Clinics & Services

The surgery runs the following clinics, at the following times:

Phlebotomy (blood taking) clinics

• Monday morning, afternoon and Wednesday morning - INR monitoring for our patients taking Warfarin
• Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings - all other routine blood tests.

Run by Nurse Sarah Peat.

Baby immunisation clinics

• Wednesday mornings.

Run by Nurse Lucy; patients are invited to attend by the local health authority.

Diabetic clinics

• Thursday mornings (with occasional extra clinics on other mornings).

Run by Nurse Lucy and Dr Varuna; patients are invited in for an annual review. 

Flu clinics

• From September.
• Run by Doctors, Nurse Lucy and Nurse Kate, please book early to avoid disappointment.

In addition to the above clinics our Nurses Lucy and Kate offer the following services:

Blood pressure monitoring

Ear syringing

Removal of stitches/clips

Dressings

Cervical smears

Swabs

Contraceptive injections

Contraceptive pill checks

Immunisations (childhood, hep B, etc)

ECG recordings

COPD (chronic obstructive airways disease) yearly monitoring

Asthma yearly monitoring

Smoking cessation

Spirometry

Over 75 annual health checks

Diabetic follow up clinics

Wrist Splints - Nurse Lucy only

Ante-natal clinics

• Thursday afternoon.

Run by the community midwife.

(At all other times the midwife can be contacted at Eastbourne District General Hospital on 01323 417400).

NHS Health Check clinics

• Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

Run by Nurse Sarah Peat.  We will be inviting patients by letter between the ages of 40-74 without an existing diagnosis, to assess their risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, kidneyy disease and stroke.  These clinics are free.  Information leaflets are in reception.

Counselling

• Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Following referral from your GP

Solar Keratosis clinics

• One afternoon each month.

Run by Dr Wicks.

Acupuncture/manipulation clinics

• One afternoon each fortnight.

Run by Dr Wicks.

Ear Microsuction clinics

• By appointment

Run by Dr Wicks.  These clinics are by GP referral.

Chiropody clinic

Sarah Barnes offers PRIVATE chiropody appointments on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, as well as home visits by arrangement.  Please contact the surgery on 01323 725667 to arrange either an appointment at the surgery or a home visit. 

We also hold drug abuse clinics under the direction of the local Community Drugs Team, anxiety/depression counselling under the direction of the local Community Mental Health Team and run the local SAS (Special Allocation Scheme) from our surgery.

Non-NHS/Private Services

The NHS does not pay for some of the services we provide. These include private sick notes, insurance forms, holiday cancellation forms, medical reports, fitness to travel certificates, private prescriptions, passport signing and some vaccination services.

These services are carried out, outside surgery times at the doctors discretion.  Please allow up to five to seven working days for these to be carried out.  Any forms, passports etc handed over at the reception will be issued with a reciept.  

Our fees for these services, which are in line with BMA approved national guidelines, are listed below:

 HEP B INJECTION FOR PATIENTS - NOT AT SMC

Please make cheques payable to SMC Eastbourne Ltd. 

We are unable to accept credit/debit cards.

All non-NHS work is done outside of normal NHS time.  This means that the completion of forms, countersigning of passports, etc, may take a minimum of one week. 

Sickness Certificates

You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from the surgery, your employer or on the HMRC website.

If your employer insists on certification for any illness lasting seven days or less, we can issue a private certificate - however there will be a charge of £25.00 for this.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

It is up to your employer to decide whether you are incapable of work. A medical certificate, now called a 'Statement of Fitness for Work’ (see below) from your doctor is strong evidence that you are sick and would normally be accepted, unless there is evidence to prove otherwise.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'

The 'fit note' was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer's support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced)

We are not a travel clinic and can only offer a limited service.  If you are going abroad and think that you may require vaccinations you need to firstly fill out a travel questionnaire (see below), Nurses do not carry out telephone consultations regarding holiday vaccinations.  You need to submit forms 1 month/4 weeks prior to travelling, failure to do this will result in us not being able to offer this service.  The form asks for details such as which countries and areas within countries you are visiting to determine what vaccinations are required. 

Having submitted the form, we will contact you when it has been assessed by the nurses.

Ideally holiday vaccinations should be given a minimum of 2 weeks before you travel.

Some travel vaccines are ordered on a private prescription and these incur a charge over and above the normal prescription charge.  This is because not all travel vaccinations are included in the services provided by the NHS.

There is further information about countries and vaccinations required on the links below

Europe & Russia	North America
Central America	South America
Caribbean	Africa
Middle East	Central Asia
East Asia	Australasia and Pacific

Travel Health Questionnaire

Travel Questionnaire

Please complete and submit this form, then contact the surgery 3-4 days later to arrange an appointment with the practice nurse. 

Travelling in Europe

If you are travelling to Europe a very useful booklet has been published with advice and guidance to help you get the most out of your holiday.  To visit please click:- http://ec.europa.eu/publications/booklets/eu_glance/86/en.pdf (this is a large document and may take a minute or two to view)

OUR VISION

To provide the highest standard of medical care to our patients; to seek continuous improvement in the health of our practice population; to deliver healthcare in an accessible, flexible and innovative way meeting our patients needs, and to reflect advances in Primary Healthcare and changing political and economic circumstances. To provide our team with a supportive and rewarding place to work.

OUR STATEMENT OF INTENT

This practice plans to offer the facility for patients to view online, export or print detailed coded information held in their own records from 1st April 2016 subject to the necessary NHS GP systems and software being available to the practice.

The current online patient services are supplied by:

GP System Supplier - INPS

GP System Version - Vision

This practice currently offers the following facility for patients:

• To book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online.
• To order their medication online, view and print a list of their repeat prescriptions or medicines and appliances.
• To view on line, export or print any summary information from their record, relating to medication, allergies and advers reactions.

We have publicized and promoted our online services to our patients through the practice website, newsletters, posters and patient booklet.

We are now working towards expanding patient online access to records to include information on diagnosis, consultation history, procedures and test results with effect from 1st April 2016.

We will be doing this in the following stages to ensure the necessary processes are in place, to safeguard patient confidentiality, resolve any technical issues and promote effective use of the enhanced records access:

1. Offer to our patient group members to use.
2. Review this process and identify any areas for improvement.
3. Promote access to specific larger groups of patients - for example those with long term conditions.
4. Commence access to DCR for all patients who request it.

If you would like to register for Patient Services, you will need to come into the surgery with proof of photo ID and complete a registration form.

For more information about how to register for these services, please click here.

OUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 

• Provide a high standard of medical care
• Be committed to our patients needs
• Act with integrity and complete confidentiality
• Be courteous, approachable, friendly and accommodating
• Ensure safe and effective services and environment
• To improve as a patient centred service through decision making and communication
• To maintain and develop our motivated and skilled work teams
• Through monitoring and auditing continue to improve our healthcare services
• Maintain high quality of care through continuous learning and training
• To guide our employees in accordance with diversity and equality
• To ensure effective and robust information governance systems
• Treat all patients and staff with dignity, respect and honesty.

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