New ways to make an appointment

We have made some improvements to the way you can book appointments with us.

Patient Partner now allows you to book doctor appointments using an automated system and your telephone keypad.  The service is available 24 hours a day.  Same day appointments are available from 730am each morning, so there is no need to wait in a queue after we open at 8am.

Our popular online booking system, Patient Access, also offers appointments 24 hours a day.  You can also use Patient Access to order your repeat prescriptions. 

New blood pressure monitor

On behalf of the entire practice we would like thank everyone who has generously supported our appeal for a new 24 hour blood pressure monitor.

These vital pieces of equipment are not funded by the NHS but are so important in managing patients with raised blood pressure.   They are used to determine whether raised blood pressure readings are true readings or a result of "white coat hypertension". 

Our particular thanks go to the ladies of the Women's Institute, Mr John Collett, the Surrey Border Lions Club and the Lightwater Business Association.

Patient Access

Patient Access is a service available to all our patients.  It allows appointments to be booked online and via a smart phone.  The service has been available here for several years but we are now expanding it to cover all GP appointments and very soon to cover phlebotomy appointments too.

Patient Access also allows you to order repeat presecriptions.

In order to use Patient Access we need to set up an account for you.  This simply requires a form to be filled in and we will need to see some photographic identification.  This is a requirement of our software provider (EMIS) who run the service and is designed to protect you from other people accessing your medical record.  Once registered you will have a unique user name and can log on from the patient.co.uk website.  You can also access this from our own website.

You can also download the app for smart phones. Available for Android and iOS.

Book on the day GP appointments are available online via Patient Access first, even before we open.

Acupuncture

 

We are pleased to announce a new acupuncture service at the surgery.  The service will initially be available on Wednesday mornings.  Our fully qualified practitioners are registered with the British Acupuncture Council.  

This is a private service as the NHS does not cover such treatments.  We hope it will be useful for a number of our patients.  Please ask for details at reception.

We also now have a chiropodist here on Tuesdays and a physiotherapist each Monday.

New for 2013

We have some great new developments for the new year.

From 21 January we will have a private physiotherapist at the practice.  At first this will be on Monday mornings and we hope to increase this as demand rises.  The service will be provided by the very popular local Scorpio Clinics.  If you wish to book an appointment please call 01344 845801.  If you are using your health insurance you may need a GP referral letter first.

From the end of January we will be introducing a new appointment booking service called Patient Partner. The system enables you to book appointments by phone without needing to speak to a receptionist.  This will mean you can book appointments even when we are closed.  We hope this will take some of the pressure off the 8am rush.  You can still book appointments on line and will be able to speak to a receptionist if you prefer.

We will shortly be introducing an email facility for ordering repeat prescriptions.  This will be available on our website.

Dr Melissa Forsbrey has joined us once again from Frimley Park.  She will be with us for the next year and currently has available appointments on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

We hope to have a chiropodist in the practice very soon.  Again, this will be a private service but we hope to keep the costs down to minimal levels.  The NHS service provided at Frimley by Virgin Healthcare is still available and is not being replaced by this service.

Building work complete!

We are finally finished after 13 months of building work and disruption!  On Tuesday we will welcome HRH The Countess of Wessex to formally open the new building.

She will arrive at 11am to tour the surgery prior to unveiling a commemorative plaque in the waiting room.

The car park is now open after its make over.  There are now an addition four spaces and a cycle shelter.  The new white line markings should mean the limited space is used to the maximum.

Our gardener has planted shrubs on the border with Christie Close and on the front corner.  This should help soften the visual impact of the building and go some way to replacing the old hedge that was removed to make room for the extension.

Inside the new self check is working well and reducing queues at the reception desk.  We will be fitting a new electronic patient information system in the waiting room very soon.

We hope you like the new surgery but any comments good or bad are most welcome!

Car park

Most of the internal work is now complete.  There are some small projects still to complete.

The car park has been delayed somewhat but we hope this will be completed later this week or next.  We then will be able to plant the borders outside and remove the heras fencing.

