Dear Patients,

We are now required to keep our online system open all day for routine enquiries only. This change has been made by national contract, despite concerns raised by practices.

If your issue is urgent or acute, please call us or come in person. This helps us understand your situation better and make sure you get the right care quickly.

We still have limited staff and resources, so we may need to close the request list once we reach capacity.

When you submit a request, our team will review it and decide the best way to help. If you have a preference—like seeing a specific doctor or having a face-to-face appointment—please include it in the “Any other information” box. We’ll try to meet your request, but we can’t always guarantee it.

We’ve also shared the British Medical Association’s (BMA) response to this contract change, which explains why it’s challenging for practices to manage safely.

Since this system is not under our control, we won’t be able to respond to complaints about how it works. If you have concerns, you can report them centrally (link to be added) or contact your MP.

You are always welcome to contact us about any concerns regarding your clinical care.

We appreciate your patience and support as we try to make this work. We’ll do our best to answer your questions, though we may not always have all the answers. We’ll also be collecting anonymous data to help improve things.

Thank you,

Parklands Medical Practice Team

Our Practice Charter

View our practice charter here.

Workforce Challenges

We would like to share some of the difficulties we are experiencing with gaps in our workforce.  Recently we have said goodbye to receptionists, nurses and doctors, mainly due to the level of verbal abuse levelled at the team by patients.

Abuse has increased significantly over the last 2 years leaving us with a front of house team with little experience.  Please be tolerant of any minor mistakes that may be made and be assured that the staff are doing their best to accommodate what the patients need.

At times it may be necessary to cancel or move appointments at short notice due to gaps in our teams.  We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience this can cause, however, any rude or abusive behaviour towards any staff member is not acceptable.

We have a zero-tolerance policy towards rude and abusive behaviour. Any patient in breach of this policy will be contacted in writing and in some cases may be removed from the practice list.

We appreciate your cooperation at what is a challenging time for all of us.

Community Action Bradford & District, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, and Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership (Act as One) have worked alongside voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to establish a network of Warm Spaces throughout the district this winter

Cost of Living Bradford - Warm Spaces

Is your child feeling poorly?

You can download a handy booklet to help you know what to do and when to access health services when your child is feeling poorly. The booklet gives you advice about how to help treat your child at home when they have a common childhood illness like a cough, a cold or sickness and diarrhoea. Also included is some advice about asthma.

Is your child poorly leaflet

Care Navigation

When you ring to book a GP appointment, you might notice the reception team will ask you for a brief outline of how they can help you.

This is because we have introduced something called Care Navigation. It means reception teams at GP practices across Bradford District and Craven have been trained to ensure they can help you to find the best service for your needs, so you can receive the right care more quickly.

The service is  for all patients and anything you share will be kept confidential.

Through this specialist training, reception teams will be able to direct you to the most appropriate clinician or service for your needs.

Reception staff will never offer clinical advice. Instead, this new way of working is about offering your choice to see more appropriate professionals in your local practice team or even somewhere else. If they can deal with the problem directly, it will often be quicker and means you may not need to see a GP at all.

By working this way, it helps to free-up time for GPs to care for patients with complex or serious health conditions that can only be managed by a doctor. More importantly though, it means people are seen first by the clinician that is best placed to help you with your health needs.

For more information please click the link below.

http://www.bradforddistrictsccg.nhs.uk/your-health-and-services-/care-navigation/

EXTENDED ACCESS SERVICE – INFORMATION FOR PATIENTS

This practice is part of the extended access service which provides GP, Physiotherapy, Nurse, and Health care assistant appointments from the following locations (hubs) across Bradford: 

- North hub: Shipley Medical Practice, Alexandra Road, Shipley, Bradford BD18 3EG

- Central hub: Picton Medical Centre, Westbourne Green Community Health Care Centre, Manningham, Bradford, BD8 8RA

- South hub: The Ridge Medical Practice, Cousen Road, Bradford, BD7 3JX

 As a patient registered with this practice, you have access to the following:

Weekday appointments

Evening appointments (6.30pm – 9.30pm) at any of the three hubs to see one of the following, subject to availability:

-  GP

- Physiotherapist

- Nurse

- Health care assistant

- Voluntary sector services

Weekend appointments

Weekend appointments are available with a GP from 10.00am - 1.00pm on Saturdays and Sundays from the central hub, subject to availability.

More information about appointments with the extended access service

The service is run by Bradford Care Alliance, which represents all GP practices in the Bradford area. Medical appointments are with GPs and other healthcare staff who work in the area; so your appointment may not be with a clinician from this practice. 

To use the service we will ask for your consent to share your medical record and our reception staff will explain what this means and why it is necessary. Click here to learn more about how and why we process your information.  

Further details of the services and location maps are available here.

Domestic Abuse

Part of our role is to support patients experiencing domestic abuse, this might mean you feel unsafe at home or that someone you love makes you feel frightened. Please let the receptionist know that is why you are calling if you can.

If you need support out of hours, please click here: https://bradford-dasv.co.uk/ or in an emergency call 999

General Data Protection Regulation

On Friday 25th May 2018 the General data Protection Regulation comes into force.  This regulation ensures that the practice will have processes in place which ensure that all information held about patients and staff is secure.  for further information please see the practice Privacy Notice accessible at the bottom of this web page. If you wish family members to speak to the practice on your behalf you must give us permission to do so.

LARC service

(Long acting reversible contraceptive)

Staffing pressures mean the practice can no longer offer this service in house at this time.  

Contraceptive and sexual health services can be accessed from LOCALA.

www.locala.org.uk

Contact centre for appointments and advice

030 3330 9500

Monday-Friday  08.30-16.30

February 2017

The practice hopes to deliver these services again soon once staffing shortages have been addressed.

The GP Patient Survey

Some patients registered at the surgery will soon receive a questionnaire about their experiences of local health services.

The survey covers issues such as access to services and satisfaction with treatment.

If you receive a survey please fill it in and return it as soon as possible.

It is really important that your views are heard.

Your response will help improve services we provide for our patients.

Dental Emergencies

Patients who have a dental emergency but do not have access to a dentist should contact NHS 111. 

We do have an email address (parklands.patients@nhs.net) for non-urgent non-clinical matters which may be easier to access safely. This is not checked every day so please do not use this if you require urgent assistance. If you send us an email asking for help or advice, we will arrange for someone to call you back as soon as we can.