COVID boosters 12th December
We know people will be anxious to get their booster jabs following the announcement last night Sunday 12th December. Unfortunately we haven’t had any advance notice of the information before the announcement by the prime minister. We will be trying to organise the logistics of any additional jabs as soon as possible.
In the meantime please don’t ring reception to try and book a jab. If we are able to arrange extra clinics we will send invites to patients as and when appointments are available.
As things stand currently you are eligible to BOOK a booster if you are either:
aged 30 years old and over
aged 16 years old and over with a health condition that puts you at high risk from COVID-19
frontline health and social care workers
Information:
Although you can pre-book a booster dose from 2 months (61 days) after your 2nd dose, the appointment dates you'll be offered will be from 3 months (91 days) after your 2nd dose.
There are 3 ways for eligible people to book their booster.
or attend a walk-in clinic
Whatever this pandemic brings, we are committed to offering our patients some of the very best General Practice care that is possible
Jabs
Emotional support
Communication about changes
Continued quality access to appointments
Support with long term condition
...and a cheerful and hopeful team who care for you all very much.
1st Dec
We would like to support people in using the NHS app for ordering medications & using AskmyGP.
We have some guides below. We would also like to invite people to bring their phones and photo ID to the surgery in an afternoon for support.
Order repeat medications through the NHS app, once set up, it is by far the easiest way. You can see your available medicines, request a new repeat prescription and choose a pharmacy for your prescriptions to be sent to. You can also see COVID vaccine status.
Ordering through 3rd party apps like Lloyds app or Pharmacy 2U is causing some difficulties at our end. You can select which ever pharmacy you want to dispense or deliver. However we are very keen that the NHS app alone is used for ORDERING.
Ordering medications for someone you care for
For more info see our website
If you want support with getting or using the NHS app, bring your phone AND PHOTO ID to the surgery in an afternoon
Support with AskmyGP
We are using AskmyGP for most medical requests both for you and anyone you care for. If you find it hard to use, or are unsure how to see replies, attach photos, or to use on behalf of someone you care for, we’d like to help. Our reception can talk it through on the phone.
If you want support with registering or using AskmyGP, bring your phone to the surgery in an afternoon.
27th NOV
Group meetings supported by Birley Health Centre 2022.
We are considering how best to offer new ways to help people manage some of the challenges we face in life. We have a wealth of medical expertise at Birley Health Centre. However there are also many of YOU with a wealth of experience of living with and managing various health and life challenges. This experience is equally important and often underestimated.
In addition to learning about health challenges, forming connections with people with similar challenges can be significant supportive. Antenatal (NCT) groups are an excellent example of this.
We would like to facilitate a safe and supportive environment where we can meet to ask questions and share our experience about various topics.
We have had great success with group meetings with people medical problems such as Diabetes and COPD. However other suggestions include menopause, people who are carers, people with financial difficulties, domestic abuse, weight loss or new parents.
We would love your suggestions about anything you would like to learn more about that you think may work in a group setting. We would also love to hear if there are challenges in life you have learned to manage and would be interested in sharing this with others. Please post below or email
sheccg.birleyhc@nhs.net
Dr Ben Allen
27th Nov
This week we announce that after 14 amazing years at Birley health centre, Dr Jane Jamieson is retiring.
She has worked with such great knowledge, experience and attention to detail. She's had a special interest in women's health and has been the lead of our patients with learning disabilities. Dr Tom Cliffe will be joining us in January and our Physician Associate Hannah Smail will lead on learning disabilities. Jane's has written a message is below. We will ensure she sees any replies.
'I am sorry that I am unable to give this message personally to so many of my patients, but I want to pass on that I am retiring at the end of November.
It has truly been a privilege to work at Birley and to have shared in your lives. So many of you have been a huge inspiration to me as you have faced health and life challenges with courage, humour and resilience. I hope in some small way I have been able to make a difference during those times, through medical treatment or a listening ear.
