How to make an appointment to see your doctor or nurse

Bridge of Allan Health Centre
Fountain Road
Bridge of Allan
Stirlingshire
FK9 4EU
Tel: 01786 833210

News:

Public Holidays

Our next public holiday is on Monday 06 September 2010. Please ensure that you have enough medication to last over this long weekend.

If you require urgent medical attention when the health centre is closed please telephone the out-of-hours medical service on 08454 24 24 24

Food Safety Week

Now that the weather is improving, lots of us are taking the opportunity to have barbecues and eat outside. Please be careful to avoid getting ill with food poisoning. The main dangers are not cooking meat properly and cross-contamination between cooked and raw food. You can find lots of advice including recipes to help prevent this type of illness at http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating /hyg/germwatch/2010

Announcements

01 Sep - 01 Oct
NHS Smokefree

Find out about all of the free NHS services available to support you as you go try to give up smoking.

01 Aug - 01 Oct
NHS Summer Health

Stay safe in the sun, including sunscreens, sunburn relief, heat exhaustion, eczema and moles. Summer holidays are great fun for children, but can bring risks. Find out more

01 Jul - 01 Oct
Change for Life

Would you like loads of tips and help to make changes for a healthier future? As part of Change4Life, you will receive tons of helpful information, recipes, tools, tips, and games for the kids.

BBC Health

More obesity ops 'will save cash'

Millions of pounds is lost in England by the failure of the NHS to provide more obesity operations, a study says.

Statins 'may cut arthritis risk'

Taking statins may reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, a study suggests.

Call for morning sickness action

More needs to be done to establish which are safe and effective ways to relieve morning sickness, experts say.

ME 'virus link' found in children

ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, in children could be caused by a virus, scientists say.

UK radiotherapy 'lagging behind'

Too few UK cancer patients are receiving state-of-the-art radiotherapy care, experts from Cancer Research UK say.

Gaps persist in cancer survival

Despite significant improvements in cancer survival rates across England, regional differences remain, national statistics show.

'Genetic link' to breast cancer

Researchers have identified a series of genetic variations which may play a role in a common breast cancer.

Bipolar 'not linked to violence'

People with a mental illness are no more likely to be violent unless they abuse drugs or alcohol, a study suggests.

NHS in Wales faces £380m cutbacks

The Welsh NHS faces making £380m worth of cutbacks by April, with managers saying it is the biggest challenge they have faced in 20 years.

Diabetes drug advice 'not heeded'

A type two diabetes drug is still being prescribed in the UK two months after it was recommended for withdrawal, BBC Panorama learns.

Yahoo Health

US smoking rate still stuck at 1 in 5 adults (AP)

AP - U.S. smoking rates continue to hold steady, at about one in five adults lighting up regularly, frustrated health officials reported Tuesday.

FDA cites claims on 2 green tea beverages (AP)

AP - Federal health regulators have issued warnings to the makers of Canada Dry ginger ale and Lipton tea for making unsubstantiated nutritional claims about their green tea-flavored beverages.

FDA relents from midodrine withdrawal plan (AP)

AP - Federal regulators have backed off a plan to remove a Shire PLC low blood-pressure treatment from the market after warning in August that the drug has not been proven effective.

Judge won't let stem cell money keep flowing (AP)

AP - A federal judge on Tuesday refused to lift his order blocking federal funding for some stem cell research, saying that a "parade of horribles" predicted by federal officials would not happen.

Japan confirms its first case of new superbug gene (AP)

AP - Japan has confirmed the nation's first case of a new gene in bacteria that allows the microorganisms to become drug-resistant superbugs, detected in a man who had medical treatment in India, a Health Ministry official said Tuesday.

Picking right blood pressure medicine challenging (AP)

AP - It's hard to predict which pills will best lower which patient's high blood pressure, but researchers are hunting ways to better personalize therapy — perhaps even using a blood test.

Lack of Sleep May Be Linked to Childhood Obesity (HealthDay)

HealthDay - MONDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Infants and preschoolers who don't get enough sleep at night are at increased risk for later childhood obesity, a new study suggests.

For Bonobo Males, Mom Is the Best Wingman (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - To most human males, the thought of your mother anywhere near your sex life is probably horrifying. Not so for the bonobo, one of our closest primate relatives. A new study confirms that hanging out with mom boosts male bonobos' chances of getting intimate with a fertile female.

Clinical Trials Update: Sept. 7, 2010 (HealthDay)

HealthDay - (HealthDay News) -- Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy of ClinicalConnection.com:

Autistic Toddlers Prefer to Gaze at Geometric Patterns: Study (HealthDay)

HealthDay - MONDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- When given the choice to gaze at geometric patterns or children dancing and playing, toddlers with autism spent more time looking at the patterns while typically developing toddlers preferred to look at other kids, a new study finds.

