The Nurse can help you with:

• Contraception - New and repeat prescriptions 
  Pre and post coil advice
  Coil Check

• Teenage Health Issues

• Well Woman - New and repeat HRT
  Cytology 
  Swabs & STIs 
  Weight Reduction

• Pre-Conceptual Advice

• Lumps, Bumps & Skincare

• Telephone Advice on Medication/Immunisation

• Chronic Diseases 
  Diabetes
  Coronary Heart Disease 
  Hypertension
  Chronic Kidney Disease

• Pre-arranged Blood Samples

• Contraceptive Repeat Prescriptions

• Emergency Contraception

• Routine Injections

• Smoking Cessation Advice

• Healthy Lifestyle Advice

• Weight Loss Advice

• Travel Vaccines

• Vaginal Swabs

• Blood Pressure Checks

• ECGs

• New Patient Consultations

• Urine Testing

• Baby Immunisations

The Treatment Room/District Nurses can help you with:

• Wound Dressing

• Removal of Sutures

• Ulcers and chronic wounds

• Continence issues and advice

• Care in the home issues e.g. insulin injections in very frail and elderly

Travel Clinic and Yellow Fever Centre

The Place in Wigan for Holiday/Travel Vaccinations, Travel Injections/Jabs and Travel Advice

MASTA Travel Clinic Wigan

We are proud to be now working in partnership with the MASTA travel clinic group, British Airways Preferred Partner for travel health services. The advantages this brings our customers is the bonus of a personalised travel health brief to take away at the end of your consultation.

The clinicians are happy to give travel advice, by appointment in the travel clinic. The travel clinic advises on both vaccination and other health requirements for safe foreign travel. This comprehensive travel health service for all local people offers holiday/travel vaccinations/jabs/injections, and advice on travel related issues includes all vaccinations including Yellow Fever. Fees may apply for non Shakespeare Surgery patients.

Alternatively, you can obtain travel advice from either The Travel Doctor, Fit for Travelor from the Department of Health’s own travel clinic website National Travel Health Network and Centre. Broader health and travel information is also available from the Department of Health as well as safety information from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Following assessment, vaccinations will be scheduled as needed. Please be aware some vaccinations take several weeks to become fully effective so don’t leave arrangements until the last minute to ensure you are fully protected. However for patients at other surgeries don’t miss out on travel vaccinations, we can normally fit you into our travel service to ensure your travel needs are taken care of properly. FEES MAY APPLY for non Shakespeare Surgery patients. 

Please note for some vaccinations there may be a CHARGE.

Yellow Fever Centre

Shakespeare Surgery is a Designated WHO Yellow Fever Centre.

Yellow Fever vaccination is very effective against this deadly disease. It protects you from 10 days after the vaccination, and is administered in a single injection. It is vital that you have this vaccination for all areas where Yellow Fever occurs. The current advice is to have the vaccination repeated every 10 years.

In countries where there are mosquitoes that could transmit the virus, documentation is required before you can obtain permission to enter the country, which states that you have been vaccinated against yellow fever. This can only be provided by a stamp in the Yellow Fever vaccination card issued by a WHO Yellow Fever Vaccination centre.

Not all GP surgeries are allowed to be a Yellow Fever Centre and as such you do not need to be a patient of Shakespeare Surgery for us to vaccinate you against Yellow Fever.

For a list of prices for NON Shakespeare Surgery patients for travel clinic services CLICK HERE.

Malaria

Malaria is a dangerous tropical infection against which you will need to take precautions before travel. 

We will provide private prescriptions for malaria tablets following a consultation with the GP/practice nurse. Before making an appointment for a telephone consultation you should:

• Have a full travel plan for where/when you are going 
• Ensure you are not pregnant or intending to conceive in the time the anti-malaria tablets are being taken 
• Intend using other anti-mosquito precautions such as repellent sprays and bed nets. Further information is available below.
  Please Note: There may be a fee for the private prescription.