I will miss you all immensely, as well as the tremendous staff team at Birley Health Centre who I know are dedicated to providing you with the highest levels of care.
I am thankful that I will have more time to spend on caring responsibilities with extended family members, as well as serving in my church and community, and hopefully picking up some old hobbies and developing some new ones!
With every good wish for the future to you all,
Jane Jamieson'
27th Nov
Sarah Newton, Nurse Practitioner Moves On.
'I joined Birley Health Centre in 2007 as a Practice Nurse. I immediately knew I had joined a great, forward thinking Practice. The Gp Partners supported me in my career development and I studied hard to become a Nurse prescriber and then subsequently a Nurse Practitioner. My aim was to work as Independently as possible and to support the team by leading the Minor Illness clinics.
This was a major achievement and one I am very proud of. Gaining the trust of my patients took time but gave me great reward. I became the lead nurse for Diabetes and over time developed strong relationships and encouraged my patients to be involved in shared decision making.
Alongside my Clinical work I also took a keen interest in supporting and training other members of the Nursing team and also mentoring Student Nurses. One of my Proudest moments was being nominated for the Mentor of the year for South Yorkshire and the Humber in 2018 and winning!!
I feel very lucky to have worked with such a wonderful team and wonderful patients. It is time now after 13 years for me to share some of my Skills and experience with another equally great team. I am joining Gleadless Medical Centre and I will continue with my work teaching and supporting Student nurses and those nurses who are new to General Practice.
I will hold such happy memories of my long career at Birley and of the wonderful people I have had the privilege of caring for. I will never forgot you all
Best Wishes Sarah.'
20th Nov
We have a wonderful team caring for our patients. We're doing a series of short videos to help you to get to know the team better and understand how we work. Today we have one of our receptionists Sam!
3rd Nov
To create a small opportunity for patients to get to know the staff at Birley HC we're going to create a few short videos of some of the staff over the next few weeks.
Flu update 12th August
We know many people are keen to know when they will be able to book their flu vaccine with the practice this autumn.
We are still waiting to hear full details of the possible COVID booster programme and have been advised that it may be possible to give a COVID booster along with flu vaccine at the same time. It may be that NHS England recommend giving both the flu vaccine and COVID booster together.
While we are waiting for these final bits of guidance we cannot book people in to vaccine clinics for flu or COVID.
We hope to hear in the next few weeks and we will update you as soon as we have more details. In the meantime many thanks for your patience.
Reception staff do not have any further information so please avoid contacting them to ask questions about flu or COVID boosters as this increases pressure on the practice phone lines.
Many thanks. We will keep you updated as we hear more.
Covid Restriction Update 15th July 2021
Throughout the pandemic we have made the surgery as safe as possible for all our patients and staff and will continue to do so going forward.
From July 19th 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 will continue to use the door buzzer and have different arrangement for anyone with COVID symptoms. 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 help to protect people.
Also whilst the medical risks of COVID are reduced by vaccination, the impact of self isolation due to a COVID outbreak remain considerable.
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 giving 31,311 COVID vaccines at Beighton Health Centre since the start of the year.
We will continue to request people use AskmyGP where possible, or reception will help you if you can not. As the risks to all of COVID have reduced, the proportion of face to face appointments will increase. Knowing what your needs are is important to enable you to find the right person or service to help.
The receptionist team do a very important job for us and are following principles we have agreed as a practice. Thank for your patience and kindness with them
Birley Health Centre has 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 as we can.
The message below is about the Prescription Order Line that will be sadly coming to an end.
One of our plans for this year was to make improvement to the process of ordering prescriptions. We will be very proactive in supporting you in this over the next few months.
Birley Health Centre.
There is more information about alternative ways to order prescriptions here.
https://www.sheffieldccg.nhs.uk/Your-Health/prescriptions-and-medication.htm
...................................................................
'For some years NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has worked with your doctors’ surgery to provide a Prescription Order Line telephone service for ordering repeat medication.