New doors

Previous temporary door

New automatic door

Alcove made from Dr Saeed's old consulting room

New roller racking system in place

We've had a busy week. We finally had our new gas main installed. The new storage system for our paper medical notes was delivered and fitted by OSS. The new automatic doors we installed on Friday.

Apologies for a lack of recent updates.  We now have a finish date of 30 March, just over 5 weeks away.  If you have been to the practice in the last week or so you will see the roof is on and most off the windows have been installed.  This makes a huge improvement to the exterior appearance.  Inside we have plumbers, plasterers and carpenters working.

The lift was installed last week, you can see it in some of the photographs.

The new front door is scheduled to be fitted on 8 March.  On that day we will have to ask patients to use the back door.  We will make sure it is well signposted.

New lift viewed from first floor

First floor admin offices

Last of the internal walls being built.  The doorway on the right will be the midwife and phlebotomy room

New waiting room

View from the waiting room, down the corridor towards the old back door, you can see the lift door on the left

Dr Wilcox's new room, roof and windows to be fitted

New consulting rooms being constructed in the former reception area

The new, wide corridor looking towards the rear of the building

New registrar room waiting to be plastered

New insulation

Former reception and waiting room, old front door is open

New registrar consulting room

New registrar's room on right, cleaner's cupboard and toilet

One of the new GP consulting rooms

New waiting room

Stripped out building, former front door on right of photo, looking towards the reception area

The Christmas break is over and the builders are back at work.  They are currently working on the new consulting rooms on the ground floor.  This has involved excavating new foundations, see previous posts, and building new sound proofed internal walls.  The wall that used to look out over the Christie Close side is also being removed once the steel work is in place.  Hopefully we can get the roof on before any bad weather.

Looking from the room Dr Wilcox used to use out to Christie Close. 

New floors in the original building

Top down view into new consulting rooms

We now have a fairly accurate finish date from the builders.  We hope to be finished by mid March.

Foundations

New foundations being dug inside the rear part of the surgery. This is the single storey part at the back, nearest the car park.  It is the original part of the building and dates back to 1971.  It is necessary to dig the foundations to support the new sound proof walls and solid floors.

Demolition

Phlebotomy and Dr Jones' rooms

Former disabled toilet

Dr Fox's old room

Looking down the old corridor towards the old fire exit

Old reception desk and heating system

Add caption

Phase 2

Our move last weekend went well.  We moved all appointments to the Windlesham branch surgery on Friday afternoon.  This allowed us to close the building.  Lightwater Removals moved the furniture for us, most of which has gone upstairs.  We spent Saturday moving the phone and computer servers to their new home.

We now have three consulting rooms on the ground floor.  These are mixed use at present but eventually will be used just by the practice nurses.  We are using two rooms on the first floor for consulting, this is just for the next 2 months.

The front ramp is in use and allows disabled access to the building for the first time in nearly 40 years!  We are waiting for a glass automatic door to be installed to complete the access improvements.  There is an identical ramp at the rear of the building to assist patients arriving by car.

There is still a lot of work to do, even in the part of the building we now occupy but we hope you get an idea of what it will look like.  Thank you for your patience so far!

Moving

We have now almost finished phase one of the re-development.  There are just floors to be laid and furniture to be fitted inside.  Outside you can see the canopy taking shape over the front door then the new tarmac surface needs to be laid.

We will move into the new part of the building on Friday 25th November.  On that afternoon the surgery will be closed from 12.30 onwards.  We will continue to offer some appointments and the duty doctor from the branch surgery at Windlesham.  Please phone the usual number.

Thank you for your understanding in the last few weeks.  We know the temporary entrance at the back of the property has been far from ideal.

New waiting room

Front part of the single storey extension is taking shape.  This will be the new waiting room and the phlebotomist's room.

Inside the first floor has been decorated and we are ready for second fix electrics and radiators to go on.

We will be moving into the new wing on Friday 25 November.