NHS flu vaccines are available for patients aged 50 and over and for those aged 6 months to 50 years who are in a clinical risk group. This includes those who have diabetes, are pregnant, have a long-term condition affecting the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, brain or nervous system, the immune system or the spleen. NHS vaccines are also available for anyone who is the main Carer of an older or disabled person whose welfare would be at risk if the Carer falls ill, those in long-stay residential care homes, close contacts of immunocompromised individuals and frontline health and social care staff.
If you are eligible for a flu vaccine, please contact the surgery to arrange an appointment. Once again there will be two different vaccines available. One for patients under the age of 65 (via Red Reception) and one for patients aged 65 and over (via Blue Reception). We will have specific clinics running throughout the Autumn/Winter months.
Flu clinics available for booking are as follows:
Saturday 11th September
Saturday 25th September
Saturday 9th October
In order to take additional pressure off our phone lines, we would actively encourage all patients, where possible, to book your appointment online via Patient Access, if you are already registered, or use the MyGP app which is available to download from both Google Play and the App store.
Please ensure that you book into the correct clinic according to your age.
If you are unable to access patient online services, please call the surgery on 01995 607399 after 11am (Mon-Fri) to book your appointment.
Patients under the age of 65 will be asked to attend via the Red Reception and patients aged 65 and over will be asked to attend via the Blue Reception.
Patients are asked to wear a face covering and only arrive for their appointment at their given time. On arrival, patients will be asked COVID-19 symptom screening questions prior to check in. Please contact the surgery to cancel your appointment if you feel unwell or if you or any member of your household are displaying symptoms of COVID-19.
Nasal vaccines will be available for children who meet the above criteria, all pre-school children aged 2 to 4 years and for patients with learning difficulties. Separate clinics will be arranged and information communicated to patients in due course.
All school aged children up to the age of 15 who do not have a long-term condition will be offered nasal flu vaccination via their School Nurse. We are unable to offer vaccination via the surgery for this category.
Lancashire and South Cumbria has been chosen by NHS England to be a national pilot for the digitisation of Medical Records. Scanning these paper based records and making them digital will enable better utilisation of space, creating more clinical space, staff areas, multi team space and video hubs, removing the need for some practices to build extensions. In addition it will also make your record more easily and speedily accessible to clinical staff within your practice.
Your complete GP medical record will be digital and stored in a secure cloud based clinical system (only accessible by your GP practice) with the paper based records being securely destroyed following BS EN 15713:2009 Secure destruction of confidential material. Your GP will still be able to access your records easily within this system. The scanning and destruction of the paper records will follow strict data protection guidelines adhered to by the NHS. As with paper based records, digital records are stored for the durations specified in the Records Management Codes of Practice for Health and Social Care. For GP patient records, this states that they may be destroyed 10 years after the patient’s death if they are no longer needed.
For more information, please see FAQS. If you wish to discuss the scheme, please inform the Practice direct either by letter or via e-mail.
Due to a global shortage of blood test bottles, NHS England have advised that we must not undertake any routine or non-essential blood tests until further notice. We do not anticipate to be able to offer routine blood tests until atleast October. The blood tests that we are able to continue offering at present are:
Oncology bloods
Rheumatology bloods
Lithium
Thyroid
Diabetic
Warfarin
Due to the significant increase in the cases of COVID-19 locally and the need to minimise footfall into the surgery building during the lockdown, we are currently unable to book appointments for patients who need bloods requested by the hospital. We are not responsible for doing bloods requested by the hospital and need to reserve our appointments for blood tests requested by our clinicians at the surgery.
Hospital blood request appointments should be arranged directly with the relevant hospital blood clinic. Details as follows:
Royal Preston Hospital
Blood clinics are currently running by appointment only. Open 8:30am – 4:45pm Monday to Friday. Tel: 01772 524143. Please take the blood form from your consultant with you. If you do not have a blood form please give the name of your consultant when booking.
Lancaster Royal Infirmary
Please attend RLI Blood Clinic. No appointment needed. Please take the blood form from your consultant with you. If you do not have a blood form please give the name of your consultant when booking in. Please avoid attending in mornings as this is their busiest time.
Bookable appointments are available at Dalton Square surgery on Fridays. Please ring 01539 715700 to arrange your appointment (lines open Monday to Friday 10am – 2pm).
The Covid-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented pressure on NHS services. Garstang Medical Practice has not been immune to the problems created by these pressures. Understandably, following all the messaging put forward during the pandemic, patients have delayed contacting NHS services – clinical problems have been ‘stored up’ over the course of the pandemic. As a consequence, there is now a huge back log of work presenting to General Practice. Demand on our appointments is consequently at an unprecedented level. In addition, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of patients with Covid related symptoms seeking our help, including those with ‘Long Covid’ symptoms. We are also seeing a large increase in the number of patients, particularly children, with respiratory type illness.
We are also regularly facing work force shortages with staff having to self-isolate - which puts additional pressure on our already stretched services. Our clinical staff must make the safety and welfare of our patients our overriding priority. To ensure this we must make sure we are able to provide safe and effective clinical care. We are at a stage now where we feel our workload is such that we are likely to be working beyond a safe level given the realistic constraints of our practice. As such we are going to return to the "same day" access appointment system. This will provide a safe, efficient, and equitable service to our patients.
Please read our Appointment System Patient Update July 2021 for full details.
