Appointments are sent out automatically for routine child health checks. The first will be with a GP at the surgery when your baby is around 8 weeks old. You will be sent information about this and asked to make an appointment at the practice.
You will also be offered routine health reviews for your child, with your health visitor, at 6-8 weeks, 8-12 months and 2-2½ years old. Health Visitors are all trained nurses who have extra training and qualifications in child health. They are a fantastic source of information about child development and health, parenting strategies, breastfeeding, nutrition and community support. They also offer help with social, emotional and environmental issues that affect families.
You can see the Health Visitors at the clinic in the ground floor of Wortley Beck Health Centre.
Child Immunisations
Child immunisations are performed by the Practice Nurses at the surgery.
Alert
If child is ill when their immunisations are due please contact the surgery to rearrange your appointment.
You can ask your health visitor, practice nurse or doctor all about these important immunisations. Or for more information, please look at the vaccination schedule from the Department of Health Website.
Flu Clinic
What is flu?
Isn’t it just a heavy cold? How will I know I’ve got flu?
Flu occurs every year, usually in the winter, which is why it is sometimes called seasonal flu. It is a very infectious disease that can come on very quickly. The most common symptoms of flu are fever, chills, headache, pains in your joints and muscles and extreme tiredness. Healthy people usually recover within 2 – 7 days, but some people can develop serious complications and need to be admitted to hospital quickly.
Colds are much less serious and usually start slowly with a stuffy or runny nose and a sore throat. A bad bout of flu can be much worse than a heavy cold.
How do we prevent the spread of flu?
Flu is unpredictable and there can be different strains of the virus. However, over the last ten years the flu vaccine has generally been very good at targeting the circulating strains. This is available every year on the NHS to help protect adults and children who are most at risk of flu and its complications.
Am I at increased risk from the effects of flu?
Flu can affect anyone but if you have a long-term health condition flu can make it worse, even if the condition is well managed and you normally feel well.
Flu Vaccinations
We recommend that you have a flu jab (for free) or a flu nasal spray (if aged 2 to 17) if you are:
over six months of age and have one of the following conditions:
chronic respiratory disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis and cystic fibrosis. Also people with severe asthma who need to continuously or repeatedly use their inhaler, take steroid medication, or who have been admitted to hospital because of their asthma
chronic heart disease, including heart failure, congenital heart disease, and heart disease caused by high blood pressure
chronic kidney disease, such as kidney failure and people who have had a kidney transplant,
chronic liver disease, such as cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis,
chronic neurological disease, such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, motor neurone disease or multiple sclerosis,
diabetes
a suppressed immune system, due to disease or treatment. This includes people who have a damaged or no spleen, those people with HIV, people having chemotherapy or other immunosuppressant treatment, and those on high doses of steroid medication.
living in a long-stay residential care home or other long-stay care facility (not including prisons, young offender institutions or university halls of residence),
receive carer’s allowance or you are the main carer for an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if you fall ill,
a frontline health or social care worker (this should be provided by your employer).
Every autumn, around September, we start our flu clinics. We aim to vaccinate as many of those at risk, as indicated above.
See News page for details of this autumns clinics
Community nurses
Community Matrons
Community matrons specialise in caring for older people, whether they live in their own home or a care home. They help patients manage their health problems and try to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.
If a patient has to be admitted, they will communicate with the hospital team to ensure a smooth a discharge as possible.
District Nurses
District Nurses carry out many roles. These include:
General nursing procedures and investigations
Post-surgery care
Assessment of patients’ needs
Care for terminally ill patients
Loaning of equipment
Looking after wounds and leg ulcers
Educating patients about self-care
Referrals can be made by the patients themselves or by carers and family members.
Health Visitors
Health Visitors are qualified nurses with specialist training in child health, health promotion and health education.
Every child under five years old has a named Health Visitor. They can give you advice and information about childhood development, such as feeding, sleeping, communication and behaviour. The Health Visitor can also provide you with information about the childhood vaccination programme and can be a great source of information about local services for young children.
Dementia services
It is very important that anyone who has problems with their memory or thinking has a proper assessment. If these problems are due to dementia then early diagnosis and referral has many benefits for the patient, their carer(s) and family. It can help them to plan and access the treatment and support they need and to improve their quality of life.
In order to do this, the practice aims to:
Screen patients at risk (to increase early detection)
Provide improved care and support for patients and their families
How does it work?
Patients considered at risk, or concerned about the possibility of developing dementia, can see the nurse for a series of blood tests and a memory test.
If there is anything in the bloods that could affect memory, we will arrange an appointment to discuss how we best manage this.
If bloods are OK but the initial memory test indicates some concern, the patient will be invited to attend a memory clinic for further tests.
Carers
Who are carers?
Many carers are not known by their GP practice as there is confusion around how to define the term ‘carer’.
A carer is a person of any age (including children) who provides unpaid support to a partner, relative, friend or neighbour who couldn’t get by without their help. This could be due to old age, frailty, disability, a serious health condition, mental ill health or substance misuse. Parents of children who are disabled or who have a serious health condition are also considered to be carers.
It is estimated that 10% of patients are carers.
Kirkstall Abbey
Improving carer identification
As a practice we want to increase the number of people on our carers’ register so that we can look after them better. We do this by:
Asking patients with long-term conditions to name their carers
Running awareness-raising campaigns to get carers to tell us about their caring responsibilities
What we offer to improve healthcare for carers
Flu vaccination – most carers are eligible for a free flu vaccination to protect themselves and the person they care for
Regular health check appointments to help you keep fit and well
More flexible appointments
Carer support groups
Referrals to carers’ services for more specialised information, advice and support
When you lose someone, there are a mix of emotions but also responsibilities. Fortunately it is not something we have to deal with on a regular basis, and we can be confused on what we need to do on behalf of the deceased, and where we can get support.
Finding death at your doorstep
When somebody dies, there are a few steps that those close to the deceased need to follow:
If it happens at home and the death was expected, please telephone the practice or the out-of-hours services. If the event is not expected, the police needs also to be informed
A doctor or other health professional will come to confirm the death
You will need to contact later a funeral director so the body can be moved
You will also need to collect the death certificate from the GP and register the death
Registering the death
To do this you will need to collect a medical certificate from the doctor or hospital and then call 0113 222 4408 to make an appointment at your nearest register office
A death should be registered within five days (unless a coroner is investigating the circumstances leading to the death).
