Asthma is a common lung condition that causes occasional breathing difficulties.

It affects people of all ages and often starts in childhood, although it can also develop for the first time in adults.

There's currently no cure, but there are simple treatments that can help keep the symptoms under control so it does not have a big impact on your life.

We run clinics throughout the week with our Practice nurse. 

For further information on asthma see links below

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/asthma/

https://www.asthma.org.uk/

Blood tests are available to book Monday-Friday with our Phlebotomist.

Its important due drink plenty of water before your bloods test and also to minimise caffeine intake.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/blood-tests/

Are you a carer? We can refer you to our carer support worker, who comes to the surgery regularly to see carers. For more information click here

Routine cervical smear tests - early morning appointments available from 8.30am- For further information on Cervical Screening please visit:-https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cervical-screening/further-help-and-support/ 

Our nursing team carry out child and adult immunisations clinics throughout the week.  You will be contacted when you or your child’s immunisations are due.

For information on vaccinations please visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/.

There are also leaflets available to tell you what to expect after vaccinations, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-to-expect-after-vaccinations

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is the name for a group of lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties.

COPD is a common condition that mainly affects middle-aged or older adults who smoke. Many people do not realise they have it.

We run clinics throughout the week and these are managed by our Practice nurse.

Further information can be found below.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Our INR Clinic is available for booking for monitoring of anticoagulation for patients taking oral anticoagulants

We all have a mental health – whether it is good, bad or in the middle. Put simply, your mental health is the way you feel on any particular day.

Our mental health and wellbeing can also be known as our "emotional wellbeing". Generally, we all have days where we feel good and days when we don’t. However, a person with a mental health or emotional wellbeing problem will have more bad days than good.

Mental health problems can affect the way you think, feel and behave. They range from common mental health problems (such as depression and anxiety) to more rare problems (such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder).

Depending on which mental health condition they have, people may feel tired, sad, helpless, angry or agitated all the time. They might make irrational decisions such as spending too much money, having inappropriate relationships, or they might feel like life just isn’t worth living.

Experiencing a mental health problem can be upsetting and very frightening, especially at first. In some cases, these fears can mean that people do not seek help for many years. But it's better to talk to someone about how your feeling and ask for help when you need it.

There are many different mental health problems, and some symptoms are common to more than one diagnosis. So you may experience the symptoms of more than one mental health problem at once.

People with severe mental health conditions are invited annually for review. 

https://www.crawleycommunityaction.org/mental-health-wellbeing/

https://www.mind.org.uk/

https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/

Coronary heart disease is the term that describes what happens when your heart's blood supply is blocked or interrupted by a build-up of fatty substances in the coronary arteries.  Over time, the walls of your arteries can become furred up with fatty deposits. This process is known as atherosclerosis and the fatty deposits are called atheroma.

Atherosclerosis can be caused by lifestyle factors, such as smoking and regularly drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.  You're also more at risk of getting atherosclerosis if you have conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure (hypertension) or diabetes.

If you have CHD diagnosed you will be invited for a blood test, height,  weight, BP and some lifestyle questions.  This will be  performed by one of our nursing teams

For more information on CHD

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronary-heart-disease/

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/coronary-heart-disease

An IUD is a small T-shaped plastic and copper device that's put into your womb (uterus) by a doctor or nurse.

It releases copper to stop you getting pregnant, and protects against pregnancy for 5 to 10 years. It's sometimes called a "coil" or "copper coil".

Patients will need 2 vaginal swabs before insertion of a coil.

The contraceptive implant (Nexplanon) is a small flexible plastic rod that's placed under the skin in your upper arm by a doctor or nurse.

It releases the hormone progestogen into your bloodstream to prevent pregnancy and lasts for 3 years.

We currently don’t do Nexplanon in our Practice. 

Please contact Crawley Sexual Health Clinic on 0845 111 3456 or on 01293 600 459 for contraception information and advice.

https://www.sexualhealthwestsussex.nhs.uk/

For more information on the above see link below:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/iud-coil/?tabname=methods-of-contraception

An annual learning disabilities health check can improve your health by spotting problems earlier. 

To have an annual health check your doctor needs to know you have learning disability. You will then be added to the Learning Disability Register. The learning disability register is different from the register of social care needs managed by local councils. The Practice will contact you once a year to book your appointment.

View a video made by the NHS to tell you how to make sure you don’t miss out on your health check.

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood sugar level to become too high.

There are 2 main types of diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes – where the body's immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin

Type 2 diabetes – where the body does not produce enough insulin, or the body's cells do not react to insulin

Type 2 diabetes is far more common than type 1. In the UK, around 90% of all adults with diabetes have type 2.

During pregnancy, some women have such high levels of blood glucose that their body is unable to produce enough insulin to absorb it all. This is known as gestational diabetes.

Our Diabetic Nurse and GP Diabetic lead will routinely see diabetic patients every 6 months or more frequently if needed.

Before a diabetes review, patients will need to book a double diabetic blood test appointment. The HCA who will check patients height, weight, blood pressure. They will also test your urine for ACR and check your feet. Patients will be reviewed approximately 2 weeks after by the Diabetic Nurse either by telephone or Face-to-face.

Prediabetes means that your blood sugars are higher than usual, but not high enough for you to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. It also means that you are at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. You may not be experiencing any symptoms with prediabetes.