We are now using Doctorlink, which enables you to check your symptoms online and be signposted to an appropriate healthcare appointment. If you require an appointment at the practice, Doctorlink will send this information to us and we will contact you to arrange.
For more information and to register please visit: Doctorlink
If you have any problems with registering for this service, please contact the Doctorlink support service on 0330 111 6433 or via helpdesk@doctorlink.com.
Please note, this is an additional service. Patients can still contact the surgery via telephone to discuss symptoms and arrange appointments.
Your Diabetes Your Way is an easy to use interactive website available to help support people living with diabetes. You'll find leaflets, videos, educational tools and games containing information about diabetes.
Register now at: Your Diabetes Your Way or ask your local healthcare team to help you sign up!
NHS England and NHS Improvement have launched a new helpline in response to disruption to normal diabetes services due to the COVID-19 pandemic and response.
The service is for adults living with diabetes who use insulin to manage their condition and require immediate clinical advice. Whether you or a member of your household have caught the virus, or routine care has been disrupted, the helpline is available for immediate clinical advice to help you un...derstand how to effectively manage their diabetes.
You can access NHS Diabetes Advice via Diabetes UK's support line on 0345 123 2399 Monday-Friday from 9am-6pm.
On Friday 13th November 2020 staff members joined in the rest of the country by wearing our PJ's to work to help raise money for #Childreninneed2020. A total of £56.88 was raised!
Did you know? The law around organ donation has changed. Find out what this means for you at: Organ donation website
#organdonation
We are now able to offer a free to access screening service for patients who are suffering from hearing related difficulties. This service is provided by Scrivens Audiology at Garstang Medical Practice. A limited number of appointments are available each week for patients aged 40 years+. If the screening identifies a hearing loss, patients will be referred to the appropriate Audiology or ENT service. If you believe that you are suffering from hearing related difficulties, please contact the surgery to arrange an appointment. For further information, please contact the surgery on 01995 607399 or Scrivens Patient Services on 0800 027 4487.
Please note: Audiology patients who were previously seen by PDS Medical now have the option to be transferred to Scrivens at the surgery.
Please contact PDS on 0300 123 1441 (select Option 4) and ask them to transfer you to Scrivens Poulton.
Scriven Poulton will then contact you and ask if you wish to be seen by the Poulton clinic or the Garstang clinic at Garstang Medical Practice.
On 12th May 2020 we marked International Nurses Day, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale and “shined a light” on our fantastic nursing team here at Garstang Medical Practice. Here are just some of our wonderful nursing team but we want to recognise and thank the whole team for their hard work and support, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Surgery staff dressed in PJs/Onesies on Friday 15th November 2019 to raise money for the Children in Need campaign.
We were happy to welcome the children from Winmarleigh School who visited both Garstang Medical Practice and Kepple Lane Pharmacy in November.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a worldwide annual campaign taking place in October, involving thousands of organisations, to highlight the importance of breast awareness, education and research.
During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Now aimed to get as many people as possible involved in raising awareness and funds to help support life-saving research and life-changing support.
As the UK's largest breast cancer research charity, along with their supporters, they aim to do this through campaigning, raising money and an array of events across the UK including 'Wear It Pink' on Breast Cancer Awareness Day - 18th October 2019.
On Breast Cancer Awareness Day the surgery staff wore pink to raise money and awareness and to support the 'Wear It Pink' campaign.
Jeans for Genes is the annual fundraising campaign for Genetic Disorders UK, the national charity that supports individuals and families affected by a genetic disorder.
Monies raised through Jeans for Genes fund the work of the charity and provide grants to organisations for projects that aim to transform the lives of children with genetic disorders.
During the week our surgery staff dressed in jeans (or something denim) to support this campaign and raised money towards the work of Genetic Disorders UK.
In order to raise awareness and show our support for those with Dementia, the surgery team had a 'Wear something purple for Dementia' day on Wednesday 22nd May 2019 in exchange for a donation to the Garstang Memory Café.
During the week members of our PPG (Patient Participation Group) had a 'Listening stand' in the main foyer with the aim of raising awareness and providing information and support for those with Dementia and their carers.
The donations raised by our staff were presented to Sandra Perkins, a member of our PPG and co-ordinator of the Garstang Memory Cafe. Sandra was absolutely thrilled by the gesture.
For more information, support and advice please visit the Alzheimers or Dementia UK websites.
Congratulations to our Lead Nurse Helen Kerrigan-Hawkes who was given this truly deserved accolade at the Town Council Awards on 25th April 2019. As Chair of our WREN Integrated Care Community she has worked tirelessly for our patients and for all patients across our WREN network and her dedication and enthusiasm has been both infectious and admirable. Huge congratulations Helen from all of us; we are very proud of you and all you have achieved.
As part of the Countryfile Ramble for Children in Need, staff, friends and dogs of the Garstang Medical Centre enjoyed a Ramble on the 7th October 2018 covering 12km. We are very pleased to have raised £680. A massive thank you to everyone who donated.
Sign up to GP online services to access a range of services via your computer, mobile or tablet. For more information..
111 is the NHS non-emergency number. It's fast, easy and free. Call 111 and speak to a highly trained adviser, supported by healthcare professionals.
How likely are you to recommend this Surgery to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment? Please spend 2 minutes to take the Friends and Family Test.
The NHS website. Take control of your health and wellbeing. Get medical advice, information about healthcare services and support for a healthy life.
Patient is one of the most trusted medical resources online, supplying evidence based information on a wide range of medical and health topics to patients and health professionals.