This service was set up as a test service and has only been available to a few volunteer Sheffield general practices and their patients, including your practice.
The CCG has formally looked for an NHS provider to extend the Prescription Order Line to all general practices in the city but unfortunately has been unable to find one that meets the criteria. Therefore, as we are unable to provide equal access to this service for all Sheffield patients, we have taken the difficult decision to stop providing the Prescription Order Line to all practices from 30 September 2021.
We understand that this will mean a change to how some people order their repeat medication. If you use the Prescription Order Line we want to know how this closure will affect you and what support you may need to order your medicines in the future.
Please tell us about how this will impact you by completing this short survey or go to this webpage:
www.bit.ly/prescription-order-line
The POL team will be able to send out paper copies on request and also help patients to complete it over the telephone after 3pm (there is a FREEPOST return address).'
DEMONSTRATING YOUR COVID VACCINATION STATUS.
From 17 May 2021, people in England who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can demonstrate their vaccination status for international travel. A full course is currently two doses of the Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine, or one dose of the Janssen single-dose vaccine. Vaccine status will be available through the NHS COVID Pass service from:
the NHS App which https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/online-services/nhs-app/ you can download from app stores
the NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/…/vaccination-status-for-travelling-abr…/
119 - by requesting a paper letter
You will need to register to use the online services, if you have not already. It may take more than a week for your identity to be checked and verified.
If you cannot access the online services, and you have had both doses of the vaccine, you can request a paper letter from the NHS by calling 119. Only call 119 if you are due to travel outside the UK in the near future and have had your second dose (or one dose of the Janssen single-dose vaccine) more than 5 working days ago. It may take up to 7 working days for the letter to arrive.
This practice is not able to provide you with a letter that shows your COVID-19 vaccination status. Please do not contact the practice about your COVID-19 vaccination status unless you have been advised to by the 119 service.
When you're planning your travel, you should check the latest information on demonstrating your COVID-19 status when travelling abroad on the gov.uk website. Make sure there is enough time to get proof of your COVID-19 vaccination status before you are due to travel.
Last vaccine clinic at Beighton 17th July
We are approaching the last vaccine clinic that will be held at Beighton for the present time.
We have no more vaccine deliveries scheduled at the moment and so the last clinic is likely to be the 17th July 2021.
If you have been invited for a second dose vaccine at Beighton then please book this now so as not to miss out.
If you have not been invited to Beighton because you are healthy and aged under 50 years, or if you have been invited but have not booked before the 17th July, then you will need to use the national booking line by visiting
www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination or calling 119.
If it is more convenient there are also sites offering drop in vaccination in Sheffield: The Octagon Centre, offering walk-in vaccination appointments Mondays - Sundays, 8am - 5pm (first come, first served) and Primary Care Sheffield in Darnall, offering walk-in vaccination appointments Tuesdays – Fridays, 6.30pm – 9pm and Saturdays and Sundays, 9am – 4.30pm (again first come, first served).
Lastly we know that many people are keen to know whether there will be another (third) Covid booster that will be given. At the moment we haven’t been told whether this will happen or how it will be given. As soon as we have clear details we will share them with you to keep you informed.
Update regarding face to face appointments June 2021
We've had some questions about seeing a GP face to face. This post explains the thinking behind how we are working currently.
We recognise that this last year has been unsettling and people are keen to know what things will look like moving forwards.
In the past you could book a face to face GP appointment simply by asking for one. As the increasing demands have outstripped resources enormously, we got to the the point where it became a race to get appointments at 830am.
The people who got appointments could often have been dealt with a quick GP phone call, a receptionist, a nurse, admin staff or a pharmacist for example. And many people who could only be helped by a GP were sent away because they didn't call in time. We could not carry on like this. And we had strong continual feedback that you did not want it to carry on also.
The following is what we feel is the only safe way to manage our situation, giving the best care to the most people.