Protection Against Mosquito Bites

In the evenings:

• wear long sleeved shirts and long trousers. 
• protect exposed limbs with a diethyltoltuamide-containing insect repellent and wear diethyltoltuamide-soaked ankle and wrist bands. 
• Diethyltoltuamide (DEET) is the most effective repellent and there is vast experience of its use since 1957. It is estimated 200 million people use it each year DEET products should be applied with care to the face as it can irritate mucosal membranes (a skin test can be tried in advance if sensitive skin). Most DEET preparations remain effective on the skin only for 2-4 hours and therefore need effective and regular re-application. 
• Children require similar measure, although there are rare reports of toxicity following excessive use of diethyltoltuamide in young children. 
• Mosquitoes may bite through thin material. An insecticide (premetherin) has become available for spraying onto clothing and is believed to be effective for up to 2 weeks.
• Sleep:

• Ideally sleep in fully air conditioned or screened accommodation. 
• Rooms should also be sprayed with a knockdown insecticide every evening after sun down to eliminate insects that entered during the day. 
• Where room cannot be made safe from insects, use a premetherin impregnated bed net. This provides much greater protection than an ordinary net. Kits for impregnating kits are available, a single treatment will last several months. Use an electrical pyrethoid vaporiser overnight where nets are not used.

Maternity Services

Your community midwife team can be contacted on either 01942 481487 or via the community desk on 01942 481461.  Please contact them directly for further details.

Your health visitor can be contacted at Worsley Mesnes Health Centre on 01942 481480.

The following timetable applies to patients who attend Wigan Infirmary. They are a general guide only and also only apply to uncomplicated pregnancy. They may vary slightly at the Midwife’s/Doctors discretion. Bookings for other hospitals may vary slightly regarding hospital attendance dates and screening, but the care provided at the surgery ante-natal clinics is identical for all patients.

Antenatal Care

Once your pregnancy is confirmed you should book an appointment with the community midwife via this surgery. You will then receive information regarding 1st booking appointment, 1st scan and information about screening tests which you can normally collect from the surgery a few days later.

It is important that you take folic acid vitamin supplements (400 mcg daily) from the start of pregnancy, and ideally as soon as you decide you wish to conceive.  

Postnatal Care

When you and your baby come home from hospital, postnatal care will be provided by your community midwife who may visit you for up 28 days following confinement to provide postnatal care.

Frequencies of visits are determined by the mother’s need.

You are invited to the surgery in the following few days after delivery/arrival home. The idea of this visit is to ensure your general well being and to briefly examine the baby. If you can contact the surgery after your arrival back home after the delivery and let the reception know the circumstances, they will generally arrange to book you in after the end of normal surgery so that the waiting room is fairly empty.

At 6 weeks you should have a post natal examination. This is usually the final check to confirm that the uterus is shrinking back to its normal size as expected. Traditionally at this time we offered a smear to all women. Current advice however is that this only needs to be offered to those women who would routinely be due at this time (or in the previous few months and was delayed due to the pregnancy.) We tend to delay this smear until approx 12 weeks after the delivery to ensure a minimal amount of false abnormal reading due to the after effects of the womb still shrinking down to normal size.

Child Health

Your child will be given a development check by the GP at 6 weeks.

Your child will be given a development check by the health visitor at 9 months, 18 months and 36 months. 

Should there be any concerns about these vaccinations please talk to either the Health Visitor, Practice Nurse or the Doctor so we can fully satisfy your queries and allow these important protective vaccinations to go ahead.

For more information visit the NHS Immunisation Information website.

Click here for more information on the role of the health visitor.

Non-NHS Services

Shakespeare Surgery is primarily a NHS service provider. Due to the background of various individuals within our organisation, and the ethos that Shakespeare Services operates under, there is more to our organisation than might typically be expected. For various reasons some of these services are not available on the NHS.

We therefore offer the following services on a private/consultancy basis for all patients, local residents and companies to take advantage of to suit their needs.

Medicals

Shakespeare Services is the leading local supplier of medicals to a number of Insurance Underwriters as well as Agencies who find local doctors on their behalf.

