We have raised a formal complaint with our telephone provider about the number of our patients who are being cut off whilst being on hold. An engineer has been working on the system and we have been advised this should now be resolved.

If your call is cut off, please let us know, in person or over the 'phone at reception or via email to sidney.laurels@nhs.net. We will need to know the number you were calling from, the date and a rough time.

We are very sorry for this unacceptable difficulty in getting through to us and hope this will soon be resolved.

We are participating in a new service from 21/7/2021 that will direct patients to the most appropriate healthcare professional when booking an appointment, which may be a local community pharmacist, either virtually or at their pharmacy. 

We believe this is a good thing, as your local pharmacist is a highly trained and skilled clinician experienced in treating minor illnesses, and should be quicker.  This will help free up GPs to deal with more complex health needs and ensure that everyone gets treated at the right time, by the right healthcare professional.

We will be listening to patients about their experience of using this service to inform how we can improve things, and so are keen to hear your views.  You will be advised how to give this feedback when you access the Community Pharmacy Service. 

For more information about this visit NHS Digital

As of 1st September 2021 your data will be shared with NHS Digital to help improve health, care and services

Patient data from GP medical records kept by GP practices in England is used every day to improve health, care and services through planning and research, helping to find better treatments and improve patient care. The NHS is introducing an improved way to share this information - called the General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.

NHS Digital will collect, analyse, publish and share this patient data to improve health and care services for everyone. This includes:

• informing and developing health and social care policy
• planning and commissioning health and care services
• taking steps to protect public health (including managing and monitoring the coronavirus pandemic)
• in exceptional circumstances, providing you with individual care
• enabling healthcare and scientific research

Any data that NHS Digital collects will only be used for health and care purposes. It is never shared with marketing or insurance companies.

READ MORE HERE 

There are two ways in which a patient could opt out of sharing their personal information:

•  A type 1 opt out prevents information being shared outside a GP practice for purposes other than direct care.
•  The National Data Opt Out (formally Type 2 opt out) prevents information being shared outside NHS Digital for purposes beyond the individual's direct care.

Type 1

NHS Digital will not collect any patient data for patients who have already registered a Type 1 Opt-out in line with current policy. If this changes patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out will be informed.

If you do not want your patient data shared with NHS Digital, you can register a Type 1 Opt-out with us. You can register a Type 1 Opt-out at any time. You can also change your mind at any time and withdraw a Type 1 Opt-out.

If you wish to register a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice before data sharing starts with NHS Digital, this should be done by returning this form to us before 23 June 2021 to allow time for processing it. If you have previously registered a Type 1 Opt-out and you would like to withdraw this, you can also use the form to do this. You can send the form by post or email to us at sidney.laurels@nhs.net.

If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after your patient data has already been shared with NHS Digital, no more of your data will be shared with NHS Digital. NHS Digital will however still hold the patient data which was shared with us before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.

National Data Opt Out (formally Type 2 opt out)

If you do not want NHS Digital to share your confidential patient data with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out (also known as Type 2 Opt out). 

The Laurels has been operating behind closed doors throughout the pandemic, primarily offering telephone and video consultations. However, we are cautiously working towards easing some of the safety measures we have put in place.

From next Monday, 15^th March, we will be offering some face-to-face appointments out of The Laurels.

Entry is only for patients with a booked appointment as we continue to work hard to keep footfall down to keep our patients and staff safe from Covid-19. All patients will be required to wear a face covering.

The Surgery was not designated as a vaccination centre and therefore was not able to offer the vaccine at either of our surgeries.

We were very pleased to be partnered with Danbury Medical Centre (part of the Beacon Health Group) who have been providing Covid vaccinations to our eligible registered patients. This has included our housebound patients, and those residing in nursing and care homes.

By 10th March2021,  3,681 of our patients have received their first dose of the vaccine (at various vaccination centres) and 40 have declined. We are now starting to see some of our patients receiving their second vaccine. We politely ask that those patients yet to be invited for their second vaccine not to call the surgery, and wait to be contacted.

As of the week commencing 7th September 2020, the way that antenatal care is delivered will be changing. Ladies living in Boreham, Hatfield Peverel and surrounding areas will be caseloaded by the Sunflower Team Community Midwives.

Please contact the Community Midwives Office on 01245 513040 to arrange your antenatal appointments, which will be held in central Chelmsford.

Ladies living in Maldon, Witham, Wickham Bishops and surrounding areas may prefer to arrange their care with St Peter's Maternity Unit in Maldon, who can be contacted on 01621 725305 or 01621 725306.

If at any time you have questions regarding your pregnancy you can contact the Chelmsford Community Midwives office on 01245 513040. 

Newly pregnant ladies should please self- refer via https://www.meht.nhs.uk/services/maternity-services/

Urgent inquiries should be made to the Maternity Unit at Broomfield Hospital:
Day Assessment Unit 01245 513355 or Labour Ward 01245 513056/513057 (24 hr telephone line).

We are currently looking at extending our appointments to incorporate online booking for Health Care Assistants, Nurses, Pharmacist medication reviews and Physiotherapist telephone assessments.  These appointments are specific and we have named them accordingly, hoping that patients will take care to book into the appropriate slots only.  If, however, patients book into a specific slot for anything other than what the slot is intended for, this may result in the clinician being unable to offer treatment.   Slots with "Telephone" in the wording are a telephone call from the clinician; the others are face to face appointments at one of the surgeries.  When you book online, the reminder SMS will tell you which surgery the appointment is at.    These new online appointments are available to book for up to 4 weeks in advance  (The booking of GPs telephone appointments will remain the same – with appointments being available for booking from 6pm the day before)   In these early stages we have only released a few appointments, but will increase the availability slowly as we go along.  We are hoping this will prove to be successful and will help patients who struggle to call us during normal hours.    

Clinician:                                   Appointment type:

Health Care Assistants :          * Blood Pressure Check Only (in surgery) (pre-bookable)     *B12 Injections Only (in surgery) (pre-bookable)

Nurse:                                     * Contraceptive Pill Review Only (in surgery) (pre-bookable)     *Cervical Smear Only (in surgery) (pre-bookable)

Physiotherapist:                      * Telephone Call with Physiotherapist   (pre-bookable)

GPs:                                        * Telephone call with GP   (GP telephone appointments will be released from 6PM the day before)

• Prescription charges are due to increase with effect from April 2021. 

• PRESCRIPTION CHARGES AS OF 1^{ST of} APRIL 2023

  1 ITEM                                                                     £9.65

  2 ITEMS                                                                  £18.70

  3 ITEMS                                                                  £28.05

  4 ITEMS                                                                  £37.40

  PRE-PAYMENT CERTIFICATES

  3 MONTHS                                                               £31.25

  12 MONTHS                                                             £111.60

Changes to the Blood and Organ donation.  Please click link below. 

NHS Blood and Organ Donor Registers

Organ Donation Factsheet

https://www.sidneyhouseandthelaurels.nhs.uk/edit/gdpr---privacy-statement