WELCOME TO OUR SURGERY

Spring Bank Holidays

The surgery will be closed on Monday 6 May and Monday 27 May Bank Holidays.  Bank Holiday pharmacy opening arrangements for Newcastle are here.

NHS 111

From 2 April 2013 the NHS 111 service is being introduced North of the Tyne.  You should still contact the surgery on 0191 229 0090 in normal working hours.  But if you need urgent medical advice, or to see a doctor, when the surgery is closed simply ring 111.  The call handler will run you through some simple questions to ensure you receive the service you need.  More details of this service are in the attached Frequently Asked Questions list or you can visit the NHS 111 website.

Patient Participation Group

Our Patient Participation Group page has been updated to reflect the meeting on 25 February and the production of our annual Patient Participation Report. It also includes the results of our 2012/13 local patient survey

Foundation Doctor Training

The practice trains junior hospital doctors at the surgery. They have had a full year of experience working on the wards in hospital and spend four months at the surgery gaining valuable experience in primary medicine. Dr Marcus Foster joins us on 3 April and will be in the surgery until August 2013.

Online Access to the Surgery

You need to register for the system first but this is a simple process.  Please contact reception for a user name and password. Accessing us online is easy via the link at the top right hand of this page.  New patients can register at the surgery following the link on the right hand side too.

This is a good way to make routine appointments with a Doctor and you can save yourself time on the telephone. Please note that we need to manage Practice Nurse appointments differently and these are not available online.

Surgery New Build

We regret to announce that Newcastle City Council has advised us that they are withdrawing from the long-established Newburn Joint Service Centre project.  This would have provided a new combined surgery, library and pharmacy on the ground behind the Newburn Community Centre.  This decision is a major disappointment to us just when we seemed about to sign the necessary legal agreements.  We are now working with our project managers to see if it is possible to proceed with the new build without the library.

Electronic Prescription Service

From March we started prescribing electronically as part of the NHS Electronic Prescription Service. This will not change the system for patients who already have their chemist collect prescriptions direct from the surgery but we hope it will make it easier for some patients who currently have to collect paper prescriptions from the surgery before taking them to the chemist. For those who chose to, they will be able to have these sent electronically and just collect their medicines direct from the chemist. Further information...

Health Care for the Armed Forces

Hospital medical care for service personnel is provided by the NHS and we want to ensure that past and present members of services get the care that they deserve. If you have ever served in the forces please let the practice know and we will mark your records accordingly so that you can get appropriate treatment. If you have a health problem that might be related to your service please let the doctor or nurse know.

There is further information available about this on the NHS website on this link .

Summary Care Record

The practice went live on the NHS Summary Care Record service on 13 March. Details of your medication and allergies will be made available so that other health care staff can access them, with your permission, if you require emergency treatment elsewhere. We believe this is in your best interest but you have the right to opt out of this if you do not want your information to be made available. We already have a list of some patients who have told us this but you are always able to change your mind. Just tell us.

Further information is available. If you do want to opt out, use this form

NHS Health Checks

The surgery is taking part in the NHS health checks programme. This is a national initiative to find those who might be at risk of conditions like heart attack or stroke in the future, look at their risk in more detail by checking lifestyle factors, blood pressure and cholesterol and offer advice and treatment if necessary to try to prevent this happening.   This year's programme focuses on the 40-74 age group.  Please come for a check if invited.

Text Reminders at Newburn Surgery