NUPAS-National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service

Patients can now self-refer to NUPAS for Termination of Pregnancy by calling on

0333 004 6666

NUPAS Locations:           Have centres across South London including Twickenham, Battersea, Surbiton and Woolwich as well as other centres across Greater London.

 Opening Day/Hours:      Our service is 24 hours and offers Telephone Consultations Mon – Sun 8am to 8pm with minimal wait times including a same day service.

Our services include:

·        Choice of consultation type – Telephone or Face to Face

·        Early Medical Abortion to 10 weeks gestation in clinic or 9+6 weeks Pills by Post

·        Surgical Abortion to 23+6 weeks gestation

·        Aftercare Call line operates 24/7/ 365 days per year

Please visit www.nupas.co.uk for further information

Health visitors will provide support and advice in the weeks following birth, and up until your child is 5 years old.
You will be contacted by the health visitor and visited at home soon after birth.
You will be contacted by letter to invite you to the clinic for an 8 month and a 2 year developmental check.

The Health Visitors run drop in clinics at Balham Health Centre (120-124 Bedford Hill, SW12 9HS) on a Wednesday 09:30-11:30 AM.  

They would prefer you to access their help via the drop in clinics, but can also be contacted on 0208 767 0193.

Courses/groups run by the Health Visitors:

• Weaning groups
• Baby massage

Please contact the Health Visitors directly on the above number for more information on when these take place and if you would like to attend.

New infant feeding support

Many of our doctors have a special interest in mental health and would be very happy to discuss any concerns with patients and where necessary help formulate ways forward, ongoing support and management plans incorporating various different treatment options. We offer longer times for these appointments as they naturally take much more time.

Togetherall-If you’re feeling lonely, stressed, worried or just not yourself, on Togetherall you can get support and start to feel better. This service also has the following:

*24/7 Peer Support

*Online courses

* Anonymous for patients

*Can signpost to local services

*Monitored by trained mental health practicioners.

To know more abouth this free service. Please click on the following link–https://togetherall.com/en-gb/

District nurses are trained nurses, who provide skilled nursing care, support and advice to patients and carers in a community setting.

If you need to contact the Community Nurses for a patient who is already under their car, please call:

District Nurses +44 (0)20 8812 5000

If you would like to enquire about a referral to the district nurses for yourself or someone you care for, please book a telephone call with a GP.

The Patient Services department at Balham Park Surgery work on behalf of the GPs liaising with secondary care. This is staffed from 8am until 6pm Monday to Friday.

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What we do:

• Send off all of the surgeries referrals
• Provide patients with information on how to chase their own appointments
• Help patients chase test results that have not come back within the standard time frame of 10 -14 working days (some unusual tests may take slightly longer)
• Help vulnerable/unable patients to chase their referrals/results
• GP admin work that does not require clinical input

URGENT REFERRALS: 

Two Week Rule/Cancer Referral Pathway: For this referral you should be seen within two weeks maximum. Therefore if you have not been contacted with an appointment after 10 days then please contact the hospitals Two Week Rule/ Cancer Referrals Office directly.

Most of our two week rule referrals go to St Georges Hospital in Tooting. Contact Number: 020 8725 1111

FRACTURE CLINIC: 

IF you have been advised by your GP to attend the walk in service then you need to ensure you have a copy of your referral letter. You will then need to call the clinic on 020 8725 0352 to confirm they are able to see you as a walk in patient.

Otherwise your referral would have been faxed directly to the clinic and they should contact you within one week. If you have not heard after this time please contact the department directly on 020 8725 0352 to chase this.

STANDARD ROUTINE REFERRALS: 

Routine referrals can be done in two ways:

1. Electronically via the E-Referrals Service
2. Sent directly to the hospital via email or fax.

If you have not received an electronic referral letter (e-Referral) from us within two weeks it is likely your referral was sent directly to the hospital. Therefore please kindly contact the hospital’s booking office that you were referred to. If you are not sure where you were referred to or if they have not received your referral please contact the Patient Services Department on 020 8772 8772 – option 3 to discuss.

