21st March 2022

To all our Military Veteran Patients and their Families:

As a practice we are actively seeking to identify our Military Veteran patients who have served in the UK Armed Forces and any family members of Military Veterans to ensure they receive any support they may need.

This includes all Military Veterans and Reservists. You only have to have served one day in the Armed Forces.

We are sending out Questionnaires via text message for Military Veterans or their immediate family members, so watch out for these. They are very simple to complete.

Alternatively, please let us know via the CONTACT US setion of our website.

Our local group of practices will be working together in the future to help offer tailored support as well as signposting to other services for our Military Veterans and their Families.

Thank you for your cooperation with this piece of work.

13th December 2021

Throughout the COVID Pandemic, College Lane Surgery has continued to offer our Community a high standard of care whether remotely or face to face.

You may have seen messaging nationally about General Practice prioritising vaccinations over other care.

To be clear, College Lane Surgery will not compromise our core work and will continue to provide care to our Community.

We will do our best to increase Vaccination capacity but PLEASE be reassured we will continue to operate a normal GP service and your standard of care will not be compromised.

Please continue to contact us in the usual way.

21st June 2021

There have been a number of reports in the media recently about the NHS “selling” patient information & the National Data Opt Out (NDOO)

For clarity, the NHS does not sell patient level information.

The National Data Opt Out is about patients who do not wish to be contacted by the NHS for the purposes of planning or research.

Planning for example, would be a re-configuration of services. If a patient had opted out, they would not be contacted for their views.

The NHS does make available, completely anonymous information. The most obvious one at the moment, is the number of people in hospital with Covid.

For more information and to make your decision about NDOO, please visit the website below:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-data-opt-out

13th April 2021

New guidance has been issued for the use of the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. 

This follows further reviews by the independent regulator, the MHRA, and the Commission for Human Medicines, of a very small number of people in the UK who have developed a rare blood-clotting condition since having the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.  

The MHRA and Joint Committee for Vaccinations and Immunisations have emphasised that the risk of this condition is extremely small and that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks for the vast majority of people.  They have recommended that:  

• Everyone who has had the AstraZeneca vaccine should still have a second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, irrespective of age, unless they have had a blood clot or have an existing risk of thrombosis (blood clotting) 
• People aged 30 and over or who have a health condition that puts them at higher risk of severe Covid-19 disease should still be offered the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.  The benefits in protecting them against the serious consequences of COVID-19 outweigh any risk of this rare condition.  
• People aged 18-29 who do not have a health condition that puts them at higher risk of severe Covid-19 disease will be offered an alternative Covid-19 vaccine where available.  (This has been recommended as a precaution as people under 30 are at less risk from Covid-19 and not because they are considered to be at particular risk of developing the rare blood clot.)  
• People under 30 can still choose to have the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine if this will mean they can be protected more quickly and they have been made aware of the guidance. 

Please see the leaflet that has been produced by Public Health England and the NHS to answer any questions you may have here. 

26th February 2021

We would like to remind patients that appointments at Church View Health Centre are independent of the two GP surgeries that also operate out of this building so please do not contact those practices if you have any queries about your appointment. If your appointment at Church View Health Centre was booked via College Lane Surgery then please contact us about your query instead. 

9th February 2021

If you are over 70 and haven’t had your first vaccination yet you can contact the NHS National Booking Service for an appointment.

We are working to contact all patients over 70 by the middle of February but if you haven’t heard from us yet and want to book an appointment, please visit www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination.

This will allow you to choose a time slot and location that suits you. If you are not able to book online you can call 119 free of charge, between 7am and 11pm seven days a week. (Please be aware that phone lines can get very busy so you may prefer to call later in the day when it is can be less busy.)

This is only available for first vaccination appointments and if you are aged 70 or over. Everyone else will still need to wait to be contacted by the NHS when it is their turn for a vaccination or for an appointment for their second vaccination if they don’t already have one.

You still need an appointment to get a vaccination so please do not go to any of the centres unless you have one booked. This is important because booking slots are carefully managed to allow for social distancing and the number of appointments is based on the supply available that day.

We are also contacting all patients who are registered as clinically extremely vulnerable and have been asked to shield, as well as people in the eligible cohorts who are housebound. If you haven’t been contacted yet, you should hear from us this week.

Finding your NHS number

You can still book an appointment if you don’t have your NHS number, provided you are registered with a GP practice. However, it will be quicker if you have your number: this will be on any letter or document you have received from the NHS, including prescriptions, or you can find it online at

www.nhs.uk/find-nhs-number

Registering with a GP

You can register with College Lane Surgery here.

Frequently Asked Questions

14th December 2020

The NHS is now offering vaccinations to people who are most at risk from Covid-19. This follows the approval of both the Pfizer BioNTech and Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines as safe and effective, after extensive trials.

The first vaccinations are being offered to people in the priority groups identified by the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), starting with people in care homes and those aged 80 and over. Groups of GP practices are working together to provide local vaccination services and will contact eligible patients when it is their turn.

When it is your turn, you will receive an invitation via the phone or through a letter either from your GP or the national booking system.

We know lots of people will be eager to get protected but please could we kindly ask you not to contact the practice for information about the vaccine or to ask for an appointment, as you will not be able to get one until you receive an invitation.

If you are invited for a vaccine, please act on your invite straight away and make sure you attend your appointments when you arrange them.

Please note that vaccinations are free of charge and only available through the NHS. Anyone who claims to be able to provide you with a vaccine for a fee is likely to be committing a crime and should be reported to the Police online or by calling 112. The NHS will never ask you to press a button on your keypad or send a text asking you to confirm you want the vaccine.

In the meantime, please continue to abide by all the social distancing and hand hygiene guidance, which will still save lives

You can visit www.nhs.uk for more information or alternatively see the Frequently Asked Questions.