service but we do have a list of other people who can sign the forms who you may like to ask instead (Click here to view the list)

ASPIRIN and CANCER RISK

Published 10/12/10

Get the facts behind this story from ‘NHS Choices’

FISHER MEDICAL CENTRE - PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP

Published 29/11/10

CLICK HERE FOR THE Patient Participation Group Newsletter – November 2010

9th June 2010, Skipton - Patients at Skipton’s Fisher Medical Centre can now have a real say in what services their surgery offers thanks to the newly formed Fisher Patient Participation Group, (Fisher PPG), the first of its kind in Skipton. Over 350 GP practices across the UK operate PPGs and they assist in promoting high medical and healthcare standards for patients.

[Click here to view the Patient Participation Group Constitution]

Fisher PPG will help patients to better use the Fisher Medical Centre’s facilities at its Skipton and Gargrave bases and encourage the practice to implement policies that patients have recommended. Chaired by John Price, the committee has 12 patient members with practice manager Linden Veitch and one of Fisher’s 10 GPs.. Says John Price: “This is a real case of patient power. PPGs have worked extremely well in other regions and we will draw on that expertise to ensure that we provide a forum for feedback from patients to suggest improvements to existing services and recommendations for new services at the medical centre.” Says Linden Veitch: “We are delighted to be the first medical practice in Skipton to offer a patient participation group. The Fisher Patient Participation Group will work in partnership with our administrative, medical and nursing staff to help us deliver the best possible healthcare to our patients in the Craven area.”Last month the Fisher Medical Centre opened two new consulting rooms, named after three generations of Goodall GPs, to provide clinics for patients with long-term diseases, such as diabetes and lung disease.

Royal College of General Practitioners - Weekly Returns Programme

Published 15/11/10

Information is extracted from the practice computer on a regular basis describing the diseases reported by Doctors, vaccinations given, and information about selected prescriptions. This information is collected in a completely anonymous way so your information is protected at all times. If you would like to know more about this we have a leaflet available in the waiting rooms called the Royal College of General Practitioners The Weekly Returns Service Surveillance Programme Patient Information Leaflet (or click here to download), If you want any further information about this please contact Linden Veitch the Practice Manager for more details.

Denture Provider at Fisher Medical Centre

Published 25/08/10

Doug Heaysman Dip CDT, RCS, (Eng) MCDP, MDTA, DD, has over 30 years experience as a dental technician. He is now able to offer appointments at FMC on Tuesday afternoons.

To make an appointment, contact Reception at FMC (01756 799622) or at the Albert Road Denture Centre in Colne (01282 862823)

Registered Member of the Clinical Dental Technicians Association (CDTA)

Take Your Own BP!

Published 04/09/09

We have been very lucky to have received a generous donation from the Friends of Skipton Hospital which has enabled us to provide a machine on which, as a registered patient, you can now take your own blood pressure recording before you see your GP or Nurse. This is designed to save you time because it also means if you need to recheck your blood pressure then you can do so without having to make another appointment (unless the Doctor or Nurse specifically asks you to). There is an added bonus if you were prone to the common condition known as “white coat hypertension” (when having your blood pressure taken by a Doctor or Nurse raises your blood pressure). This has been shown to prevent that and so to provide a more accurate reading for those people. The BP Machine is situated in the stairwell between the ground and first floor waiting rooms (this is temporary arrangement until we find a more suitable home for it). Please do give it a try. We would like to once again express out thanks to the Friends of Skipton Hospital who so kindly helped us to provide this service.

Chlamydia Testing

Published 04/09/09

As part of providing a new and improved Sexual Health Service, we now provide kits which patients can use to take their own samples and send them off to the lab for Chlamydia Testing. This is currently for 18-25 year olds only (patients under 18 or under 25 will need to see their GP to be tested). The kits are stocked in the toilets so that people can collect them anonymously, take the specimen and post them off to the lab. The instructions are in the kits and you will find them easy to use. The results will be texted or posted out to you.

Lymphoedema Clinic

Published 19/08/09

The new Lymphoedema Clinic for Craven is provided by the Physiotherapy Department at Wharfdale Hospital in Otley and is run here each Wednesday. To be referred to this clinic you will need to ask your GP to refer you to the Lymphoedema Service at Wharfdale.

SMOKING STATUS

Published 10/02/09

Stopping smoking is still one of the most significant steps you can take to improve your health. Services are available from Fisher Medical Centre and other NHS organisations to help you give up.

To ensure that suffcient provision is being made, we need to know how many of our patients are smokers and non-smokers.

Please help us by informing us of your current smoking status when you next contact the surgery.