Welcome to
Framfield House Surgery
Framfield Medical Centre
Ipswich Road
Woodbridge
Suffolk IP12 4FD
Telephone: 01394 615500
Fax: 01394 387632
Practice website:
Our vision:
We aim to offer excellent medical care to all our patients in accordance with best practice; and to offer the very best employment conditions and support for all our staff. We will do this with courtesy and respect in a welcoming environment and as efficiently as possible.
NEW PATIENTS
To register with the practice please complete a registration form which is available from reception or online from our website
Named GP
All ourpatients have an allocated named GP. This does notmean thatin the event of yournamed GP not being in the surgery you would not be seen -you wouldbeoffered an appropriate appointment with an alternative clinician.
PRACTICE AREA
Our practice area covers a 6 mile radius of Woodbridge and the following towns and villages are included:
- BoulgeBredfield
- BrightwellBromeswell
- BurghCampsea Ashe
- CharsfieldClopton
- CulphoDallinghoo
- DebachEyke
- Great BealingsGrundisburgh
- HasketonHemley
- KesgraveLetheringham
- Little BealingsMartlesham
- MeltonNewbourn
- PettistreePlayford
- RendleshamShottisham
- SuttonUfford
- WadringfieldWantisden
- Wickham MarketWoodbridge
If you have any enquiries concerning registration please contact Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG, Rushbrook House, Paper Mill Lane, Bramford, Ipswich
OPENING HOURS
The surgery is open:
Monday 8am – 6.30pm
Tuesday8am – 8pm
Wednesday8am – 6.30pm
Thursday8am – 6.30pm
Friday8am – 6.30pm
SaturdayOne Saturday each month
During the hours 6.30pm -8pm and on Saturdays the surgery is open for pre-booked appointments only.
DELAYS
On occasions appointments may fall behind due to emergency consultations or urgent home visits, in which case our reception team if possible will inform you of any delays. Sometimes the emergencies take longer than anticipated so please respect this.
DOCTORS
Dr Penelope Finn MBBS, MRCGP – London Hospital Medical College
Dr Julia Howard-Griffin BM, MRCGP, MRCOphth, DFFP–University of Southampton
Dr John LynchMBchB, MRCGP, FPcert – University of Bristol
Dr Alison Townsley MRCGP, MBBS, DCH, BmedSci – University of Nottingham
Dr Lucy WilliamsMbCHb, MRCP, MRCGP – University of Sheffield
Dr Charlie Tinsley MRCGP
Dr Ellen Towse MBBS BmedSci (Hons) MRCGP DRCOG DFFP – St Bart’s School of Medicine
Dr Rebecca Thompson MRCGP, MBChB, BA (hons).University of Leicester Medical School 2009 after previously completing a degree in psychology and english.
SALARIED AND ASSISTANT DOCTORS
Salaried and assistant doctors are fully qualified doctors and GPs who provide the same clinical service as GP partners. The only difference is that they take less responsibility for the business side of running the surgery.
Framfield House Surgery is accredited to teach and train GP registrars.
WHAT ARE GP REGISTRARS?
GP registrars are doctors who qualified more than two years ago. They have already worked in hospital for those two years and most have other experiences in hospital or general practice in addition to this.
The GP registrar is a three year GP training programme of which at the end they will be assessed for membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) and will then be able to practice independently as a GP.
WHAT CAN GP REGISTRARS DO?
The GP registrar is fully qualified and is able to make diagnoses and offer treatments as any GP is able to do. At the end of each surgery one of the experienced GPs goes through any difficulties the GP registrar may have had to help with their training. Sometimes the GP registrar will ask one of the experienced GPs to come and see the patient as well if they are unsure about something.
VIDEOING CONSULTATIONS
As part of their assessments the GP registrars have to video some consultations to show the experienced GPs how well they communicate with patients. We will let you know before we video your consultation and gain your consent but you are within your rights to say you don’t want this to happen.
NURSE PRACTITIONERS:
Catriona McCallum
Sue Lowe
Jenni Ball (in training)
Our nurse practitioners are nurses with additional training allowing them to consult patients very much like a doctor. They are able to make diagnoses and prescribe medications. You can make appointments in advance for our nurse practitioner. They work closely with the doctors on difficult problems. Catriona is fully qualified to deal with minor illnesses such as chest infection and urinary tract infections.
NURSE TEAM:
Sarah Williams, Nicky Menzies,Jenni Ball and Karen Knight
The practice nurses are available by appointment for advice about any health matters, immunisations, travel advice, dressings, cervical smears and ear syringing. They carry out health checks for the elderly and patients with diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure. All of our nurse team have completed minor illness training as well as being experienced in chronic disease management and contraceptive advice.