We try to get a bit of information from patients, ideally through AskmyGP or through a receptionist. We understand you may not want to say what is wrong. We can get one of the clinical team to call you.
As a team we try to get people to the most appropriate person to help using the best method of contact, taking into account patient preferences and what is needed medically.
We start many consultations by phone. Occasionally email is suitable for simple issues. Many things can be managed this way, but others can not. If we feel that seeing a patient is needed to make a good decision we bring people in for a face to face consultation. This has had to weighed up with the risk of spreading COVID.
So we aim to see someone face to face to diagnose or assess if someone is unwell. However we also recognise the benefits of a face to face for mental health, if someone is not coping, when there are multiple medical problems or complex symptoms. We take all of this, and patient preference into account.
We have never stopped seeing patients face to face. At the height of the pandemic, we had to weigh up the benefits of face to face very cautiously. Every day we still saw patients who needed it. However increasingly we are bringing more people up to the surgery. We expect the number of face to face consultations to increase considerably in the next few months.
We also take seriously continuity, the same clinician following through any ongoing problem. We can't do this every time but we try.
In summary, seeing a GP in the past was completely about patient preference. However over time this meant the people who most needed a GP were struggling to see one. Our current system is not perfect. But we see it as the best way to give all our patients what they need, safely, with the pressures we are facing.
Our understanding is that changes we have made have enabled Birley Health Centre to give great care where many surgeries are not coping. We recognise that some patients will find these changes difficult to accept. In fact many staff do also. But we felt we had no option given the pressures. We are proud of the service we are offering and have a passionate and committed team. We continue to be open to feedback about making further
improvements.
Birley video about options for getting medical help
Goodbye to our manager Kiz
Our manger Kiz is sadly leaving us in a few weeks for a senior role at Primary Care Sheffield.
In her 5 years with us she has brought fantastic organisation and enthusiasm to Birley. She also played a lead role in getting Beighton set up and the COVID vaccination programme.
She is absolutely remarkable and will be missed by the team. We wish her all the best!
NHS app
Regarding registering for the NHS app, we are getting various questions.
Update May 2021 about how we are managing appointments
Thank for the amazing messages of support from so many of our patients to Dr Allen post! Your positive experiences are encouraging. We've been able to share this with our staff.
The main frustration we've heard in recent years has been getting an appointment. We're aware we've made great improvements in this, particularly through AskmyGP.
However such easy access has created it's own challenges with workload that is almost unmanageable.
One option is to restrict access again to 'first come first served'. We know this risk those who most need us missing out.
Our preferred option is to keep access open through AskmyGP (which includes phoning us if you don't have the internet!).
For this to work, we hope you can accept that we will need to make decisions about the following
-Who needs a GP
-Who could be managed by another of our staff
-If someone wants to be seen face to face and we consider this is needed, we will continue to offer this.
-Who we need to redirect to self help of another organisation, perhaps without even a phone call and
-Be willing be describe a little about the problem that can help us decide how best to help you (Only if you are comfortable with this)
These later options may not feel so positive as a patient, if you feel you need to talk to a GP. We will always still take your preferences into account.
We also ask that you consider if there are alternative solutions that may be a reasonable first option. We of course need to support you to know what those options may be! We're sure many of you are already doing this!
These two things together could enable us to continue with easy access and fantastic, safe care when you most need it.
There aren't easy answers! We are committed as a team to working with you in this.
Where to go if you are unwell.
We're aware that it can be confusing where to go to get help when you are unwell; 111,
NHS.net, pharmacy, GP, walk in centre etc. This video hopefully will help you understand the options.
My name is Dr Allen, one of the GPs at Birley Health centre.
In this video I will explain the options of where to go for help when you are unwell as this can be confusing. This includes 111, NHS online, 999, walk in centres, pharmacy and GPs. Any websites or phone numbers I mention are available in the description.
If you have a new problem, or need medical help and are unsure where to get help from, use 111 online or call 111. They will help or direct you. They can even book you in to A and E or a GP, day or night.
