Great Hollands Medical Practice

With patients' needs at the heart of everything we do, our website has been designed to make it easy for you to gain instant access to the information you need. As well as specific practice details such as opening hours and how to register, you’ll find a wealth of useful pages covering a wide range of health issues along with links to other relevant medical organisations.

Join In

We hope you enjoy having a look around the site and familiarising yourself with some of the online features such as ordering a repeat prescription. Whatever your thoughts, be sure to let us know via our feedback function. Comments and suggestions are always a great way of helping us continue to enhance the way we look after you.

Mental Health

If you need help with your mental health and it is not urgent, then you can self-refer to Talking Therapies without seeing a GP first – click here

Access to General Practice  - a message from Dr Arora

Since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Britain, there have been a number of changes that we have all made, to the way we do things. One of those includes the way you can get in touch with your local doctor.

Using online, phone and video consultations, we can now 'see' patients while complying with the necessary social distancing restrictions which remain in place. This protects patients and staff alike, and tackles the spread of the Coronavirus.

This allows us to assess patients for potential coronavirus, with people invited to face-to-face appointments only when it really is necessary.

Whilst lockdown restrictions are easing, and Covid-19 infection rates may have reduced, general practice still needs to maintain a covid-secure environment. Because of this, practices continue to assess patients remotely before offering face-to-face appointments. We are working hard to increase our face-to-face capacity in a covid-secure way, whilst retaining the flexibility of offering online and telephone access where these are preferred.

If you have an internet connection, you can contact us about an illness or injury that won’t go away, by visiting our practice website and clicking on eConsult. Here you can tell us as much as you can about your condition to help us direct you to the right person quickly.

If you would like to order a repeat prescription, you can continue to use the NHS APP as previously.

If you do not have access to the internet, don’t worry - you can continue to phone your surgery.

Remember, if you have a minor illness or injury, speak to your local pharmacist, use NHS 111 online or call NHS111, who will be able to ensure you are looked after by the most appropriate service. This frees up capacity for us in GP surgeries to look after those patients who need it the most.

Although we are in the middle of a pandemic, we want to reassure you that when needed, we are still referring patients for further tests or to specialist services. Whether it’s your diabetes or your medicines management, we are here for you.

However if your condition is stable, you may not have as much contact as you normally would with your GP, nurse or other member of the team. But remember, if you are worried about something please do get in touch.

Thank you.

Dr K. Arora

Help us to help you campaign 

Video by local GP explaining how important it is for you to get the treatment you need and not delaying urgent treatment if needed even during this Pandemic.

(Please click on the link):

Help us to help you get the treatment you need

Coronavirus

Important information for patients about GP appointments

(updated 9 June 2021)

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, how you contact us will be different at the moment. This is to limit face-to-face contact whenever possible and help stop the spread of coronavirus.

Your GP practice is open and if you need to see your GP, please contact us. All appointments are now triaged and can be pre-booked via phone on 01344-424373 or online through this website or you can contact us using e consult, also on our website.

Our opening hours are 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday.

Appointments are being delivered face-to-face, online and over the telephone. If you are asked to come into the surgery for a face-to-face appointment, please remember to wear a face covering. Measures are in place to keep you safe from infection during your visit to the surgery

Please do not come to the surgery unless you have an appointment.

If you are waiting for a check-up, please be assured we will be in touch

For serious or life threatening emergencies call 999, for urgent medical queries that are not life threatening call 111.

Nursing appointments will continue as planned but we ask you to consider the national guidance before visiting the practice https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Face-to-face appointment access

Following the changes in guidance from NHS England regarding appointment access, we would like to assure our patients that face to face appointments will continue to be provided following a brief assessment of your needs. In addition to this, as restrictions ease we are working to increase this face to face capacity in a covid-secure way, whilst retaining the flexibility to offer online and telephone access where these are preferred.

Vaccinating Health and social care staff

NHS England and NHS Improvement have now published a Standard Operating Procedure for the vaccination of frontline health and social care staff.  This identifies the people who can currently access NHS Health and Social Care vaccination hubs. This guidance will help organisations plan the rollout, including providing information on prioritisation and delivery methods,

All frontline health and social care workers will be eligible for the covid vaccination regardless of whether they work in hospitals, people’s homes or another setting, or who employs them.

