Welcome to Richmond Medical Centre's Website 

Serving You

Our dedicated team are here to treat those minor ailments that occur as well as providing specialist management of long-term conditions and clinics covering a wide range of healthcare issues. The technology also means you can now do a lot of things from the comfort of your home such as order a repeat prescription or cancel an appointment.

Partners in Care

Once registered, patients and healthcare professionals work together to ensure the most appropriate care is provided. This partnership philosophy extends even further and our active patient group exists to make sure that patient needs and the practice offering are always heading in the same direction

*if you wish to book a same day appointment please call at 8:30 in the morning as this is when we have free slots

*If you wish to chase up a hospital appointment or hospital letter please call up and ask to talk to a secretary instead of booking an appointment

*if you would like a doctor to produce you a report such as an insurance report, please ask for this at reception instead of booking an appointment

Antibiotic Amnesty

Do you have any unused or old antibiotics at home?  We are asking you to return them to any local pharmacy as part of an Antibiotic Amnesty in support World Antibiotic Awareness Week (18-24 November).

Antibiotics are important medicines for treating bacterial infections but the more they are used the more bacteria are able to find new ways to survive the effects of the antibiotic. This is known as antibiotic resistance and is a huge threat to our future health. Without effective antibiotics many routine treatments will become increasingly dangerous. Setting broken bones, operations and even chemotherapy all rely on access to antibiotics that work.

You should only take antibiotics when they have been prescribed for you by a healthcare professional. Unless your doctor or nurse has specifically told you to you should never save antibiotics for later, and never give them to someone else.

You can play your part in protecting antibiotics for the future by returning unused or old antibiotics to any local pharmacy.

Richmond Medical Centre is also encouraging all our staff and patients to become Antibiotic Guardians and choose a pledge to help protect these vital medicines

From 1^st September 2021, the way you dispose of your medical sharps boxes is changing. You will no longer need to bring these back to the doctors surgery. Solihull council will collect them from your home. Find out more here www.solihull.gov.uk/Rubbish-and-recycling/Sharpscollection

 FIND MY NHS NUMBER

To find you NHS number go to the following web address:

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/online-services/find-nhs-number/?fbclid=IwAR0-xS0C2pTwNtAnt5RyjWWxwDT5nn7qH8XHODrS4QPFYUwXqDVPH51_-34

General Appointments and Boosters

In line with the Government’s announcement, the NHS is aiming to offer every adult the chance to book a COVID-19 booster vaccine by the end of the year. This means our practice is now prioritising the booster rollout.

As part of this, some of our routine services may be stood down temporarily to allow us to focus on protecting as many patients as possible.

We are still there for anyone who may need care for an urgent need, but would ask for patience as we support this key national priority over the coming weeks. We hope to be able to stand back up any services as soon as possible and will update this page as soon as we know more.

Please don’t forget there are many services available for you, depending on your condition. These include:

• Self-care – This is the best choice to treat minor illnesses and injuries such as hangovers, coughs, colds, grazes, small cuts or sore throats. Many of these can be treated at home, simply with over-the-counter medicines and plenty of rest.
• Pharmacy – Pharmacists can give advice on and treat a range of symptoms. They can support you with things such as diarrhoea, earaches, painful coughs, sticky eyes, teething and rashes.
• NHS 111 – You can access 111 online or via the telephone. This is for any urgent but non-life threatening health concerns. They will be able to signpost you to the relevant service and provide advice where appropriate, or book you in to an Urgent Treatment Centre.
• A&E / 999 – You should only attend A&E or dial 999 in a life-threatening emergency such as severe bleeding, breathing difficulties and severe chest pain.

If you are now eligible for your COVID-19 booster please book it as soon as you can. It is vital as many people as possible get boosted as soon as possible. Please do not ring the practice regarding your boosters, instead visit https://www.birminghamandsolihullcovidvaccine.nhs.uk/ or call 119 to book an appointment or to find a walk-in clinic near you. You can also find out more about who is eligible, how the vaccine is given and other frequently asked questions. If you are a housebound patient, there is a community team which will be coming out to you to vaccinate you, so please do not contact your GP as the team will be making contact with you.

FINALLY, HELP ALL OF US,  PLEASE STAY AT HOME, PROTECT US AND SAVE LIVES.

Our New App - myGP

Download our new appointment bookings app to your smartphone for free. myGP was developed to make access to healthcare easier and faster for patients. Once downloaded, simply log-in with your date of birth and mobile number and add the people you care for, allowing you to book and cancel appointments for them. Plus more! It’s really that easy! For more information, please visit: mygp.com

IMPORTANT ADVICE ABOUT CORONAVIRUS

The symptoms of Coronavirus are:  A new continuous cough, cold or chest like symptom, A high temperature/fever of 37.8 and above,  Shortness of breath. But these symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness.  The symptoms are similar to other illnesses that are much more common, such as cold and flu.  Our aim is to reduce person to person contact. We put the health and safety of our patients and staff first at all times.

