Services

As soon as you find out you are pregnant it is recommended that you self-register with the Midwife. The Midwife will see you for regular scheduled appointments throughout your pregnancy.

If you require advice in early pregnancy please call 01733 673758 (Early Pregnancy Unit). For other pregnancy-related queries please call 01733 677266 (Maternity Unit).

A Midwife from the community team will visit you at home once the baby is born to give post-natal advice and carry out a newborn screening check prior to handing over care to the Health Visitor.

Read more about screening tests in pregnancy.

As a registered carer, Thorpe Road Surgery invites you to book an appointment with a nurse for a Carer Review to see if there is any additional support that we could offer you and to review your own physical and mental health.

You are also entitled to receive the free seasonal flu vaccination as a registered carer, during the flu season, please contact us

Carers play a crucial role in the delivery of health and social care provision in the UK. We actively strive to identify and support carers and those being cared for in the local community, however, we can only do this if you let us know you are a carer and register yourself as a carer using the Carer Registration Form.

Find more support for Carers

The Care of Mothers and Young Children
As soon as you find out you are pregnant it is recommended that you self-register with the Midwife online

If you require advice in early pregnancy please call 01733 673785 (Early Pregnancy Unit). For other pregnancy-related queries please call 01733 677266 (Maternity Unit).

A Midwife from the community team will visit you at home once the baby is born to give post-natal advice and carry out a newborn screening check prior to handing over care to the Health Visitor.

Read more about NHS Newborn screening

Developmental Checks
A developmental check is carried out by the doctor when the baby is six weeks old. This is a good time to discuss the vaccination and immunization of the baby which we encourage in all children, save in rare circumstances.

The doctor will complete a medical examination at six to eight weeks followed by your baby's first injections given by the practice nurse.

A further developmental check is carried out at eight months of age by the health visitor and a medical with the GP.

Thereafter, developmental checks are offered on an individual basis until the child starts school.

Sick Children
Sick children under 5 are seen during normal surgery hours and will always be seen by a doctor (or nurse practitioner) on the day of request, though their usual one may not be available.

Request an appointment

Child Immunisations
If you received an invitation for your child's immunizations, please contact the surgery to arrange an appointment. For more information please visit the NHS website

Our patients can take advantage of a variety of services that are provided within our Primary care network.

HCA Home Visiting Service
For housebound patients.

Procedures include: Taking Blood, Blood Pressure Checks, Temperature, Pulse Rate, Pulse Oximetry, Urine Screening, Height, Weight, BMI, Diabetic Footchecks and others. Self-referral options are not available, but if a clinician advises, a Receptionist will refer you for this service.

Social Prescribing and Health Coaches
Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services to support their health and wellbeing. Self-referral options may be available in the future. Please speak to a Receptionist if you wish to be referred for this service.

Healthy You, by EveryoneHealth
Smoking Cessation, Children's healthy lifestyle, Weight Management, Falls Prevention and more. There is a self-referral option available.

Adult Social Care
Advice and info, Reablement, Therapy Services, Home Improvement, Aids and adaptions. Please contact Peterborough City Council for a referral to this service.

Citizens Advice Peterborough
Quality advice on debts, benefits, housing, homelessness, relationships and employment and more. There is a self-referral option available.

CPFT District Nurses
Assess, plan and provide nursing clinical care to those people who are often housebound due to ill health, either in their own home or in a care home that does not provide nursing. . Self-referral options are not available, but if a clinician advises, a Receptionist will refer you for this service.

Home Blood Pressure Monitoring
If advised by your doctor, you can monitor your blood pressure at home by loaning one of the monitors from the surgery. These loans are based on a mutual agreement and made available for our patients for one week. Your doctor will advise if you need to monitor your blood pressure at home or refer you to Long Blood Pressure Monitoring Service. Self-referral options are not available.

We offer a range of contraceptives:

• combined pill
• contraceptive injection
• contraceptive patch
• natural family planning (fertility awareness)
• progestogen-only pill

If you aren’t sure which form of contraception is right for you, please review your options, or make an appointment to discuss it with one of our clinicians.

You can also access long-acting contraception, IUD, IUS and contraceptive implants via iCash without a GP appointment.

Get information about COVID-19 vaccination, who can get it, and safety and side effects

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations on the NHS website

Find information about the flu jab, including who should have it, why and when

Learn more about flu vaccinations on the NHS website

The practice invites certain groups of patients in for an annual review of their conditions. This includes patients who have respiratory conditions, diabetes, hypertension, dementia, and a number of other conditions.

Patients with one or more long-term conditions will receive an invitation to book an appointment just before their birthday month. As a result, patients will have to attend fewer appointments as multiple tests and checks can be performed at the same time.

Additionally, we will continue to use online questionnaires to collect some information before your appointment with the nursing staff.

