-Call us on 01254 52522/699948

-Visit us at The surgery, William hopwood street, Blackburn, BB1 1LX

-Contact us form on the website

-PATCHS, on the website

Is a friend or family member waiting for NHS treatment and struggling to get online? @AgeUKLancashire is offering digital coaching to patients on waiting lists in Lancashire and South Cumbria. Call 0300 303 1234 to sign up and #GetSetForSurgery

Please have a look at the info below and feel free to join in and save the date!!!

‘The Wellbeing Service and re:fresh are continuing to provide personalised support to individuals that want information, motivation and guidance – Looking after our emotional and physical health is more important than ever’ – The Wellbeing Service and re:fresh | re:fresh (refreshbwd.com)

Here is some advice on how long you should be waiting before you send your child back to school when they have been off due to illness. This can be critical as some of these illnesses are highly contagious and can cause breakouts within a school.

Please see the information below regarding appointment times. We follow the ten minute appointment rule as we would like to ensure you receive the best care, when too many problems are booked into one appointment then we cannot guarantee the best care for you.

Broadway Pharmacy have been commissioned to support the delivery of maternal vaccinations (pertussis, flu and COVID-19) in Hospital Trusts in Lancashire and South Cumbria and Cheshire and Merseyside.

Information on the initiative, locations and times when drop in clinics are available to pregnant women is at the following link. Pregnancy Vaccinations – Broadway Pharmacy with Cure Clinics (broadway-pharmacy.co.uk)

https://patchs.ai/practice/Williamhopwoodsurgery

Contact us online
Welcome to William hopwood Surgery
We have an online consultation service called PATCHS. You can access PATCHS by clicking the link above
Contacting using PATCHS instead of by telephone has a number of advantages for you including:
• Getting help quicker from a GP
• No queuing on the telephone.
• Ability to submit requests any time day or night (though we can only respond during our opening hours).
• Doing everything on there, prescriptions, consultations, sick notes, checking results etc. Though you shouldn’t
use it for emergencies.
• Submitting requests on behalf of someone you care for.
• Using PATCHS also has advantages for us including:
• Seeing what your request is up front in writing helps us plan our work better.
• Freeing up the telephone for people that cannot use PATCHS e.g. those with emergency problems or if they
cannot physically use the internet.
• Helping us save face-to-face and telephone appointments for patients that really need them.
• Helps us reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus to other patients and our staff

Access to services is a common barrier faced daily by many deaf people. Something simple, like seeing a GP or attending hospital appointments can cause difficulties for many deaf people.

The main barrier faced is often that of communication. An all-too-common example are health issues, where deaf people could be misdiagnosed or receive the wrong medication due to poor communication. This is often because symptoms cannot be fully explained without appropriate and professional communication support. The result of a lack of good communication can and does have very negative effects on deaf people’s physical and mental health. These experiences could be greatly improved through effective communication, knowledge and techniques and would open up services currently widely available to all, such as support, counselling and advocacy groups.

As a GP practice it is crucial that we make our surgery accessible, so that people who are deaf or have hearing loss can contact our services, communicate well during appointments and fully understand the information we give them.  It is crucial that we do all we can to help our patients by meeting the requirements of the  Equality Act 2010 and the national guidelines and quality standards aiming to improve accessibility.

Provide a range of contact methods

People with hearing loss may find it difficult or impossible to use the telephone to book an appointment, order repeat prescriptions or receive test results. They may benefit from other contact methods, such as:

• email
• online booking
• SMS text
• textphone
• Relay UK (which has replaced Text Relay) – typed messages are relayed to the other caller via an operator
• video relay – conversation is relayed through a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter using video.

People with hearing loss may also benefit from visual display systems and flashing or vibrating pagers that let them know when it’s their turn to be seen. Working hearing loops should be in place for people who use hearing aids. If a patient requires communication support, this should be available when they arrive. At William Hopwood Surgery we provide the following for deaf patients:

• Interpreting services
• Hearing Loop
• SMS service
• Practice Website
• Practice Email
• NHS App
• Online communication Via PATCHS

Provide communication support during appointments

Ask patients if they need help to communicate well and/or understand information. Once recorded, make sure these communication and information needs are highly visible or linked to an electronic alert on the records, to prompt staff members to take the appropriate action when that patient books an appointment.

For example, patients with hearing loss should be able to book a longer appointment to make sure there’s time for effective communication. Remember, people with hearing loss benefit from different types of communication support.

Accessibility tips

• Foster good deaf awareness: staff should keep in mind simple communication tips such as speaking clearly, facing the person while speaking to them, and not obscuring their lip movements.
• Provide hearing loop systems that help people who use hearing aids on the hearing loop setting (formerly known as the ‘T’ setting) hear sounds more clearly over background noise. Read more about hearing loops
• Provide registered communication professionals who help people with hearing loss communicate and/or understand spoken English. Put procedures in places so that communication professionals can be booked in advance – you can’t always secure them at short notice. Family and friends must not be used to interpret, unless the patient explicitly asks for them.
• Publish an accessible communication and information policy, in accessible formats, to let your patients known about the support available.
• Enable patients to give feedback about your services in an accessible way.

USEFUL CONTACTS

BID Services Deaf Cultural Centre, Ladywood Road, Birmingham B16 8SZ Telephone: 0121 246 6100, textphone: 0121 246 6101, fax: 0121 246 6125, email: [email protected], website: www.bid.org.uk

Action on Hearing Loss Head Office, 19-23 Featherstone Street, London EC1Y 8SL Telephone: 020 7296 8000, textphone: 020 7296 8001, email: [email protected], website: www.hearingloss.org.uk

DeafblindUK National Centre for Deafblindness, John and Lucille van Geest Place Cygnet Road, Hampton, Peterborough, PE7 8FD Telephone/textphone: 01733 358 100, fax: 01733 358 356, email: [email protected], website: www.deafblind.org.uk

Sense 101 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9LG. Telephone: 0300 330 9250 / 020 7520 0999, fax: 0300 320 9251 / 020 7520 0958, email: [email protected], website: www.sense.org.uk

British Deaf Association 3rd Floor, 356 Holloway Road, London, N7 6PA Telephone: 0207 697 4140, SMS: 07795 410 724, email: [email protected], website: www.bda.org.uk

SignHealth 5 Baring Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire HP9 2NB Telephone: 01494 687600, email: [email protected], website: www.signhealth.org.uk

The National Deaf Children’s Society Ground Floor South, Castle House, 37 – 45 Paul Street, London EC2A 4LS. Telephone: 020 7490 8656, textphone: 020 7490 8656, fax: 020 7251 5020, email: [email protected], website: www.ndcs.org.uk