If you want to know more about a known medical problem that you have, try searching on the NHS website. This has reliable information on health conditions, medications and much more.
Use 999 in a medical emergency when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk. For example signs of a heart attack or stroke, heavy bleeding that won’t stop, or severe difficulty breathing. Don’t call your GP surgery as we can not respond as quickly as the ambulance service.
Broadlane walk-in centre can treat minor injuries or illnesses, such as infections, cuts and rashes. They are open every day 8am to 10pm.
Pharmacies can help with medication questions, as well as minor illness such as coughs and colds, flu and red eyes.
For urgent dental problems you need to call your dentist or 111 if you not have one. only dentists can safely diagnose and treat dental problems.
Health visitors can offer excellent support with most common childhood health problems. The link and phone number is in the video description.
For help mental health support at any time, you can contact the Sheffield rethink helpline or Samaritans. Again links and numbers in the video description.
Finally there is your GP. One of our unique roles is helping patients who have a mixture of medical problems. Another role we play is where it really important to see someone who knows you. This may be that you have an ongoing medical problem or medication. One of the ways to ensure a GP is available when you need us is to consider if any other options would be suitable for you. If in doubt, using the 111 service can help you.
Our phones lines are open from 8.30am until 6pm every day, except on a Tuesday afternoon when our phone lines are diverted to a call centre at the NGH. If you need urgent help on a Tuesday afternoon, they will contact us.
The best way to get medical help from Birley health centre is to use AskmyGP on our website. If you write a little about what you need, we can find the best person to help you. If you want to know more about AskmyGP or other changes at Birley Health centre this year, please follow the a link in the description. People who cannot access the AskmyGP service can still continue to telephone the Health Centre as before.
If you need an appointment in an evening or a weekend, we can book people into Woodhouse or Sloan GP surgeries. This includes appointments for GPs, nurses, physios and blood tests. If you prefer this let us know as will need to arrange this for you.
When we are closed, GPs are still available in Sheffield all the time. If any problem can’t want until we are open, please do ring 111, who can arrange help if you need this.
So in summary, NHS online is excellent for getting more information about a known problem you have. 999 for life threatening emergencies, walk in centre Broadlane for is for minor injuries, pharmacy can help with multiple minor illnesses and health visitors help with common childhood illness. Our phones lines are open 8.30 until 6pm every day except Tuesday and we prefer to use our online access if you have internet.
The main take home point, if you don’t know what to do, use 111 online or call 111, any time of any day. The role of 111 IS to help you find the best way to get the care that you need.
COVID vaccine update May 2021
Covid vaccinations for people aged 18-49
The NHS has now started phase 2 of the covid vaccination programme, vaccinating the healthier population aged 18-49.
Birley Health Centre will not be offering vaccinations to this cohort of patients. You will be invited by the NHS to have your vaccination at a mass vaccination centre such as Sheffield Arena or a pharmacy, or pharmacy led site, within 45 miles.
Unfortunately we are unable to help with vaccination enquiries for this group of patients. When you are eligible you will be contacted by the NHS with details on how to book your appointment. Please be patient and wait for your appointment, this is the biggest vaccination programme of its kind and it will take a while for everyone to be vaccinated. The NHS aims to have given all adults the first dose of the vaccine by the end of July 2021.
If you have a query about an existing appointment that has been booked through the national booking service please call 119 or visit
www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination. The practice is unable to help with these enquiries.
If you have already had your first vaccination with us, please wait to be contacted with an appointment for your second dose. We will be in touch when it is time for your second dose, please note that we may call at short notice as vaccines become available.
The vaccination site for the patients we are vaccinating is Beighton Health Centre Queens Road Beighton.
An apology and explanation from a Dr Ben Allen to anyone who is disappointed with us as a surgery or a profession, or who may become so in the future.
The NHS has now started phase 2 of the covid vaccination programme, vaccinating the healthier population aged 18-49.