All contact to the practice for the foreseeable future is by telephone or email only.  Please be reassured that our team will endeavour to continue to deliver patient care, just in a different way.  Our aim is to reduce person to person contact. We put the health and safety of our patients and staff first at all times.

The GP’s will be carrying out telephone and video consultations only. And then if approved by the GP’s we will allow access to the building.

If you normally collect repeat prescriptions in person, please telephone us and we can arrange for this to be sent electronically to a pharmacy. You can also register for online access to order your prescriptions rather than order over the telephone.

Following the government’s announcement on Sunday 22nd March, there are now 2 groups of vulnerable patients who currently have NO symptoms of COVID 19

Group one comprises of all those patients who are invited for a flu vaccination every year - these patients need to stay at home wherever possible, but at the very least MUST practice social distancing, keeping at least 6 feet or 2 metres apart from others and limiting the number of times you leave the house and where possible, no one should come to visit you.

Group two are those patients who are in group 1 but have health conditions that put them more at risk of a very poor outcome if they were to catch COVID 19. These patients MUST STAY AT HOME for the next 12 weeks - social isolation. If you are in this group, you will receive a letter, but these are the conditions which would put someone in this group:

Solid organ transplant recipients
People with specific cancers:

People with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy or radical radiotherapy for lung cancer

People with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
People with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe COPD

People with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as SCID, homozygous sickle cell disease)

People on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection - these will be patients taking the following drugs

•     Azathioprine
•     Mycophenolate (both types)
•     Cyclosporin
•     Sirolimus
•     Tacrolimus

Patients who have had their spleen removed
Patients having renal dialysis

People who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired

If you are in this group, you will receive a letter. If you do not have family or friends who can support you to completely isolate from the outside world, please visit this page which will give information on how you can be supported

There have been numerous queries from lots of patients who think that they should be in this group - on 3rd April the government issued amended guidance which you can read here

If you are in group 2 and have other people living in the same house, they do not need to isolate with you, unless they too have received a letter, BUT they MUST practice social distancing from you and avoid all contact with you if possible.

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable 

NEW - Data Protection Update - GDPR

From the 1st July, the NHS will change how it shares your GP medical record. The General Practice Data for Planning and Research data extract by NHS Digital from GP Practices across England will help the NHS to improve health and care services for everyone, by collecting patient data and holding it in a central national database. 

This is an upgrade to an existing similar process called GPES – General Practice Extract Service, this new data collection will be more efficient, effective, and much more frequent. 

For example, patient data held in this new national database can help the NHS to:

•   monitor the long-term safety and effectiveness of care
•   plan how to deliver better health and care services
•   prevent the spread of infectious diseases
•   identify new treatments and medicines through health research

If you would prefer that your identifiable patient data is only shared for your own health care purposes, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both.

 These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail below. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt-out using either option (or both).

A Type 1 opt out has to be registered by your Practice; please let us know if you want to register a type 1 opt out.   

A National Opt out can be done without contacting your practice, at https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/

For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for General Practice Data for Planning and Research.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research

This collection will start on 1 September 2021

 If you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by August 2021.

Find out what is changing here.

Primary Care Network - Changes for the Practice - click here to find out more

Extended Access

We are now open for extended access. This means we are open until 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am -11am on Saturday and Sunday for pre-bookable appointments only

Click here for the Extended Access Leaflet

New prescribing policy

What is changing?

Our practice, along with others throughout England, will be implementing a new policy on prescriptions for over-the-counter medicines when used to treat a range of minor health conditions.  The national guidance on this policy has come from NHS England and the full local policy can be found on the Birmingham and Solihull CCG website.

The GPs and nurses at Richmond Medical Centre will no longer routinely be prescribing medicines that can be bought over-the-counter (OTC) for certain, mostly short term, conditions.  We will also no longer be prescribing vitamin and mineral supplements for most patients. Click here for more information.

We are asking patients to take a different approach to managing the following conditions:  

2018 Patient Survey - The results are here, take a look.

Your Care Connected

Your Care Connected allows healthcare professionals to view information from your GP record, it will provide them with important and potentially life-saving information; it will also help to reduce unnecessary repeat tests, such as blood tests and X-rays. Sharing your medical records could save your life - All patient aged over 15 years 11 months will be receiving a letter detailing this service. More information can be found on the website under "News" - Your Care Connected"

PPG ( Patient Participation Group) – We need your views

Would you like to receive news from your Practice first hand and on a regular basis?

Are you interested in learning more about health and associated matters?

If so, then all it needs is your name and e-mail address (this will never be forwarded onto anyone but the practice).

Please speak to reception for how to do this.

*if you would like more information on the group and how it works please click this link*-> http://www.richmondmc.co.uk/ppg.aspx?t=1

Download a PDF copy of our most recent news letter here -> News Letter