Latest News

Congratulations to our Practice Nurse Danielle and our Assistant Practitioner Adele

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our practice nurse Danielle on passing her cervical screening exam with flying colours! 

Smear tests can now be booked with Danielle as well as Dr Dixon at the practice.

If you have received an invite letter please call us to arrange a smear with us!

We would also like to congratulate Adele who has recently passed her exams in becoming a fully qualified Assistant Practitioner.

We are very proud of the hard work and commitment shown from both of these employees. 

Prescription Alert

We would like to encourage all our patients to order their prescription via email, the NHS app, the online patient access app, hand deliver requests to the surgery or via telephone.

Due to the high volume of telephone calls and waiting times we would advise that ordering via the telephone should be a last option and the alternate options listed above would be more beneficial and efficient.

Thanking you in advance for your patience and understanding

Prescription request and Test result update

Please be aware prescription requests now need to be ordered between the hours of 11:00am and 16:30pm anything requested after this time will not be processed until the following working day. All prescription requests will still take up to 48 hours to process.

For test results patients will need to ring the surgery 5-7 working days after investigations such as blood tests/urine samples and swabs for their results. We do not ring patients with these results, it is the patient’s responsibility to check these themselves. Please note other test requests such as radiology requests can take longer. We also do NOT receive MRI / CT scan results routinely, these are sent direct to the consultant who requested the test initially. When you or a patient ring the surgery for test results please ring between 11:00am and 16:30pm. No test results will be given out of these hours. 

Please note if you ring the surgery for these requests out of the times you will be asked to ring back.

Chronic Disease and Long Term Condition Recalls 

Last year we started trying to introduce a “month of birth” annual review system for patients who have a chronic disease or who have regular check-ups and blood tests. Going forward patients will be contacted by the surgery in their month of birth or slightly before and invited for their reviews, this should mean that patients need to attend for fewer appointments as multiple tests and checks can be done at the same time. When you receive your invite, it is important that you contact the surgery and book an appointment. If you feel you are overdue your review please contact the surgery, please also note that initially you may end up being reviewed twice in one year.

We would like to advise patients that the fastest way to update you on important information, such as COVID-19 booster clinics is to send a text message through our messaging service. These messages are sent to all registered patients who have not opted out of the text messaging service not on an individual basis. We apologise if these messages do not apply to you, please ignore them and delete. We appreciate your understanding and patients in this matter.

Services update statement from Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership

Hospitals in Greater Manchester are starting to resume non-urgent surgery and appointments. If your appointment or surgery was recently postponed, please wait to hear from the hospital when they are able to reschedule your appointment. There is no need to contact the hospital or your GP practice for this information.

At the beginning of January, the difficult decision was made to pause non-urgent surgery and appointments due to the impact of COVID-19 and the associated staff absence levels. Although services remain busy, the situation has improved to the point where hospitals can start to resume non-urgent surgery. Hospitals will initially start with day case surgery, which is where patients don’t need an overnight stay in hospital after their procedure.

As the situation continues to improve, over the coming weeks other types of surgery will resume as soon as they are able to. The hospital team will contact patients directly when they can offer a new date for the appointment or surgery.

We appreciate how disappointing this will have been for patients affected by this over the past few weeks, especially for those who have already waited for some time. Our local hospitals are working hard to resume services as quickly as possible so please bear with them.

In the meantime, patients waiting can visit the Greater Manchester White You Wait website (whileyouwait.org.uk) which has some information and advice on how to manage physical and mental wellbeing during this time.

Personal Statement from Dr B Lewis

I know that many of you have been trying to book appointments with me and have been upset to not be able to do so. Let me explain.

I have not retired! In fact, far from that. I have been appointed Clinical Director for Oldham Central Primary Care Network (PCN). This network covers 13 practices (including St Mary’s) and approximately 72000 of our local population. The role is very much about increasing the quality of patient care across the whole network and getting the practices to work closer together. I’m honoured to have been appointed to this role and it means that unfortunately I can no longer provide day to day patient care.

I am continuing a management role in the practice and I continue to train increasing numbers of junior doctors who many of you have met. They have direct access to me to discuss any concerns that they have so I will continue to know about and have a level of influence over your care.