CERVICAL SMEARS
All women aged 25 to 65 are strongly advised to have a regular cervical smear. The first smear is performed at 25 then 3 yearly up to age 49 and then 5 yearly from 50 to 64. Patients will be recalled for this service.
HEALTHCARE ASSISTANTS:
Tara Goldsmith, Sue Potter, Jane Lenihan & Colleen Keeble
Our healthcare assistants are trained to do blood pressure checks, blood tests, some vaccinations, ECGs, patient health checks, alcohol advice, smoking advice and dementia screening.
PRACTICE MANAGER: Julie Giles
Julie is responsible for the overall management of the practice. The practice manager is the person to whom any complaints, compliments or suggestions should be directed NOT the doctors.
DEPUTY PRACTICE MANAGER: Lindsay Baskett
Lindsay is responsible for the day to day running of the practice.
IT OPERATIONS MANAGER: Jayne Casey
Jayne is responsible for all IT systems plus facilities
RECEPTION TEAM LEADER: Sarah Burnham-Slipper
The receptionists ease the flow of patients to the doctors and keep the practice running smoothly. They are here to help you. They will give you results of laboratory tests. Sometimes they may need to ask for further details. They are not being nosy and are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the doctors and nurses.
They do a difficult and demanding job and are working under pressure so please be understanding.
The practice is supported by a dedicated team of medical secretaries who deal with all onward referrals, finance team and dispensers.
Framfield House Surgery is a purpose built centre with disabled access and a hearing loop together with a dedicated car park with the car park at Notcutts available as an overflow car park.
HEALTH VISITORS
The health visitors are based at the surgery to give advice on health care, particularly for mothers and children. These can be contacted by telephoning 01394 615520.
MIDWIFE
The midwife provides full maternity care for our patients. She can be contacted at the surgery.
APPOINTMENT SYSTEM
The surgery looks after 12,000 patients. Appointments can be booked on the phone or online after registration with the reception team.
Routine Appointments
We offer daily routine 10 minute appointments. These should be booked with your own registered GP if possible to preserve continuity of care. If you wish to see an alternative GP we will do our best to accommodate this. If your problem is complex please book a double appointment.
Urgent Appointments
We will always see you during our opening hours if your problem requires an urgent appointment. Please consider carefully before booking whether this is what is needed. Minor coughs, colds and sore throats can be dealt with by pharmacists. Simple urinary tract infections and eye infections in those over 5 years can also be seen by pharmacists. Musculoskeletal problems can be self-referred to NHS physio via the following website or by telephoning 01473 770066. The nurse practitioner team can also deal with many illnesses and our receptionists may offer you an appointment with this team. The reception team also have minor illness leaflets. The urgent appointment slots are 5 minutes and are offered both morning and evening to deal with the single presenting problem.
RESULTS
Our telephones are very busy early in the mornings especially on Mondays. To help relieve this problem please call for test results and routine enquiries from 1pm onwards. You may be asked to come back to the surgery to discuss the results in person with an appropriate clinician. To comply with patient confidentiality results can only be given to the patient unless written signed permission has been given. Please allow seven working days for blood test results and ten working days for x-rays and scans. You will be notified of your smear result directly by post. You must allow at least ten working days for letters to come from the hospital. Please do not make appointments to discuss matters before these times are up.
HOME VISITS
If you feel too ill to attend the surgery you may ring between 8am and 10.30am to request a home visit. These visits are reserved for patients who are too ill to travel. Giving the receptionist an idea of the problem helps the doctor assess the urgency of the visit.The doctor may phone the patient before visiting. If a patient has a temperature or rash, coming into the surgery will do no harm or endanger others. It will not always be possible to see the doctor of your choice if you request a home visit.
DISTRICT NURSES
The district nurses provide nursing care for patients that are housebound, ill at home or recently discharged from hospital. They are based at the surgery and can be contacted there.
MEDICAL EDUCATION
We are a recognised training practice for the General Practitioner Training Scheme. From time to time fully qualified and experienced Doctors (GP registrars) work with us.
The practice is committed to on-going education both with the practice through regular education meetings and with undergraduate medical students from UEA and Cambridge, GPs in training and employing administration apprentices.
HEALTHCARE SERVICES
FRAMFIELD HOUSE SURGERY
Providing all general practice medical services
NHS COMMUNITY SERVICES
District nurses – for home nursing care – 01394 389218
Podiatry – 01394 615203
Physiotherapy – 01394 615202
Health visitors – 01394 615220
Midwives – Maternity reception Ipswich Hospital – 01473 703108
OUT OF HOURS, BANK HOLIDAY AND WEEKEND COVER
Outside the core practice hours of 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday please dial 111 and speak to NHS 111 service if you need medical help. The surgery telephones are not covered between 6.30pm and 8.00am the following morning Monday – Friday or at weekends or on bank holidays.