MedPage Today

Judge Won't Lift Block on Stem Cell Research Funding

(MedPage Today) -- Federal spending of embryonic stem cell (ESC) research will remain off-limits for now, a federal judge ruled, dealing yet another blow to the Obama administration's efforts to support such research.

Cigarette Smoke May Affect Fertility (CME/CE)

(MedPage Today) -- Smoking may provide an explanation for reduced fertility, results of two studies suggested.

Adult Smoking Hits Plateau

(MedPage Today) -- One in five U.S. adults continues to smoke tobacco -- a percentage that hasn't budged since 2005 -- suggesting that more aggressive efforts are needed to reduce smoking-related diseases and deaths, the CDC said.

Pandemic H1N1 Similar to Seasonal Strains (CME/CE, with video)

(MedPage Today) -- In general, the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus did not cause more serious disease than other recent influenza A strains, researchers found.

Nevirapine Reuse Possible in Exposed Children With HIV (CME/CE)

(MedPage Today) -- In most HIV-infected children being exposed at birth to nevirapine (Viramune) doesn't rule out using the drug again later, researchers reported.

PCV-7 Vaccine May Promote Serotype 19A Infection (CME/CE)

(MedPage Today) -- Infants receiving a three-dose regimen of heptavalent PCV-7 pneumococcal vaccine were more likely than unvaccinated controls to pick up a nonvaccine pneumococcal strain associated with invasive infection and antibiotic resistance, researchers said.

More Human Trials Needed for HIV Vaccine Hunt

(MedPage Today) -- HIV vaccine researchers are calling for more and better human trials as part of the quest for ways to block transmission of the virus.

Patients Expect More from PCI than It Delivers (CME/CE)

(MedPage Today) -- Cardiologists fully understand the limits of percutaneous coronary interventions -- but their patients are often overly optimistic about the benefits of PCI, a new survey revealed.

Splint Matches Cast for Kids' Wrist Fractures (CME/CE)

(MedPage Today) -- In children with wrist fractures, a splint works as well as a cast, researchers reported.

Behcet's Takes Higher Toll in Men (CME/CE)

(MedPage Today) -- Men with Behçet's disease are much more likely than women to die of this chronic multisystem vasculitis, a large French study found.

Appointments

Home Visits

Lab Results

Online Appointments

HOW TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT

docbaby When you contact the Health Centre for make an appointment, the receptionist will ask for your name and offer you the first available appointment with a GP. If you feel that you need to see a doctor urgently, please explain the reason why to the receptionist who may be able to offer you an urgent appointment or she can ask the nurse or the doctor to ring you (see Urgent Appointments below) to assess your clinical need, offer advice and reassurance and make an appropriate appointment for you to see a one of the healthcare team.

Did you know that we offer some early morning appointments for patients who are in full-time work and who might otherwise have difficulty in getting away to attend a doctor’s appointment. These appointments are available from 7am on four mornings per week. We would be grateful if patients who do not work normal business hours would respect the need to keep these appointments for patients who do.

A routine appointment with a Doctor or Nurse is 10 minutes long. For this reason we would ask that you limit your consultation with the doctor or nurse to one health problem per consultation.

BOOKING ONLINE (further information about this service)

Click here to book/cancel your appointment online

URGENT APPOINTMENTS

If you consider your medical problem is urgent and cannot wait for the next free appointment time, then your request will be dealt with the same day. If the Receptionist cannot offer you an urgent appointment, the Practice Nurse or one of the Doctors will contact you to help decide on the most appropriate and timely clinical response for your health needs

Home Visits

Please ask for a home visit only if you are too ill to come to the surgery.

Whenever possible, please phone before 10am. You will be asked to give brief details ofyour illness to help the doctor to prioritise his/her workload.

Always leave your name, address and telephone number. If you phone after 11.30am, the Duty Doctor will attend to urgent home visits

Lab Results

Lab Results Please phone after 2.00pm for your results. Your call will be dealt with in strictest confidence by the Reception staff who, acting on your Doctor’s instructions, will advise you if you need to make an appointment to see the doctor.

Please be aware that we can only give results to the patient concerned as we are bound by very strict rules of confidentiality.

If you would like us to contact you using the MJOG system, please ensure that we have your mobile telephone number included in your electronic medical records (see home page for more details about MJOG)

Online Appointments - EMIS Access

We have recently introduced a new service to enable you to book your appointment on-line. This service is called EMIS Access.

To use the service you will need a unique user id and password and this can be obtained very easily and quickly by contacting the Health Centre. Please note that we are unable to register patients aged 16 years and under to use the on-line service.

When you have your id and password, simply click here to use the service

You can also use the service using your Red Button on your digital TV. Visit www.lookinglocal.gov.uk to find out how the service works on digital TV.

Practice Information

For quick medical advice online or on the telephone contact NHS 24