We guarantee a timely, cost effective service that is also convenient to your clients with numerous times and days always being available. Our experienced Doctors and Nurses provide a professional service in line with your specific requirements, and can undertake not only routine examinations but also a variety of investigations at your request. We are prepared to simply perform examinations or give opinions in line with your needs.

For more information please contact the Medicals Coordinator.

HGV, PSV and Taxi Medicals

We are pleased to able to offer anyone this service. Several local hauliers are pleased to take advantage of the speed and convenience that Shakespeare Services can provide and with our experience in occupational health work we can advise on specific difficult issues that may be related to driving assessments in a broader sense.

General Health Checks and Medicals

Simple general health checks

• Worried about your health?
• Want a general check up?
• Wonder what your blood pressure actually is?
• What’s my cholesterol and should I have it checked?
• How do I loose weight and get fit?
• Do I need an ECG to check my heart?
• Do I need a check for diabetes as it runs in my family?

In today’s increasingly health conscious world there is lots of information around about what appears to be an ideal health but sometimes it feels there are no easy answers about how this relates to you. The local doctor’s surgery often appears to be so busy looking after lots of ill people that you don’t like to bother them with these seemingly trivial queries. But they are important to you and you want to hear answers! After all knowledge is the most powerful resource that we all have. The only way any change occurs is if we make it ourselves.

Shakespeare Services can assist in this process by giving you swift timely advice and information, combined with appropriate examinations and investigations, to help you make the necessary changes that you wish. This will let you see the future as you want it and achieve it now. Part of the way we can help you achieve these changes, when you may have struggled by yourself, is by our innovative use of NLP techniques to help you work out your key triggers so you can decide what works best for yourself.

Second opinion/clarification of matters

Sometimes when you have seen your GP, he may have missed the real concern you were worried about. However, you don’t feel that now you can go back and ask again because you don’t want to appear foolish, asking what may sound like an odd question.

The consultant at the hospital again may have been excellent but because of the time pressures he may have been rushed. This meant that you couldn’t ask all the questions that you wanted. If you contact us we can help you to fill in the gaps.

Sometimes people just plain disagree with what they have been told by their regular sources of medical help such as their GP, and just want a second opinion from an independent source. Shakespeare Services can help to answer sensitively and discretely all questions, and after an appropriate examination, can offer advice to clarify an individual’s concerns.

For more information contact in confidence the practice.

General health information

We are an excellent source of up to date information on all the latest health concerns and offer an instant update service on the breaking news stories and whether or not you need to take any further action yourself.

Please contact us for further information.

Occupational Health Work

Within the organisation of Shakespeare Services we have experience of providing Occupational Health Advice and support. Areas of support available include sickness absence assessment, pre commencement of work medicals and advice along with general on going workforce assessment and support including vaccination programmes.

For more information please contact us.

Non-NHS Fees

The fees charged are based on the British Medical Association (BMA) suggested scales:

Minor Injuries

Leigh Walk-In Centre is open from 7.00am through until 10:00pm six days per week (9:00am - 10:00pm on Sundays). At certain times on a weekend there is a doctor in attendance, for the rest of the time it is staffed by nurse practitioners. They can treat a variety of common problems including breaks, aches, rips, pulls, sprains, gashes, slashes, stitches, itches, falls, bruises and eye injuries.

The Leigh Hospital Walk in Centre/Minor Injuries, is located at Leigh Infirmary, The Avenue, Leigh
(tel: 01942 264000).

Accident and Emergency Dept, Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Wigan Lane, Wigan (tel 01942 822578) is also open seven days a week 24 hours per day for minor and major injuries, as well as more serious medical emergencies. It may have slightly longer waiting times than the walk in centre although benefits from having doctors on site during all times of operation.

Test Results

If you have had any laboratory tests or X-rays you may be asked to ring for the results. 

The telephone lines are busiest between 8.15am - 10.30am so it is helpful if you can ring the general enquiry lines (01942 481531) outside these times. For confidentiality reasons results can only be given to the individual to whom they affect (i.e. not spouses, partners, relatives etc without the express written consent of the individual patient).

For more information on lab tests visit Lab Tests Online UK

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