Welcome to the Practice:

Mrs Katarzyna Jakubowska - Practice Manager

We are closed for staff training  from 10.15am – 12.45. If you require urgent medical assistance which cannot wait until we re-open at 12.45, please call 07956 899311. Please note this number is to be used on the specified date and times only.

Find information about benefits, grants and discounts you can get if you’re in financial difficulty, from Greater London Authority, the government, your local council, charities and advice centres.(Link - Help with the cost of living | London City Hall)

The campaign aims to help the public understand their right to choose where they receive their care… (Link: Patient Choice | Campaigns | Campaign Resource Centre (dhsc.gov.uk))

You can now view your GP record online.  You will be able to see information such as your medications, allergies, test results, immunisations, and illnesses.

You can also book and cancel appointments and order repeat prescriptions online. 

Your GP record can be viewed on a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone, using a website or an app.  This means that you can look at your GP record online 

whenever you want, without needing to print it.  Your GP online record is up-to-date and more secure than a printed version which could be lost or seen by others. 

You can also look at your online record after your appointment to make sure you understood what your doctor or nurse told you. 

Your GP record is written to help medical staff look after you.  This means that sometimes you may not understand everything you see.  If you find something you 

don’t understand, you can go to the NHS Choices website - www.nhs.uk.  NHS Choices is the NHS website for patients where you can look for information about illnesses, how to look after yourself, and find NHS services in your local area.  If you have further questions about what you read, you can talk to your doctor or nurse. 

In some cases, your GP may think it would not be good for you to look at your GP record online. If this happens, your GP will talk to you about it.  It is up to your GP to decide if you should be allowed access to your online record.  You cannot change information in your record yourself. 

If you would like to start using online services, see the 'GP online services@ guide for more information www.nhs.uk/GPonlineservices’

We are improving the way we work with patients with long-term conditions

Patients living with certain long-term conditions will be encouraged to attend a Yearly Health Check. Long-term conditions are those that impact over a long period of time, such as diabetes and heart diseases.

 Patients will receive personalised care and support from healthcare professionals from their general practice. This will cover things that patients say matter most to their health and wellbeing, from the best treatment for their condition, to wider things like employment, housing, and mental health.

 Our goal is that by planning care together with care, patients will have the confidence to manage their health, reduce their risk of being admitted to hospital, and have a better quality of life.

Who is this for?

Initially, we will cover nine long-term conditions:

• Cardiovascular disease (for example, strokes, health failure, ischaemic heart disease, and peripheral artery disease)
• Diabetes
• Hypertension (High blood pressure)
• Hyperlipidaemia (High cholesterol)
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
• Atrial fibrillation
• Chronic kidney disease
• Asthma
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

 In the future, we will look to expand this to cover more long-term conditions.

What can you expect?

If you have one of the long-term conditions listed above, you will be encouraged to have at least three check-ins per year. Each stage is described below for you:

1. Attend your Check and Test Appointment

In your Check and Test Appointment, a health professional will carry out all the checks and tests you need to monitor and manage your long-term condition. You may be sent for a blood test and have other checks like a blood pressure check and weight check. We may discuss lifestyle factors such as smoking and exercise with you too.

 If you need an interpreter, please let us know so we can arrange one for your appointment.

2. Receive your test results and your Care Plan

After two to four weeks, you will receive your test results (by post, text, or email, however you prefer).

We will also send a blank document called a Care Plan.

 A Care Plan is an agreement between you and your healthcare professional to help manage your health and support day to day. In your Care Plan, you can record things that are important to your health and wellbeing. This can include anything from your life, like employment, housing, or mental health.

 A Care Plan covers:

• What is important to you and the goals you have
• How to get the most out of your medication
• The care and support you need from others

 A healthcare professional will review your Care Plan with you in your Discussion Appointment. You can start filling out your Care Plan before your appointment or you can fill it during your appointment.

3. Attend your Discussion Appointment

You will then be invited to a Discussion Appointment with a healthcare professional. This may be another team member (such as a nurse, health care assistant, pharmacist, social prescriber link worker) who is best placed to support your care and can spend more time with you. This appointment will take around 30 minutes.

 You can discuss your long-term conditions, test results, treatment, and anything else that is affecting your health, from housing to employment. Together we will look at what matters most to you and agree some goals. Your Care Plan will be updated with what has been agreed.

4. Attend your Follow-Up Appointment

Three to six months later, you will be invited to a Follow-Up Appointment. This will last up to 15 minutes and is an opportunity to update your Care Plan with a healthcare professional, considering what is going well and where you may need more support. You may have more than one Follow-Up Appointment in a year.

 Watch the short film below to see an example of a patient’s journey through the key stages of the process and help you understand what to expect from your Yearly Health Check.

