Notice Board

Swanage Medical Practice has recently become registered as a "Primary Care Research Practice". Dr Claire Hombersley will be taking the lead for the practice and we look forward to working with and involving our patients in this important aspect of their health care.

What is research?

Research is the way new knowledge is found. Clinical research (also called ‘clinical trials’ or ‘studies’) is a type of research that is designed to test new treatments or ways of delivering care. Clinical research can involve patients and/or healthy people.

What is Primary Care research?

When research takes place in a community setting, such as a GP surgery, dental practice or pharmacy it can be called ‘Primary Care Research’. Primary Care Research is concerned with the prevention of disease, new and innovative medical technologies such as a new drug, health promotion, screening and early diagnosis, as well as the management of long term conditions, such as arthritis and heart disease.

Why take part in research studies?

It has previously been found that people who take part in research studies can benefit from the experience. It can be rewarding and people often enjoy taking part. You might learn some more about the condition being studied.

Taking part in research can also help other people, such as others with the same problem as you, or those who might develop it in the future. Some research tries to find new ways of preventing health problems.

You can also sometimes take part in research as a healthy volunteer. This means that you don’t have any problems yourself, but that you volunteer to try out new treatments or ways of delivering care.

How will this affect me?

If you are eligible to take part in a research we are running you will be told about it by your doctor. You will also get some written information about the study. You may hear about it face to face or get a letter in the post from the practice.

It is up to you if you want to take part. Your care and how you are treated by staff will not be affected if you decide that taking part is not for you. You will have time to think about whether or not you want to take part.

Being in a study can be a good experience. All studies have been reviewed by a group of experts that have practice in looking at research.

We are now providing a limited number of pre-booked appointments at weekends and evenings. We have agreed with Dorset PCT to offer these appointments on some Monday evenings, Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, with one member of staff available to open the door.

The Health Centre will not be open for any enquiries, urgent appointments, for making appointments or prescription requests, nor will the telephone be switched on. If you have a pre-booked appointment you will need to ring the bell at the door and you will be let in.

The current arrangements for out-of-hours care still apply outside of normal opening hours (ie any time outside of Mon to Friday 0800 to 1830). Please click here for more information about contacting the Dorset Urgent Care Service or NHS Direct.

We run a personal list system, so that you are registered with an individual GP. If your GP is present and has available appointments, we would normally request that you see your own doctor. The advantages of a personal list system, as we see it, are:

We do however have a flexible system, especially if your problem is of an urgent nature. And if you wish to see a doctor of a specified gender for a personal matter, we will do our best to accomodate this.

If you are unhappy with the care provided by your doctor, you may request to re-register with another GP in the Practice. We cannot guarantee a particular doctor, but will endeavour to find another suitable GP for you. We hope, of course, that you will not find this to be neccessary.

Advanced Access Appointments

Swanage Medical Practice offers a service called 'Advanced Access'. We would like all requests for an appointment with your doctor in the first instance, to be dealt with as a telephone consultation with your GP, either on the same day or at another day and time agreed with you.

When you call we will ask how we can help you and ask you to give our trained receptionists brief details of your condition so that they can record them for the attention of your doctor. If you feel you are unable to disclose your condition you can of course state your call is 'Personal'.

(For your peace of mind the practice receptionists are covered by the NHS and Practice codes of confidentiality, just the same as all the health care professionals at the health centre.)

The receptionist will take your name and telephone number and the doctor will call you to discuss the problem and agree a course of action. This may be an appointment with your doctor, an appointment with a specialist nurse, direct referral to a hospital specialist or more likely a diagnostic test i.e., blood test, urine test, x-ray, ultrasound etc or self-care advice.

For some conditions it may be more appropriate for our receptionists to arrange an appointment with a practice nurse, nurse specialist, health visitor, district nurse, etc and they will help you choose.

This system has speeded up the process of treating your illness and made face-to-face consultation with your doctor far more productive, if diagnostic tests are completed beforehand. If, however, you consider that a telephone consultation will be of no benefit, you may elect to wait for a routine appointment with the doctor.

Please let us know in advance if you are unable to keep any appointment made, so that we may offer it to someone else. If you are late for your appointment, you may be asked to wait until the end of surgery or be asked to make another appointment.

Out of Hours

If you are unwell in the evening, overnight or at the weekend, contact the Dorset Urgent Care Service as before on 0845 600 10 13.

NHS Direct can also give you general medical information 24 hours a day. Their trained nurses can provide you with expert health advice and reassurance any time of the day or night on 0845 46 47. If your illness or injury is severe, or you have had a serious accident, call 999 and ask for an ambulance.

As always if you have any comments to make about our services, we are happy to receive them in order that we can try and provide you with the service required within the limited resources which we have.