News

Throughout the pandemic we have strived to make the surgery as safe as possible for all our patients and staff. We will continue to do so going forward.

From the 19th July nothing will change at the surgery - patients will need to still wear a mask, socially distance and use hand sanitiser in the surgery, and staff will continue to wear PPE. We do understand that it can be frustrating but we know that when people come to us they are sick and vulnerable (and some cannot receive the Covid vaccinations due to medical reasons) so we feel it would be wrong to not take these small precautions that can protect people.

In terms of opening up, as many of you know, we have never been shut and in fact have consulted with much higher numbers of patients than we did pre-Covid (face to face, by phone, and by video), not counting vaccinating our adult population twice in the last 6 months.

We have come so far in trying to minimise the impact of Covid and we are sure you understand that we need to keep the surgery as safe for ALL patients and staff as we can.

Thank you for your understanding.

Long Covid tri-fold leaflet

All staff at the Health Centre were saddened to be made aware about the recent petition  ‘Improve the waiting & appointment times at Swallownest Health Centre’ . At Swallownest we have always been proud of ourselves with regards to the quality of the service we provide and have strived to improve patient care where we can. We have been experiencing extremely high demand for the past few months, which is mirrored in all parts of the NHS currently, all whilst continuing to help support the local vaccination programme at Anston. We are aware of the difficulties that patients are having getting through on the phones and we continue to take steps to address this.

Having said that the petition is factually incorrect and is predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of the NHS GP contract. Waiting times on the phone are not over 1 hour. A great number of appointments is being offered, much higher than our historic activity levels, and have continued to be offered throughout the pandemic. All patients that require a face-to-face appointment have been offered one based on clinical need, which has always been the case.

The Practice Manager deals with complaints in accordance with the NHS complaints procedure, and it is incorrect to state that they are “falling on deaf ears” when no contact has been made. This could also be considered indirect discrimination. The “simple solution” requested in the petition is simply not possible under the current contracting arrangements, and thus signatures are being received under false pretences. The petition also makes a direct accusation of clinical negligence in the phrase “failing to provide the correct care”, which we strongly dispute.

The petition has been reported with a request to be removed at your earliest convenience.

Kind regards,

GP Partners.

Primary care phlebotomy services are funded for General Practice needs, and those patients being treated under a Shared Care arrangement.

We’ve had an increasing number of patients trying to use our services for Hospital Bloods. Please note that practices aren’t obliged to pick up secondary care phlebotomy.

Patients should be using the relevant hospital bloods service.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - https://www.sth.nhs.uk/clientfiles/File/Drive%20through%20blood%20taking%20service%20is%20moving%20-%20pd11071.pdf

Rotherham Foundation Trust http://www.therotherhamft.nhs.uk/

It is important that to care for your needs we only accept communication from our patients via the correct communication channels

It has come to our attention that patients are emailing for health care. Unfortunately this is not one of the communication options available, unless you need to cancel an appointment.

If you are a Swallownest patient emailing with regards to any medical advice, please note that this mailboxes are not monitored for use in this way. It is important for your health needs that you contact us by telephone 0114 4333888 or by booking an appropriate appointment online.

To cancel an appointment, please email [email protected]

Please note that lateral flow tests are for testing if you haven’t got Covid symptoms. They are not accurate.

If you have any of these 3 coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, use this service to get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test as soon as possible:

a high temperature

a new, continuous cough

you’ve lost your sense of smell or taste or it’s changed

https://www.nhs.uk/.../coronaviru.../symptoms/main-symptoms/

About 1 in 3 people with COVID-19 do not have symptoms but can still infect others.

It is really important that you have both of your Covid vaccinations. Like all medicines, no vaccine is completely effective, so you should continue to take recommended precautions to avoid infection. Some people may still get COVID-19 despite having a vaccination, but this should be less severe.

Please do not come to the Health Centre if you have symptoms. Please continue to follow Government guidance.

#handsfacespace

If you are aged over 18 and require your covid vaccination. Please contact us via email [email protected] quoting your name, date of birth and stating that you are a Swallownest Health Centre patient.

Thank you.

Are you 25 years old or over and not had your first dose of the COVID vaccine?
◽️ Are you registered at a Rotherham GP practice?

We are making patients aware of the planned data extraction taking place in the coming weeks from GP systems across England.
Please note the practice has been legally required by the Secretary of State to allow the extraction by NHS Digital and the data is extracted centrally by NHS Digital.

As well as using your information to support the delivery of care to you, your data may be used by NHS Digital to help improve the way health and social care is delivered to patients and service users throughout England. From the 1st July 2021, NHS Digital will securely extract your information to provide access to patient data to the NHS and other organisations who need to use it, to improve health and social care for everyone.

NHS Digital will primarily use your information in a way that does not identify you (your information will be pseudonymised). However, they will be able to use their software to identify you in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason to do so. NHS Digital may also share your information with third parties such as Local Authorities, primary care networks (PCNs), clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), research organisations, including universities, and pharmaceutical companies.

At the time of publication (June 2nd 2021), patients who have a “type 1” opt- out, recorded before 23rd June 2021 will be excluded from this programme and will not have their data extracted.

If an opt-out is registered after the 1st July 2021, data extracted previously will be held and processed by NHS Digital; however no future extraction shall take place.

We will rely on Legal Obligation (Article (6)(1)(c)), Health and Social Care (Article 9(2)(h)) and Public Health (Article (9)(2)(i)) as the legal basis for processing your data for this purpose.

How to opt-out:-

💻 Visit https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/
📱 You can also opt-out simply by using the NHS App
☎️ Phone 0300 303 5678 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Further information about GPDfPR can be found here: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research/transparency-notice

You can access your COVID-19 vaccination status through the free NHS App from 17 May. You can access the app through mobile devices such as a smartphone or by tablet. Proof of your COVID-19 vaccination status will be shown within the NHS App. We recommend that you register with the app before booking international travel.

If you do not have access to a smartphone and know that the country you are travelling to requires COVID-19 vaccination status, you can call the NHS helpline on 119 (from 17 May) and ask for a letter to be posted to you. This must be at least 5 days after you’ve completed your course of the vaccine. We expect the letter to take up to 5 days to reach you.

🛑Do not contact your GP surgery about your COVID-19 vaccination status. GPs cannot provide letters showing your COVID-19 vaccination status.🛑