What is 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, cough, headache, pains in your joints and muscles and extreme tiredness. Healthy people usually recover within 3 to 4 weeks, but some people can develop serious life-threatening complications and need to be admitted to hospital.

Colds are much less serious and usually start with a stuffy or a runny nose, sore throat and cough.

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.
The flu vaccine is available every year on the NHS to help protect adults and children who are most at risk of flu and its complications.

The flu vaccine

The flu vaccine’s the best available protection against the flu virus. It’s very safe, only takes a few minutes and will last around a year.

Flu’s more than a bad cold and can make people very unwell. It’s highly infectious with symptoms that come on quickly and can hit anyone. In the most serious cases, flu can bring on pneumonia, or other serious infections which can, in extreme cases, result in death.

The vaccine’s offered each winter flu season, which lasts from October to March.

Who should get the flu vaccine?

Any strain of flu can be dangerous for people who are vulnerable to it. That’s why the following people are urged to get the free flu vaccine as soon as it’s available every winter to help protect against flu:

• People with a health condition
• People aged 65 years or over
• Pregnant women
• People that work in healthcare
• Unpaid carers and young carers

For information on the child flu vaccine, please visit the child flu page

What if I’m not in one of the eligible groups?

If you’re 16 years old, or over, and not in one of the eligible groups for the free flu immunisation, you can get the vaccine in many high street pharmacies for a small fee.

What to do if I have flu?

Flu symptoms come on very quickly and can include symptoms such as:

• fever (temperature above 38°C)
• aches
• tiredness or exhaustion
• headache

More about the symptoms of flu

Flu Clinic

Every autumn, around September, we start our flu clinics. We aim to vaccinate as many of those at risk, as indicated above.

You can book online if you are registered for online services, or call reception to make an appointment.

Keep an eye out under the news section of this website for when the clinics start.

The local service

Together as a team we work with individuals and their families to address physical, emotional, social, spiritual and financial issues.

The core team includes a GP, District Nurse and MacMillan Nurse.

Please book with your GP if you or someone you care for needs help now.

Advice

NHS provides information on end of life care.

Support organisations

Various charities and support organisations have produced leaflets and materials providing information about palliative and end of life care, bereavement, advance planning, and other relevant issues.  Some of this information is condition-specific, and some is more generic. 

If you have been diagnosed with a specific condition, it may be worth finding out whether a charity exists which specialises in providing support to people in your situation.  Links to some useful information are provided below:

• The Marie Curie Cancer Care website has a patients and families section which includes information and advice on a range of issues.
• The Multiple System Atrophy Trust produces a range of information publications for those interested in MSA, including information sheets “After Someone Has Died”, “Helping Children Cope”, “What a Child Understands about Dying” and “Understanding Palliative Care”.
• The Parkinson’s UK website has a section dedicated to advanced illness, including information for carers , a ‘preparing for end of life’ booklet, and information sheets on dementia, pain and other symptoms, access to care, and legal and emotional issues.

If you get regular prescriptions, the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) may be able to save you time by avoiding unnecessary trips to your GP.

EPS makes it possible for your prescriptions to be sent electronically to the pharmacy or dispenser of your choice.

Choosing a pharmacy or dispensing appliance contractor to process your EPS prescription is called nomination.

This means you’ll no longer have to collect a paper repeat prescription from your GP Practice – instead, you can go straight to the nominated pharmacy or dispensing appliance contractor to pick up your medicines or medical appliances.

Routine care

The majority of people with diabetes are looked after by the Practice diabetes team.

We like to see all people with diabetes annually and depending on condition, once during their annual health check and usually again 6 months later.

You will receive an invite for both the annual health check and normally a 6 month review. Both of the appointments will be with a nurse and you will need to have a blood test before each appointment.

There are times when you will need to be seen more often than twice a year, for example after you are first diagnosed or if problems are detected during one of the routine reviews. We arrange these additional reviews as needed and may be a nurse or one of the Doctors.

The Practice team

The Practice Nurse and your GP will usually provide this service with assistance from other health care professionals.

Please check with your Practice for clinic times.

Specialist care

If there is a particular problem identified with your diabetes care that we cannot help you within the practice, then we will refer you to a specialist service.

Find out more about Diabetes

Pregnancy and Diabetes

Pregnancy and diabetes | Diabetes UK

It is very important that anyone who has problems with their memory 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.

Please book with one of the GPs, who can make the initial assessment and refer you to the memory clinic if required.

Find out more about dementia care & support

Health visitors

You can normally see the Health Visitors at their drop-in clinic . Please discuss this with your health visitor.

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.

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Child health checks

Appointments are sent out automatically by the local health authority for routine child health checks.

The first will be with a Health visitor at 6 week and than with GP at the surgery when your baby is around 8 weeks old for their 1st immunization with nurse. You will be sent information about this and asked to make an appointment at surgery.

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.

Child Immunisations

Immunisations are given by our Practice nurses or other healthcare professionals in accordance with the NHS vaccine schedule. Always attend surgery with child red book.

When to immunise

Different vaccines are given at different ages to protect you and your child. Find out when these vaccinations are offered, and when and where they’ll be given:

When to immunise

For general advice about bereavement you might find the NHS choices article on bereavement useful.

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Other Services

There are also several organisations and charities that provide specialist advice and support to those that have been bereaved:

• Sands (stillbirth and neonatal death charity)
• The Compassionate Friends
• Child Bereavement UK
• Winston’s Wish (for bereaved children)

In Times of Bereavement

In the unfortunate event that a person has passed away, there are three things that must be done in the first few days;

•  Get a medical certificate from your GP or hospital doctor (this is necessary to register the death)
•  Register the death within 5 days. You will then receive the necessary documents for the funeral.
•  Make the necessary funeral arrangements.

Register the death

If the death has been reported to the coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland) they must give permission before registering the death.

You can register the death if you are a relative, a witness to the death, a hospital administrator or the person making the arrangements with the funeral directors.

You can use the ‘Register a Death’ page on the gov.uk website that will guide you through the process. This will also explain the registration process for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Arrange the funeral

The funeral can usually only take place after the death is registered. Most people use a funeral director, though you can arrange a funeral yourself.

Funeral directors

• Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors

These organisations have codes of practice – they must give you a price list when asked.

Some local councils run their own funeral services, for example for non-religious burials. The British Humanist Association can also help with non-religious funerals.

Arranging the funeral yourself

Contact the Cemeteries and Crematorium Department of your local council to arrange a funeral yourself.

Funeral costs

Funeral costs can include:

• funeral director fees
•  things the funeral director pays for on your behalf (called ‘disbursements’ or ‘third-party costs’), for example, crematorium or cemetery fees, or a newspaper announcement about the death
•  local authority burial or cremation fees

Funeral directors may list all these costs in their quotes.

Health checks for people with a diagnosed problem.

If you have one of the following conditions then you normally will be invited for an annual health check.

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure ( Hypertension)
• Kidney disease
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Asthma
• COPD
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Learning disabilities
• Mental Health problems
• Dementia
• Elderly health checks (age 65 plus)

We invite all eligible patients for an annual health check with Health care assistance or nurse and do blood test same day or will give blood request form.

The appointment will be approximately 20 minutes long, however if you have more than one problem it will be longer. Please contact the Practice for further details.

For Rheumatoid Arthritis you may be taking special medications which need regular blood, BP monitoring. Please book appointment when needed.