Surgery New Build

It was announced in March that planning permission is now to be sought for the new combined surgery, library and pharmacy to be situated behind the Newburn Community Centre.  This is an exciting development in a plan which has been  in gestation for a number of years. 

Local Patient Survey for the Participation Group

The results of the local practice survey are on the Patient Participation Group page.

Flu Vaccination 2011

Our annual flu vaccination day on Saturday 1st October was a great success with over 800 patients vaccinated in a single morning and more than 500 since then.  However, a number of "at risk" patients have yet to be vaccinated and are urged to contact the surgery.  The Department of Health points out that last year the hospital system was over-loaded with unnecessary flu victims and a number of people died who could have been saved by this simple and painless injection. 

Flu vaccination is for:

• People aged 65 and over
• People of any age at increased risk of serious complications of flu (those with diabetes, chest, heart, kidney, or other long term health problems)
• Pregnant women
• Carers of people at risk of serious complications of flu

Practice Patient Participation Group

We continue to seek volunteers to join our Practice Patient Participation Group to provide us with a patient perspective and help us to develop our services and influence the provision of wider health services in the Newcastle area.  Patients can volunteer to be full or virtual members of this group and further details are in the  Terms of Reference.  Contact forms for those interested are held in reception or can be downloaded here and returned to the Practice Manager or e mailed to: newburnsurgery.a86038@nhs.net

Repeat dispensing

If you are on regular medication which is not likely to change for 6 months or more and would like to collect that medication from the same chemist each time without coming to the surgery for prescriptions then repeat dispensing could be for you. To arrange this, you need to see a doctor for a medication review. If repeat dispensing is possible for you the doctor will print out prescriptions for anything up to a year. These prescriptions are held by the chemist who can dispense them directly to you as they are required. There is more information in this leaflet (in Word format 1MB size)

Automatic check-in

We now have an automatic check-in service. If you would like to confirm your arrival use the terminal on the notice board.  Using this service saves receptionist time and allows them to concentrate on other tasks such as answering prescription queries or taking appointment bookings.

Touch the screen to start. You confirm your sex and date of birth to establish who you are. The system should then display your appointments. Confirm these to let the doctor or nurse know that you have arrived.

If you would prefer you can, as usual, still check in with the receptionist.

Choose and book

The surgery is participating in the choose and book programme. Locally a choice of several hospitals is available when you are being referred and we have some information about waiting times at the different hospitals in the local area. More information will become available in the future. Referrals are being sent to the hospitals electronically via the choose and book system. Direct booking of hospital appointments is available for many of the clinics and we will be offering this when it is. More information is available via the choose and book website. Leaflets about choose and book are available in the surgery.

Nurse Practitioner Service at Lemington

The nurse practitioner service has been at Lemington Clinic from 13th May 2002. It is available Monday to Friday 0900-1130 by appointment.

There is currently just one Nurse Practitioner - Catherine Lawson - after Sally Hall left at the end of 2010. She is a registered nurse with advanced education and clinical training. Nurse Practitioners work with people of all ages and their families providing information people need to make informed choices about their health care and lifestyle choice, serving as regular health care providers for children and adults in health and illness. They:

• obtain medical histories and perform physical examinations
• diagnose and treat acute health problems such as infections and injuries
• prescribe and dispense medications and other treatments
• provide health maintenance care
• promote positive health behaviours and self care skills through education and counselling
• collaborate with physicians and other health professionals as needed