We have a Specialist Mental Health Practitioner at the practice who cares for our patients experiencing poor mental health. If you would like to make an appointment to speak with her, please contact reception. Her appointments are pre-bookable at any time, but if you need urgent help, please contact the crisis team on NHS 111 Option 2

If you are aged 40-75, you are entitled to a free NHS Health Check.

The NHS Health Check is a free check-up of your overall health. It can tell you whether you're at higher risk of getting certain health problems, such as:

• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Kidney disease
• Stroke

More information can be found here

The Over 75 Health Check is an initiative to improve overall health and well-being in the community.

Its aim is to improve the care and support given to patients aged 75 or over. Thorpe Road Surgery is very supportive of the scheme and will provide Health Checks to improve early diagnosis and health screening.

All patients who are over 75 and do not already attend the surgery for an annual review are encouraged to book a health check with the nurse in line with their month of birth.

The nurse will provide assessment and screening of your health and social care issues based on questions and measurements. Following this, you will receive personalised advice and if needed, an onward referral or signposting to appropriate support services.

If you'd like to arrange an Over 75 Health Check, please get in touch with the surgery.

Our last sample collection is at 4pm, and we are unable to do any late phlebotomy.

Blood tests are now only available by appointment at the surgery, Monday to Friday.

Services offered

• Cervical Screening
• Bowel Cancer Screening: Everyone aged 60 to 74 is offered a bowel cancer screening home test kit every 2 years. If you're 75 or over, you can ask for a kit every 2 years by phoning the free bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 60 60.
• Breast Cancer Screening: NHS breast screening checks use X-rays to look for cancers that are too small to see or feel. You'll automatically get your first invite for breast screening between the ages of 50 and 53. Then you'll be invited every 3 years until you turn 71. Women over 70 can self-refer.
• Diabetic eye screening: From the age of 12, all people with diabetes are offered an annual diabetic eye test to check for early signs of diabetic retinopathy.
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA): AAA screening is offered to men during the screening year (1 April to 31 March) when they turn 65 to detect abdominal aortic aneurysms (a dangerous swelling in the aorta). Men over 65 can self-refer.
• Screening information for trans and non-binary people
• Screening in pregnancy: The screening tests offered in pregnancy are:
  • screening for infectious diseases (hepatitis B, HIV and syphilis)
  • screening for Down's syndrome, Patau's syndrome and Edwards' syndrome
  • screening for sickle cell disease and thalassaemia
  • screening to check the physical development of the baby (known as the 20-week scan or mid-pregnancy scan)
  • diabetic eye screening if you are pregnant and have type 1 or type 2 diabetes
• Screening for newborn babies: Newborn babies are offered:
  • a physical examination, which includes the eyes, heart, hips and testes
  • a hearing test
  • a blood spot test to check if the baby has any of 9 rare conditions

Practice Policy in relation to prescription of sedatives for patients attending hospital or dental appointments, for imaging investigations or other procedures.

Sometimes we are asked to prescribe 'a low dose sedative' for patients attending hospital or dental appointments, for imaging investigations or other procedures. These are the reasons we do not prescribe this medication:

1. Small doses of benzodiazepines such at 2mg diazepam are probably sub-therapeutic for most adults for any effective sedation.  Conversely anxiolytics can have an idiosyncratic response in patients, and even very small doses can cause increased agitation in some subsets of patients.
2. A patient may take a sedative 'an hour' before their assumed procedure, to then attend the hospital to find their procedure has been delayed, therefore the timing of the anxiolytic being sub optimal.
3. GPs are not regularly involved, skilled, trained or appraised in sedation skills.
4. All hospital consultants, both those requesting imaging and those providing it, have access to the same prescribing abilities as GPs. If a patient needs a certain medication to enable an investigation to go ahead, they are just as well positioned to provide a prescription, either through the hospital pharmacy or a hospital FP10.
5. Sedated patients should be regularly monitored, and I have been made aware of a case where a GP-provided sedative was given, the patient not monitored, and subsequently had a respiratory arrest in an MRI machine.
6. The Royal College of Radiologists‘ own guidelines on sedation for imaging makes no mention of GP involvement or provision of low dose anxiolytics and stresses the importance of experienced well trained staff involved and the monitoring of sedated patients

We maintain that we are not being 'obstructive’ but adhering to our duty of care to provide safe, consistent, and appropriate care for our patients.   

We would be grateful if you could discuss this with the relevant specialist who has requested this, to prescribe this as they see fit.

Social Prescriber works along with our Primary Care Network (PCN).

Referrals are made by Clinicians. Please speak to your GP for further info and visit the NHS England website

Exactly how will stopping make life better? Here are 10 ways your health will improve when you stop smoking

Did you know that you're up to 4 times more likely to quit successfully with the help of your local stop smoking service?

Services staffed by trained stop smoking advisers are available all over the country. You can join a local group that meets once a week, or have one-to-one support if you prefer. You usually go for a few weeks and work towards a quit date. Call the Smokefree National Helpline on 0300 123 1044 to speak to a trained adviser.