West Quay Medical Centre

Help take the pressure off our telephones and reception team by booking appointments using our 24/7 automated phone service on 01446 500578.

Nurse Appointments
✔️Smears
✔️Contraception & Pill Check
✔️Wound Dressing change
✔️Clip & sutures removal
✔️Injections i.e. Prostap, Depo
✔️Asthma Review (Over 16s)

Health Care Assistant Appointments
✔️Blood Test
✔️Blood Pressure Check (BP)
✔️ECG
✔️B12
✔️INR Monitoring

Vaccinations and Injections (if eligible)
✔️MenACYW
✔️Pneumonia
✔️Shingles
✔️Flu

Women’s Health Appointments
✔️Peri-Menopause & Menopause
✔️HRT
✔️Contraceptive Coil Checks or to discuss Coil fitting
✔️Contraceptive Implants or to discuss Implants

GP Appointments
✔️On the day GP telephone appointments (Available 08.00-10.00 subject to daily GP capacity and Patient Demand)
✔️Pre Book GP Appointments up to 2 weeks in advance (subject to available GP Capacity and Patient Demand)

The Pharmacist Independent Prescribing Service

We are in the process of arranging a children’s only flu clinic (ages 2-3 years) and will be contacting parents and guardians in due course with more information on how to book!

We now have more Flu appointments available for patients to book if you are over 65 years, under 65 years with a chronic illness or if you’re pregnant. To book simply call our 24/7 automated service number 01446 500578.

PHONE LINES NOW OPERATIONAL - 11:30am

*** PHONE LINES ARE DOWN ***

We apologise that our current phone line system is currently down. This is a national outage which out of our control. We are currently unable to call out or receive any incoming calls.
Please bear with us and we will update this message once we have any further information.
Many thanks, WQMC

📢 URGENT PATIENT MESSAGE 📢

We are running an emergency-only appointment system today. Friday 20th September.

We apologise, however, despite our best efforts we only have limited capacity with staff absences and significant-high demand for our services which means we have to prioritise safe patient care.

Therefore if your call is not urgent we suggest that you visit our self help hub on our website https://www2.surgeryapp.co.uk/widgets/self-help-hub/

You can also visit your local community pharmacy and request a 'choose pharmacy' appointment where they can help with many minor ailments without the need for you to speak to a member of the surgery clinical team. They can provide a free NHS prescription in many instances.

Lastly, for any urgent medical problems contact NHS 111 who can direct you to the most appropriate care, or for for life threatening emergencies dial 999.

Thank you for your patience and continued support.

C&V Self-Help Hub - Surgery App West Quay Medical Centre’s Self-Help Hub is a comprehensive resource designed to empower patients by providing easy access to a wide array of self-help resources available within the local community. Click on a link below to find out more Check your symptoms Sexual Health, Screening & Family Plann...

🚨IMPORTANT MESSAGE: We have significant demand on our services today with very high call volumes with long waits. Please visit your local community pharmacy for sore throats, headaches, hay-fever, suspected UTI, cold sore, acute back pain and impetigo etc. By choosing pharmacy first will help us to help you by reducing pressures on our phones and high demands for our services. This will also enable our clincial team to see and treat patients who have more complex health concerns and urgent health conditions.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board are holding free heart checks for people over 40 years old on 19th September at Cardiff City Stadium 10.00am - 3.00pm 👇

We understand that the recent news may have caused additional anxiety if you're living with a terminal illness or caring for someone that is. Our Energy Support Officers are here to support you.

📱 Call our free support line on 0800 090 2309 and ask to speak with our Energy Support Officers.

Suicidal thoughts can be complex, frightening and confusing. But they’re more common than many of us realise and 1 in 5 of us will experience them.

For urgent mental health support call 111 and press OPTION 2. If you or someone you know are struggling, you don’t have to be alone. Support is available 24 hours, seven days a week: https://gov.wales/nhs-111-press-2

⭐️ Be vaccinated @ the Surgery & get the Flu Jab ⭐️

Please support our flu clinics this year and get vaccinated with us if you are eligible 💉 - why 🤔

✅️ Like all other GP Surgeries, we rely on funding from each flu jab we give to help cover running costs and to keep the practice viable, sustainable and allows us to maintain services. This is even more important currently due to the lack of funding and investment by Welsh Government 🩺👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️

💸 Every single flu jab you have elsewhere means loss of funding for your GP surgery, which puts us even more at risk. You might be told by other providers that they are giving flu jabs to help ease your GP's workload - this is more than a little disingenuous - we are more than capable of administering thousands of flu jabs with military precision each year as we have been doing for decades. Therefore please support your local surgery by having your flu jab with us 👍.

❓️We know that other providers like pharmacies and supermarkets offer flu jabs to patients and there is nothing wrong in deciding to have your vaccine in this way. We will be notified and it will be recorded in your medical records 💻

Ultimately having your flu jab with us, you are ensuring that crucial resources stay with your GP surgery to enable us to improve our services and remain sustainable.

Did you know that the prescribing service is now also available at our Rhoose Pharmacy. Treating ear infections, sore throat, minor skin issues and urinary tract infections. Ring Rhoose Pharmacy on 01446710277 for an appointment.

Our appointment line 01446 500578 is now re-enabled to allow patients to make on the day telephone appointments between 8am-
10am each morning during the week. Please be aware that these are subject to availability and depends on available GP capacity.