 With subtitles - https://youtu.be/2uNlBbuHflY

 Without subtitles - https://youtu.be/FhTbMDLpMQ0

 How will I be contacted if this is for me?

We will contact you via text, phone call, or letter to organise your appointments. We will contact patients over the year so please do not worry if you do not hear from us right away. If you are concerned or have questions, please contact us.

As per the new requirements implemented by NHS England, from 1st October 2022 Primary Care Networks (PCN)  are required to provide Enhanced Access appointments between the hours of 6.30pm to 8pm Mondays to Fridays and between 9am and 5pm on Saturdays.

In order to meet this requirement, North Camden PCN which Hampstead Group Practice is a member of, will be delivering this service to all patients registered with it’s member practices.  

The Extended Access Service (EAS) is provided by Camden Health Partners and will be based at the following host sites;

Patients will be able to book appointments in the Extended Access Service through their registered practices. If the practice is closed and you wish to book an appointment in the Extended Access Service service please call 020 7428 5701. The EAS telephone opening hours are Monday to Friday 6.30pm-7.45pm and Saturday 9.15am-4.45pm.

Please note that the Extended Access Service is run separately to the host sites and will not be able to deal with general queries relating to the host sites during the extended access hours.

We wish to inform you that due to an unexpected issue that has arisen, we have had to postpone our merger date.

We will keep you updated as more information becomes available. Thank you for all your ongoing patience and support. 

HGP is part of a small group of practices called a Primary Care Network (PCN). This group of practices works together in a number of ways.

From October, PCNs will be responsible for providing ‘Enhanced Access’ for their patients. GP practices usually have core opening hours of 8:00  a.m. – 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. ‘Enhanced Access’ means being able to access GP services (primary care) outside of these core opening hours - so on evenings, weekends and bank holidays.

Enhanced Access services are currently available for all our residents in North Central London (this includes the boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington). You may already have used these services either at our own practice or at another practice or healthcare site. We would welcome you to respond to the following survey by using the following link.

The link for the survey is completing this short survey

We are delighted to bring you exciting news about Keats Group Practice (KGP) and Hampstead Group Practice (HGP).

KGP and HGP have long enjoyed an excellent and close working relationship and have been exploring formalising that further through merging the two practices.  This will enable us to share our combined expertise and resources for the benefit of our patients, staff, and the population of North Camden.

The merger is in the process of being authorised by NHS England (NHSE) and North Central London Clinical Commissioning group (NCL CCG).  We are working towards a merger date of 1^st October 2022.

The proposed name of our new practice is Heath Group Practice, which would comprise of Downshire Hill Branch (current KGP location) and Fleet Road Branch (current HGP location)

From the patients’ perspective, very little will change in the short-term.  Both Practices will continue to operate from their existing sites so that patients can continue to attend their usual practice.

We are participating in a nationwide approach to improve access for patients to GP appointments. This is called the NHS Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS), which commenced in 2019. The aim is to direct patients to the most appropriate healthcare professional. This may be a GP or your local Community Pharmacist. 

 From Wednesday 16th June 2021, if your symptoms could be resolved by a booked consultation with the Community Pharmacist instead of the GP, you will be given a same-day referral to your local preferred NHS Community Pharmacy who will contact you by phone in a timely manner. If you have not heard from the pharmacist after a few hours, please feel free to ring them.

Please do not visit the pharmacy, wait for them to book you in for the consultation, either face to face or a phone call.

Pharmacists are highly trained and skilled clinicians experienced in treating minor illnesses. The CPCS will help us to free up GP appointments for people with more complex health needs and ensure that everyone gets treated at the right time, by the right healthcare professional. 

Here is a short video that explains more about this service

If referred to a Community Pharmacist, your online consultation form or summary that includes summary of your symptoms will be shared with them. They will contact you to discuss your query, which may be over  the phone or in person, if required. The Community Pharmacist will recommend the most appropriate treatment, which may be purchased over-the-counter. As part of a wider NHS initiative, this is called 'Self-Care'. More information can be found here.

After your consultation, the Community Pharmacist will update us and advise if any further follow-up is required. 

Through the free NHS App from 17 May. You can access the app through mobile devices such as a smartphone or by tablet. Proof of your COVID-19 vaccination status will be shown within the NHS App. It is recommended that you register with the app before booking international travel.

If you do not have access to a smartphone and know that the country you are travelling to requires COVID-19 vaccination status, you can call the NHS helpline on 119 (from 17 May) and ask for a letter to be posted to you.

This must be at least 5 days after you’ve completed your course of the vaccine. We expect the letter to take up to 5 days to reach you.

Do not contact your GP surgery about your COVID-19 vaccination status. GPs cannot provide letters showing your COVID-19 vaccination status.

Further information can be found on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/demonstrating-your-covid-19-vaccination-status-when-travelling-abroad

Important information to keep you safe while isolating at home