For all medical emergencies dial 999.
REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS
These can be requested:
- Online via our website – please register for this scheme with pharmacy.
- By ticking the items required on the repeat part of the prescription and place in the box in the dispensary.
- In writing – please allow 2 full working days before medication is required.
In the interest of safety and accuracy telephone requests are not accepted.
There is an on-site pharmacy and all patients are able to collect their prescribed medication from Waterton Pharmacy even if they are registered at another practice. Waterton pharmacy is open from 8am to 7.30pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm on Saturday and 10am to 12noon on Sunday.
ACCESSIBILITY
The surgery is DDA compliant and accessible to patients with disabilities. If you have any problems with mobility or specific needs accessing the surgery please speak to a member of the team.
CARERS
Do you know someone with a serious illness or disability? If so please let us know and we will make provision to assist you when visiting the practice.
RECEPTION
Our reception team are on hand to answer your queries or to assist patients and visitors to the practice. As they are an extremely busy team we would appreciate that patients check in for appointments using the self-check in system wherever possible. If you require a demonstration how to use this please ask a member of the team.
TELEPHONE ADVICE
Patients are able to contact the surgery to obtain advice from a GP. However this is for non-urgent advice as we cannot guarantee a same-day response. If your problem is more urgent then an urgent appointment is more appropriate. It would help the GPs to prioritise the call back request if you give the receptionist a brief summary of the clinical problem.
CHAPERONES
The practice offers a chaperone service is requested. If you would like a chaperone please either speak to the receptionist on arrival or with your clinician.
PRIVATE SERVICES AND FEES
Services such as private medical examinations, insurance claim forms and travel vaccinations are outside of NHS and clinicians are entitled to charge a fee. Details of these charges are available on request.
CONFIDENTIALITY
The practice complies with the Data Protection Act 1998 and will only disclose information about you with your full consent or where there is a risk to public health. All our staff are bound by these strict rules of confidentiality and we request that patients respect this when requesting information for others.
INTERPRETATION SERVICES
The practice provides a translation service through language line where appropriate. If you require this service please speak to a member of the team at the earliest possible time to avoid delays in provision. The practice will make provision for a longer consultation time to assist with any difficulties you may have.
ZERO TOLERANCE
The practice strongly supports the NHS policy on zero tolerance. Anybody attending the surgery who abuses GPs, staff or other patients be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever will risk removal from the practice list. The practice has a duty to provide a safe and secure environment for patients, staff and visitors.
PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP
The practice has an active patient participation group who meet on a regular basis to work in collaboration with members of the practice to continue to improve the services provided to our patients. This is a vital group and ensures that the practice is able to understand issues from patients themselves and through discussions able to changes procedures. If you are interested in joining this group please contact Jayne Casey at the practice.
CHANGE OF PERSONAL DETAILS
It is important to let the practice know if you change your name, address,home telephone number or mobile telephone number so that we can update your records. The practice may contact you by phone or letter concerning results and hospital letters and cannot be held responsible for correspondence that is not received.
CANCELLING APPOINTMENTS
If you cannot keep an appointment please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer it to another patient.
SUGGESTIONS OR PRAISE
We try to provide a quality and caring service for our patients within the resources available. We welcome any comments to the team of how you feel we can improve our service or even just to say how happy you have been with our service as the staff are always pleased to hear they have achieved their aim of an excellent patient service.We are also registered for the friends and family survey where you can comment within the surgery or I want great care and our online patient survey. We value your comments from all our surveys and do use this information to improve our service.
COMPLAINTS
Should you have any concerns about your experiences at the practice you can raise these by speaking to a member of the practice management team or in writing to the practice manager. The practice has a formal complaints procedure which is available either by contacting the practice directly or downloading a copy from our website. All complaints to the practice are fully investigated and a written reply sent. The practice also discusses the complaints in their education meetings to learn from them to continue to improve our service to our patients.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
The Freedom of Information Act 200 aims to produce a culture of openness in public bodies, by providing members of the public with the right access to information held. The main purpose of this is to show how public money is being used. The practice is considered to be a public body for the purposes of this Act. Therefore members of the public (not necessarily patients) can request information from them. We can confirm that no patient information is disclosed.
SELF-TREATMENT OF COMMON ILLNESSES
BACK PAIN
Back pain causes millions of lost working days in Britain each year. Usually too much or inappropriate lifting or gardening is the cause. Be sensible, take things easy, prevention is better than cure. Rest and painkillers will relieve most cases within a few days. Your doctor will not mind if you approach a qualified physiotherapist, osteopath or chiropractor directly.