Welcome to Birchwood Medical Centre
Face-to-Face Assessment Centres
Increased support announced for patients with COVID-19 symptoms and members of their household
GP surgeries in Halton and Warrington are working with NHS 111 and local hospitals to provide more advice and treatment to patients with COVID-19 symptoms and members of their household who are self-isolating. The support, which includes telephone, video and face-to-face assessments, will be provided to help these patients with a range of health issues and concerns.
Advice for patients with COVID-19 symptoms
If you have COVID-19 symptoms and you need advice or treatment with any health issue, you should contact NHS 111 in the first instance, unless it is a life-threatening emergency, then you should dial 999.
- If you have possible COVID-19 and you are struggling to cope with your symptoms, you should use the NHS 111 online Coronavirus service - https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19.
- If you have COVID-19 symptoms but have another health concern, please contact NHS 111 online at https://111.nhs.uk/ or via phone.
NHS 111 may then refer you to your GP Practice for further assessment via phone or video call. If clinically appropriate, a face-to-face appointment will be booked by the practice at one of the dedicated face-to-face assessment sites which have been set up in Halton and Warrington. As a result, you may need to go to a different surgery than normal for an assessment with a GP. The sites will not offer testing for COVID-19 and are not public testing sites.
To ensure the safety of patients and staff, only patients who have the complaint and a booked appointment at the assessment sites will be allowed access. Patients will only be allowed to enter one at a time, they will be asked to wait in a car if possible and only enter when they are contacted by mobile phone.
Advice for patients living in a household with someone who has COVID-19 symptoms
If you have a health concern but are self-isolating because you live in a household with someone who has COVID-19 symptoms, you can contact the surgery directly via phone or by contacting the practice via an online form on the practice website (eConsult).
IMPORTANT: please make the surgery aware that you are living in a household with someone who has COVID-19 symptoms.
A clinical member of staff will call you back to provide an assessment over the phone and they will arrange a video or face-to face appointment for you if required. Face-to-face appointments for patients who live in a household with someone who has COVID-19 symptoms will take place at one of the dedicated face-to-face assessment sites.
Advice for patients who live in households that DO NOT have COVID-19 symptoms
To reduce any potential risk of infection, patients who live in households without any COVID-19 symptoms will be seen separately from patients with COVID-19 symptoms and members of their household. As a result of the new arrangements, you may be asked to attend a different surgery than usual. If you need to attend a different surgery, we will advise you at the time of booking your appointment.
Please be reminded… do not to come into the surgery without a pre-booked appointment. If you need help with a health concern, please contact us via phone or by completing an online form on our website (eConsult). A clinical member of staff will call you back to provide an assessment over the phone and they will arrange a video or face-to face appointment for you if required.
Where can I find out more information?
Read some frequently asked questions for patients here.
https://www.warringtonccg.nhs.uk/Images/Page%20Images/your-health/face-to-face-assessment-sites-faqs.htm
Advice for the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable
The guidance for the clinically extremely vulnerable has been updated in line with what was announced on Monday 22 June. You are no longer advised to shield and you can now visit shops, places of worship and other venues. You can return to work if your workplace is Covid-secure but should carry on working from home wherever possible.
You should maintain social distancing wherever possible and adopt other measures to keep yourself safe, such as regular hand washing. More information on how to keep yourself safe can be found here.
Please be aware that local advice may change if incidence rates and transmission becomes a concern. The government will write to those affected when advice is changed.
For the latest local advice for Warrington residents please visit:
Warrington Borough Council Coronavirus updates
Warrington Borough Council: update for Shielded patients – 31 July 2020
NHS Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group information for shielded patients
gov.uk shielding webpage.
Advice to the clinically extremely vulnerable has been and remains advisory.
Practice news ….
PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO COMPLETE OUR FRIENDS & FAMILY TEST THERE ARE THREE WAYS TO DO IT
The NHS wants to ensure that you have the best possible experience of care. The Friends and Family test is a way of gathering your feedback about this experience and helping to drive improvement in services. Take the Friends and Family test today by clicking on the image(left).Alternatively please complete a form at reception and pop it in the box in the waiting room. Finally you can complete a simple survey when you use your telephone or mobile to book an appointment.
Your feedback is important to us as it helps us be more responsive to your needs.
Please Click here to view the Patient Leaflet
NATIONAL DIABETES AUDIT: helping to improve diabetes care - read more
Ask Ollie Website: Information for families and young people - read more
Online Services Records Access: Patient information leaflet ‘It’s your choice’ - read more
NOW ABOUT US .....
Birchwood Medical Centre has been established since 1976 and serves the communities of Birchwood (Oakwood, Locking Stumps & Gorse Covert) as well as Croft and Culcheth to the north together with Longbarn and Cinnamon Brow to the east. Our current list size is 11,211.
We operate from modern large purpose built premises near to the shopping centre in Birchwood.
We offer full general medical practice services and additional and enhanced services from our team.
At Birchwood Medical Centre, we aim to treat all our patients promptly, courteously and in complete confidence. We feel it is important you know who you are speaking to, so our practice staff will identify themselves on the telephone.
Birchwood Medical Centre is a 'training practice'. This means hospital doctors wanting to enter general practice spend twelve months with us in order to gain the experience they need to become family doctors.We also have medical students from Liverpool and Manchester Universities. We also have F2 doctors who spend 4 months in general practice as part of postgraduate training. As a training practice, your medical records may be used for educational purposes.
This website is for both existing patients and those considering registering with us. It tells you about our services, how to access them and some general information about how our practice operates. The practice is within the Warrington NHS area.
SystmOne Online Services - Repeat Prescriptions and Appointments
If you have a SystmOne on-line user name and password, please use this link to order your repeat prescriptions or book your appointment online. Please Note that any controlled drugs cannot be sent electronically to your nominated pharmacy.
If you are interested in this on - line service, including access to a summary care record, please contact reception for a code.
(Site updated 02/11/2020)