⭐️ October Saturday Morning Flu Clinics ⭐️

We will be running two Saturday Morning Flu Clinics in October.

1. 5th October- Over 65 Only
2. 12th October - Under 65 at risk and Over 65

This year will be sending text messages containing a unique link to book your appointment straight way without the need to call the surgery. These will be sent over the next few weeks to all patients eligible.

*We will be organising a children’s 2-3 year olds (age on 31st August) flu clinic at the end of October.

**COVID 19 and RSV vaccinations are being managed by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Welsh Government gives General Practice £117.48 a year for each patient, regardless of their health needs. That equates to just 32p a day for every patient registered - less than the cost of an apple.

This is why it’s a struggle to obtain a GP appointment and you deserve better – the BMA needs your help to Save Our Surgeries.

Therefore we are fighting for the necessary funding from Welsh Government to deliver the services you require and to make it easier to get appointments to see your GP and the practice team. It's vital all Members of the Senedd hear the voices of patients loud and clear and make fixing this crisis a top priority.

Please email your Members of Senedd today to take action.

Email your Members of Senedd to save our surgeries Join me and email your Members of Senedd today - it only takes a few minutes and your letter could make all the difference.

📲 Our text appointment reminder service has now resumed after the computer change over. Patients will now start receiving text messages from the surgery again to remind them of upcoming pre-booked face to face appointments with the clinical team. It also provides the ability to cancel the appointment if unable to attend, by simply texting back ‘cancel’. This will then free up the appointment for another patient and reduce Did not Attends (DNAs).

📞 When speaking to the reception team please make sure you check if we have your latest mobile number recorded to receive text messages from us.

Our 24/7 appointment line is now up and operational. We apologise for any inconvenience due to our new computer system. Please bear with us whilst we finalise the on the day GP appointments option as this is taking a little longer than expected. Thank you.

⭐️ Hospital Prescriptions ⭐️

If you, or a relative are at a hospital clinic, or being discharged from hospital you should be provided a hospital prescription if you require a course of treatment. Hospital doctors should give you a hospital prescription for medication they need you to start immediately, please follow their advice and go to the hospital pharmacy to have this dispensed.

By bringing a “hospital based prescription” to the surgery will cause unnecessary delays to receiving the medication required. Our GPs are unable to prescribe from hospital based prescriptions and this also applies to private prescriptions as they are not the prescribing clinician.

Our receptionists are are advised to inform patients of this and are often met with patient frustration and confusion.

‼️Please take all hospital prescriptions to hospital pharmacies not to the GP‼️

This bank holiday, you can and

💊order and collect repeat prescriptions in advance

🩹keep a well-stocked first aid kit at home

🕔use your local pharmacy for minor health concerns and get to know their opening times

💻use 111.wales.nhs.uk for health advice

⭐️Patient Update⭐️

Dear patients,

At present the 24/7 appointment line is not operational and this is mainly due to the whole system needing reconfiguration after the computer system changeover. This will take some time for us to work through with the supplier.

Please call the main surgery number in the meantime ☎️ 722792

Guidance regarding medication shortages ⬇

Sometimes a medication that has been prescribed for you may be out of stock in your local pharmacy. This can be for a number of reasons such as national stock shortages, a sudden increase in demand for medication, pharmacy stock levels or it might be a medication that needs to be ordered in specially for you.

The prescriber will have prescribed the medication they feel best suits your needs and your medication may be in stock at another pharmacy, and we advise you to try other pharmacies before asking the prescriber for an alternative medication. You can find a list of community pharmacies that are close to you here https://orlo.uk/HBnBZ

Please help your pharmacy and your GP practice by making sure you have enough medication by planning ahead and ensuring you leave enough time to request and collect your medication. This includes if you are going on holiday or there is a bank holiday.

We understand it can be frustrating if your medication is not in stock and GP and pharmacy colleagues are doing their best to help you. Violence and aggression against our colleagues will not be tolerated.

🌟 **Thank You for Your Patience!** 🌟

Dear patients,

We sincerely appreciate your understanding and patience during our computer system changeover this week. Your support means a lot to the WQMC team!

We are working very hard to resume normal service by next week. As we navigate this new system together, we ask for your continued support and patience as there will still be a lot of adapting to new ways of working with a new system.

Please be aware that next week we will be operating a telephone triage only service for GP appointments, but seek to operate normal appointments after the August Bank Holiday.

In addition the NHS App is now operating and patients are able to start ordering repeat prescriptions if due. If you have not yet signed up to this service we highly recommend you do.
https://app.nhs.wales/login

Digital Health Care Wales have now informed us that the NHS Wales App is now accessible. Please use this service to now order any repeat prescriptions due…

app.nhs.wales

As the NHS Wales App will be not accessible at present, we have created a temporary online form for patients to use to order repeat prescriptions via our website.

Just a moment...

⭐️System Change Update⭐️
We are informed that the NHS Wales App will take approx 7-10 days to become available again.

🌟Exciting Update for Patients!🌟
Our new clinical system implementation has been successful and we go-live today!🎉 Please bear with us as we all adapt to new ways of working. Thank you for your patience! 💙

🗣️Want to improve GP services in your area?

📩Email your member of the Senedd to help us secure a vital rescue package for general practice in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

➡️ Simply follow this link https://bit.ly/46IaCKL

Patient Update - Surgery Computer System Change Over

As of 12 pm today (08th August) The Surgery will have no Access to a Computer System. This aligns with our computer system change between 08th August - 19th August.

Just a moment...