Prediabetes is also called borderline diabetes, Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG), Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), Impaired Glucose Regulation (IGR), Non-diabetic hyperglycaemia.  They all mean the same thing. So if you’ve been told you have any of these, knowing this is the first step to being able to do something about it. And there are lots of things you can do to reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Generally patients are screened annually by doing a blood test. Following the blood test, they will have a review with a Practice nurse or HCA to discuss their diet, weight and lifestyle.

For more information see link below:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/preventing-type-2-diabetes/prediabetes

http://www.medic.video/a21-pre

Community nurses play a crucial role in caring for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities: housebound patients who have a long-term health condition and/or are frail elderly who are registered with a local GP.

As well as providing direct patient care, community nurses also work with patients to enable them to care for themselves or with family members teaching them how to give care to their relatives. 

Community nurses play a vital role in keeping hospital admissions and readmissions to a minimum and ensuring that patients can return to their own homes as soon as possible.

Patients, relatives or carers can contact these services via the One Call telephone lines:

For people in North West Sussex (Crawley Horsham & Mid Sussex) on 01293 228311.

Family planning is when both the husband and wife together discuss and mutually decide how many children they would like to have and when, so that they can give sufficient love, care, attention and good education to each of their children. Family planning is achieved through the use of contraceptive methods and the treatment of infertility (inability to have children). Planning when and how many children to have is the couple's responsibility, not just the man's or woman's. Family planning is just as important for newly married couples as it is for those who already have one or more children. It enables young people to delay their first child till they are prepared to take up the responsibilities of raising a child.

The nursing team do pill check reviews which consist of lifestyle questions, height, weight and blood pressure.

The nurses also give depo Provera injections for contraception.

For more information on family planning and contraceptive choices see below:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/natural-family-planning/

Families can access the HCP teams by a variety of routes - themselves, through children’s centres, schools or doctor’s surgeries. No referral is necessary – any woman who is pregnant will automatically have contact with her health visitor, as should families with young children who move into West Sussex. Additionally, young people can access the service using text to ‘Chat Health’ on 07480 635424.

Appointments with the Healthy Child Programme are held through a variety of ways, including face to face appointments, video consultations, and telephone consultations.

Crawley Hub 01273 696011 ext. 6860 sc-tr.crawleyhcphub@nhs.net

School Nursing Advice line

The school nurse advice line is available from 9am to 4:30pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). Please call us on 0300 303 1137 or you can use the following emails

Crawley and Mid-Sussex  Sc-tr.eastschoolnursing@nhs.net

The NHS Health Check is a health check-up for adults in England aged 40 to 74. It's designed to spot early signs of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or dementia. As we get older, we have a higher risk of developing one of these conditions. An NHS Health Check helps find ways to lower this risk.

This is a 30 min consultation with one of our nursing team.

https://www.healthcheck.nhs.uk/

The nursing team provide hypertension reviews throughout the week. The review consists of blood and urine tests, lifestyle questions, height, weight and blood pressure checks. Any concerns will be discussed with the GP.  Sometimes you will be asked to provide a weeks’ worth of blood pressure home readings (please see below links) or be asked to have a 24 hour blood pressure monitor. 

High blood pressure, or hypertension, rarely has noticeable symptoms. But if untreated, it increases your risk of serious problems such as heart attacks and strokes.

Around a third of adults in the UK have high blood pressure, although many will not realise it.

The only way to find out if your blood pressure is high is to have your blood pressure checked.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/

Home blood pressure monitoring protocol

Taking your blood pressure at home

Healthy-Eating-Diet-Sheet

Minor procedures clinics run most weeks by a GP who is assisted by a Health Care Assistant or Practice Nurse.

We can remove skins tags, cysts, warts and moles.

Smoking cessation clinics are run throughout the week by our nursing team. This is normally a 30 min initial Face-to-Face appointment. A detailed history will be taken and a breath test for C02 will be performed.

Different medications will be discussed to help you make an informed choice on how to quit. 

Smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK.

Every year around 78,000 people in the UK die from smoking, with many more living with debilitating smoking-related illnesses.

Smoking increases your risk of developing more than 50 serious health conditions.

Some may be fatal, and others can cause irreversible long-term damage to your health.

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/lifestyle/what-are-the-health-risks-of-smoking/

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/quit-smoking/10-self-help-tips-to-stop-smoking/

Our Practice nurse runs the travel clinics. Forms have to be submitted by  eConsult 8 weeks before travel. The Practice nurse will review your form and be in contact with you. 

Further information regarding travel can be found below:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/travel-vaccinations/

Our PCN Social Prescriber can assist patients with non-medical needs such as social isolation and loneliness. This non-medical support, works alongside existing treatments to help patients improve their physical and mental wellbeing and put them in touch with support and activities within their local community. 

This support is free or low cost and includes social groups, physical activities, counselling, information and advise around debt, housing and benefits, help with particular issues or conditions and more. 

Our PCN Social Prescriber will contact patients that have been referred to the service and will support them to access the support they need. 

If you have any concerns about your hearing, please contact the Practice to book an appointment with Scrivens. 

Once you have booked an appointment, they will assess your hearing and determine whether hearing aids will help you. Your Hearing Aid Audiologist will carry out a Hearing Assessment that will take about 1 hour and will help to determine the degree of your hearing loss. 

Scrivens will be in the Practice fortnightly on Fridays.