Saintfield Health Centre - News

Vaccine Passports

We are unable to supply these, they are only available from gov.uk website for those travelling to countries requiring them. We do not supply evidence of vaccinations as a paper printout and your vaccination card is not deemed to be sufficient.

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Annual reviews and requests for routine blood tests

We have to prioritise essential blood tests for those who are ill or require high risk drug monitoring and will be unable to do non-essential requests. We have endeavoured to recall all those on our high risk registers for their annual bloods which were delayed by lockdowns and will continue to do so but may have to prioritise those at greatest risk. We will contact you to arrange.

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Self-Management of minor ailments

There is a lot of information on self-care of many minor ailments on our Practice website and your local Community Pharmacist will also be able to give you guidance on these. This will help reduce pressure on the NHS essential services.

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Urgent Care Centre at Downe

Please be aware the Downe A&E is no longer open but there is an urgent care centre which is open 8am - 6pm 7days per week and last appointment is 5pm, which operates on a phone first policy.

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Notes on prescription flysheets

To help us monitor your health and medications, please note we frequently type or write notes on the flysheet of your prescriptions and your local pharmacy is aware to pass these notes to you.

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Covid Room

We now have a room in the Practice near our back door with separate entrance/exit where we can see those with possible or proven Covid who are ill and need examined in a protected environment. We would encourage people who have symptoms of Covid not to just rely on a lateral flow test which is best for asymptomatic cases and not 100% accurate and to book a PCR test online at gov.co.uk or by phoning 119 to help reduce spread in the community.

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Vaccination Programme Update

We have currently vaccinated over 2,500 patients in at risk groups at date of writing and we will be continuing to contact each group as per Health & Social Care Board instructions each week.

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The Future

We are in a fortunate position in this Practice to have so many additional Staff present for our patients to consult directly with i.e. our Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Practice Nurses, diagnostic Physiotherapist, Social Workers, Mental Health Workers and Practice Pharmacists. They have made an invaluable contribution to patient care over the last 18 months.

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Controlled Drugs/Pain Medications

Due to the high rates of drug abuse and accidental death in NI secondary to some pain meds e.g. Pregabalin and Gabapentin we have been requested to avoid commencing these medications by the Health Board and review all those people taking these and other controlled analgesic medications over the next year.

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Outpatient Waiting Times

Since Covid waiting times for routine Outpatients Services have lengthened further than before. These are out of GP control.

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