We are very lucky in our practice to have a high-quality team of doctors, nurses and admin staff. We continue to provide very fast access with a choice of telephone or face to face consultations. Please use them appropriately and don’t argue with the staff when they say that I can not see you.

Don’t worry, I will let you know when I get around to retiring!

Emergency Dental Information

Electronic Prescription Service

We have upgraded to the next phase of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) which means that almost all our prescriptions are now processed electronically this has been in place since the 2nd October 2020.Electronic prescriptions help save the NHS money.You will receive your prescriptions in the same way as you do now. Read more about EPS on the NHS website

General practice transparency notice for GPES data for pandemic planning and research (COVID-19)

This practice is supporting vital coronavirus (COVID-19) planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see:

https://digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus/gpes-data-for-pandemic-planning-and-research/general-practice-transparency-notice

More information will be updated on our Privacy Policy to reflect these national changes over the next few days.

For information regarding General Practice Data extraction for planning and researched purposes please see below link

General Practice Data for Planning and Research: GP Practice Privacy Notice - NHS Digital

National Data

The national data opt out date has been extended until the 30^th September 2021. Please see below.

Your health records contain confidential information, this can be used to help the NHS with research and planning. If you do not want your data to be used in this way you are able to opt out. Your confidential patient information will still be used for your individual care.

For more information to ensure that you are fully informed about this and the form to complete to state your preference can be found using the following link.

The completed form can be sent to us by post or by email to repeats.stmarys@nhs.net.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research/transparency-notice

GM Shared Care Records 

For more information on the Greater Manchester Care Records please see the below link.

https://gmwearebettertogether.com/

The GM Care Record allows workers in health or social care easy access to your patient information to help them understand your needs and to support them in making the best decisions for your care. It shares important information about your health and care including: Any current health or care related issues.

ONLINE CONSULTATIONS VIA WEBISTE

https://www.online-consult.co.uk/org/st-marys-medical-centre

ONLINE CONSULTATIONS VIA PATIENT ACCESS

If you require any further information regarding access to online consultations, please go to:

https://www.patientaccess.com/

ASTHMA - RESCUE PACKS

If you have any queries regarding the Coronavirus and your asthma, please use this useful link from Asthma UK for all up to date guidelines and advice.

https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/triggers/coronavirus-covid-19/#.XnjX6HhS0mE.link.

ShareforYou 

From 17^th February 2020, your medical record will be able to be viewed by other health and social care professionals directly involved in your care via a ShareforYou record. Please visit www.pennineshareforyou.nhs.uk/ for more information. If you would prefer that we didn’t share your record, then you can opt out at any time. Please speak to your GP or a member of the reception team.

For more information please watch this sort video about ShareforYou:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv8eGfsvzZw

Screening

Cervical Screening (Smear) Tests are carried out by our Practice Nurses here at the surgery.  Women will be sent an invitation letter when their screening is due.  It is a simple test which really does save lives and we would strongly encourage you to make an appointment to attend when you receive your invitation.

Breast Screening (mammogram) invitations are sent out by NHS England to all women aged 50-70 years every three years.  These are carried out by trained specialist nurses at local clinics.  You will be sent your results directly from the service.  This screening is important and really does save lives and we would strongly encourage you to attend when you receive an appointment. 

Bowel Cancer Screening - self testing kits are sent out by NHS England to all men and women aged 60-74 years every two years.  This screening can save lives and we would strongly encourage you to complete the home test and send it off as directed in your information pack.  If you have any questions about this, or if you require a replacement kit for any reason, you can ring the service on 0800 707 6060.

Shingles

If you are aged 70 - 79 you may now be eligible to receive a shingles vaccination - NHS England is releasing these vaccines in stages.  information-for-people-in-england

Vaccination is currently being offered to those who are aged 70, 78 and 79, and to anyone in their seventies who was born after 1^st September 1942. People who are in their seventies but are not yet eligible for vaccination, will be offered vaccination in future years under the national programme.

For more information, and to find out if you are currently eligible please visit www.shinglesaware.co.uk  If you are eligible and would like to receive the vaccine, please contact the surgery and book an appointment with the Practice Nurse.