• If you are a frontline health or social care worker and want to enquire about your first covid vaccine dose, please do not contact your GP surgery.
• If you are working for an organisation please contact them as they will likely have a roll out plan.
• If you are self-employed or run a small organisation and have not had contact from NHS vaccination services please contact: bookingqueries.ebpc@nhs.net Within your email, please state the number of staff members that need to be vaccinated.
• Once your email is received, you will be contacted with details about how to book your appointment.

Please note, you may not get an immediate response as we are booking more than 30,000 health and social care workers in this area so please bear with us.

Getting vaccinated only protects you from the virus, so you will still need to follow IPC and testing measures in your workplace, and follow general advice at work, at home and when you are out and about:

•    Practice social distancing

•    Wear a face mask

•    Wash your hands carefully and frequently

•    Follow the current guidance: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

Important information about the coronavirus (COVID-19)

The NHS in Berkshire and Public Health England (PHE) are well prepared for outbreaks of new infectious diseases. The NHS has put in place measures to protect patients, our community and NHS staff while ensuring as many services as possible are available to the public. Steps have been taken to minimise the risk to patients and staff and we are working with individual patients to appropriately manage their care.

In accordance with latest NHS guidance please wear a face covering when you come to our premises unless you have a medical exemption.

If you have symptoms associated with coronavirus including a new continuous cough and a high temperature, you are advised to stay at home for 7 days.

Please do not book a GP appointment or attend your GP practice.

If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home. After 14 days, anyone you live with who does not have symptoms can return to their normal routine.

But, if anyone in your home gets symptoms, they should stay at home for 7 days from the day their symptoms start. Even if it means they're at home for longer than 14 days. The most up-to-date public guidance is always online at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus

If your symptoms are serious, or get worse, NHS 111 has an online coronavirus service that can tell you if you need further medical help and advise you what to do.

Only call 111 direct if you are advised to do so by the online service or you cannot go online.

For the latest COVID-19 advice please visit www.nhs.uk/coronavirus

Like the common cold, coronavirus infection usually occurs through close contact with a person with novel coronavirus via cough and sneezes or hand contact.

A person can also catch the virus by touching contaminated surfaces if they do not wash their hands.

Testing of suspected coronavirus cases is carried out in line with strict guidelines.

This means that suspected cases are kept in isolation, away from public areas of GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals and returned home also in isolation. Any equipment that come into contact with suspected cases are thoroughly cleaned as appropriate. Specific guidance has also been shared with NHS staff to help safeguard them and others. Patients can be reassured that their safety is a top priority, and are encouraged to attend all appointments as usual.

Everyone is being reminded to follow Public Health England advice to:

• Always carry tissues with you and use them to catch your cough or sneeze. Then bin the tissue, and wash your hands, or use a sanitiser gel.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after using public transport. Use a sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people who are unwell.

COVID-19 and your information – Updated on 8^th April 2020

Supplementary privacy notice on Covid-19 for Patients

This notice describes how we may use your information to protect you and others during the Covid-19 outbreak. It supplements our main Privacy Notice which is available on this website.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health and social care services and to protect public health.  Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the outbreak.  In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations.

Existing law which allows confidential patient information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency is being used during this outbreak. Using this law the Secretary of State has required NHS Digital; NHS England and Improvement; Arms-Length Bodies (such as Public Health England); local authorities; health organisations and GPs to share confidential patient information to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak. Any information used or shared during the Covid-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis to use the data.  Further information is available on gov.uk here and some FAQs on this law are available here.

During this period of emergency, opt-outs will not generally apply to the data used to support the Covid-19 outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information. This includes National Data Opt-Outs. However in relation to the Summary Care Record, existing choices will be respected. Where data is used and shared under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also not apply.  It may also take us longer to respond to Subject Access Requests (SARs), Freedom of Information requests (FOIs) and new opt out requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak.

In order to look after your health and care needs we may share your confidential patient information included health and care records with clinical and non-clinical staff in other health and care providers, for example neighbouring GP practices, hospitals and NHS 111. We may also use the details we have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text message or email.

During this period of emergency we may offer you a consultation via telephone or video conferencing. By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this. Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any other consultation.

We will also be required to share personal confidential patient information with health and care organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the outbreak. Further information about how health and care data is being used and shared by other NHS and social care organisations in a variety of ways to support the Covid-19 response is here.

Access

All our services are on the ground floor of modern premises with automatic doors and we have easy  disabled access. There is a Crystal & Neck Loop Device available at reception. There is ample car parking adjacent to the Health Centre.