Dr’s Taylor, Bacon & Wrigley
Almond Road Surgery, Almond Road, St Neots, PE19 1DZ
Tel 01480 473413
Fax 01480 406906
Web www.almondroadsurgery.org.uk
Practice Newsletter
Aug / Sept 2011
Dear patients
Just a quick note to let you know what is going on currently within the practice
Departure of Dr Conradie / New Service – Minor Illness Clinic
We are sad to announce the departure of Dr Conradie who left the practice as of the 9th August 2011.
We wish her well in all her future endeavours.
As a practice we understand that a female practitioner is important to our patients. Currently we are
seeking a female locum to solve the problem in the short term.
In the long term the practice is looking at ways we can provide a female practitioner to our patients.
One solution is one of our practice nurse’s, Wendy Snead, is currently training to be a minor illness
nurse. Wendy will be running minor illness clinics commencing early next year. Wendy may well be
able to deal with some of the issues patients normally wish to see a female doctor for. Hopefully
patients will take advantage of this new service when is starts in the new year.
Darzi Centre – St Neots Health Centre, Moore’s Walk St Neots
In 2009 the St Neots Health Centre in Moore’s Walk, St Neots, opened offering a walk in service to the
population of St Neots.
But did you know that here at Almond Road we have offered this service for years with our daily Sit &
Wait surgery, Monday to Friday between 09:00 to 11:00. Although it is the practice’s preference for
patients to ring in first, patients can just walk in and ask to be seen by booking in at the front desk. The
only difference between ringing and walking in is that patients who ring in first will be offered ½ hr time
slots for arriving at the surgery to minimise their wait. Please bear in mind that if you are a walk in you
may have a slightly longer wait than the patients who rang in first. All patients that arrive at the surgery
before 11:00 am for the Sit & Wait surgery will be seen.
We have been notified by the St Neots Health Centre that patients currently registered with Almond
Road who are using the St Neots Health Centre on a more regular basis from now on will be
encouraged to use their own practice. If the St Neots Health Centre try to encourage you to register on
the grounds that this will enable you to be seen that day please let us know as you do not have to be
registered there to be seen.
308869819
New Patients Registering – 16 – 24 year old’s
The practice is offering another new service to all 16-24yr olds newly registering with our practice. All
16-24yr olds will be given a Chlamydia testing kit with their registration documents. The practice
considers all patients wellbeing of extreme importance and in these times when the prevalence of STI's
is on the increase we consider this to be a service well worth providing to our patients.
Existing Patients – 16 – 24 year old’s
The practice is also offering this new service of Chlamydia testing to all our existing patients between
16-24yrs of age.
For the reasons mentioned above we suggest that all patients in this age group should take up the
opportunity to be tested. If you wish to be tested you can either ask the Doctor, Nurse or at the
reception desk.
Please note that you can be retested as many times as you like, we suggest this is especially important
each time you have a new someone in your life.
Flu Campaign - 2011
Well it’s that time again; winter is getting closer and its time for the surgery to be running our annual flu
campaign.
Patients will shortly be receiving a letter, if you fall within the qualifying categories, inviting you to ring
between certain times on certain days using the dedicated flu line telephone number which will be on
your letters.
The clinic dates this year will be from the last week of September through to the end of October.
If you do not receive your invite by the 14th September and you fall within the qualifying categories
please do not hesitate to ring the surgery to arrange your appointment.
PLEASE NOTE THAT NON QUALIFYING PATIENTS who do not fall into the at risk categories will only
be offered the flu vaccine after the qualifying patients have received theirs. We will not know how many
remaining vaccines we will have left for non at risk patients that wish to have a flu vaccine until the
beginning of November.
308869819
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