E-Referral: If there are any issues with your e-Referral, i.e. you want to change the hospital choices or need your password, please contact the Patient Services Department on the number above.

If your E-Referral has been deferred to provider and the provider (hospital/service) does not contact you within 10 days, please call their bookings office in the first instance, as it is likely you will be able to book the appointment.  (link to health services page)

RADIOLOGY REFERRALS (SCANS): 

X-Ray is a walk in service; you will need a GP referral form to have this done. The form has a list of locations you can go to have the x-ray.

If you are being referred for a different type of scan and have not heard within two weeks then please contact the service directly to chase your appointment.

St Georges Radiology:    020 8725 1486

Physiological Measurements ( they see patients in our surgery): 016 9167 6496

InHealth (mainly for MRI’s): 0844 581 0301

We can only provide you with a copy of the scan report, therefore if you require the images please contact the service directly.

If you have not got a referral but think you need one you will need to book an appointment with a GP.

At present, ADHD referrals are not available through the NHS. Unfortunately, the waiting list at the Maudsley rose to above 3 years, and also Psychiatry UK have stopped accepting any new referrals through the NHS.

15/9/23

What is a Physician Associate? 

The physicianassociate (PA) works in conjunction with and complementary to the existing general practice team. We are a new healthcare professional who, while not a doctor, works to the medical model, with the attitudes, skills and knowledge base to deliver holistic care and treatment within the general medical and/or general practice team under defined levels of supervision.

What can a PA do in General Practice?

The PA in general practice can do a variety of jobs. They are trained in the medical model and can assess, manage and treat patients of all ages with a variety of acute undifferentiated and chronic conditions. PAs can see acute patients on the day, for scheduled appointments; triage patients; home visits; visit nursing and residential homes; referrals; manage patients with long term chronic conditions; review and act on laboratory results; family planning; baby checks; teach and supervise students. PAs can also help the practice maximise clinical targets and with the appropriate training run specialist clinics within surgery e.g. minor ops. The levels at which the PA can work will depend on their skills and experience and also the skills and experience of their supervising physician. All PAs are trained to be aware of, and work within the limits of, the level of their clinical competence.

At Balham Park surgery we already help train PAs on the scheme at St Georges.  We have now recruited a PA, Guy Dimond joined our clinical team in November 2021. We plan to recruit a second PA in 2022. This is part of a government backed scheme to fund additional roles in primary care to help reduce GP workload.  Initially we would incorporate a PA into our oncall/on the day team to help with telephone calls and face to face appointments.

Our Social Prescribing Link Worker is there to help patients with their wider needs, getting to the route of patient issues and signpost them to community, voluntary and support services which may be of benefit.

We have a Primary Care Liason Nurse for Substance Misuse.  Currently, clinics run at the surgery on Wednesdays.

The service deals with patients who have problems with:

• Alcohol dependency
• Illicit drug dependency
• Cannabis use
• Prescription dependency (for example, to pain killers or sleeping tablets)

The nurse also sees patients who are at risk of relapse from any of the above problems.

The GP may suggest a referral or patients can self-refer by booking an appointment with the nurse via reception.

Patients should wait for the Doctor to contact them via text or phone call within 7-10 working days from when the patient had the test done.  X-rays and ultrasound results can take a day or two longer.

We kindly ask you to refrain from calling the Practice for your test results as only the Doctor will be responding to your results and Reception will not be provided with any further information for you.

Blood tests, X-rays and ultrasound scans are usually performed at St John’s Therapy Centre or St George’s Hospital. The results are processed at these locations then sent back electronically to Balham Park Surgery where they are assigned to the relevant doctor for review.

Please note that tests arranged by the hospital team are not automatically sent to us therefore patients need to contact the team that organised the test for the result and any follow up.

Please use the NHS app to see your results. These will be visible once the result has been reviewed by the Physiotherapist or GP who requested the test.

If you do need to speak to us about your results, please call between 10.30am and 4pm on 020 8772 8772 – option 3