This website uses cookies to function correctly.
You may delete cookies at any time but doing so may result in some parts of the site not working correctly.

Advice in your region:

England | Scotland | Wales | Northern Ireland | Ireland

Stay at home to stop coronavirus spreading

Everyone must stay at home to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

You should only leave the house for very limited purposes:

shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible
one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household
any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid or escape risk of injury or harm, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home

Important - These reasons are exceptions – even when doing these activities, you should be minimising time spent outside of the home and ensuring you are 2 metres apart from anyone outside of your household.

There is separate advice about staying at home if:

Symptoms and what to do

Do not leave your home if you have either:

a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

To protect others, do not go to places like a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital. Stay at home.

Use the 111 online coronavirus service to find out what to do.

Only call 111 if you cannot get help online.

Important - Call 111 for advice if you're worried about a baby or child.

If they seem very unwell, are getting worse or you think there's something seriously wrong, call 999.

Do not delay getting help if you're worried. Trust your instincts.

Help the NHS respond to coronavirus

Use the quick NHS coronavirus status checker to tell us about your current experience of the virus.

This will help the NHS plan its response to coronavirus by showing where the virus is spreading and how it affects people.

Read general information such as:

Translate this page

Meadowfield Surgery, Adrian Clark House, Sawmills Lane, Meadowfield
0191 378 0651
Esh Winning Surgery, Atkinson Darling House, Newhouse Road, Esh Winning
0191 373 4232
Langley Park Sugery, Sir Bobby Robson House, Rear Church Street, Langley Park
0191 373 1386
Tow Law Surgery, Charlton House, Rear High Street, Tow Law
01388 730 251
Ushaw Moor Surgery, Millyard House, Durham Road, Ushaw Moor
0191 373 0202

Quick Links

Online Services

Noticeboard

Governing Bodies/Primary Care Commissioning Committees meeting dates GB/PCC advert

Our Doctors

Due to changes in our Doctor Team you may notice different Doctors than usual at your surgery site.

Extended GP Hours

GP's in central Durham, Chester-Le-Street and Derwentside are working together to offer extra GP appointments from 6:30pm on weekday evenings as well as Saturday & Sunday mornings.

Please note these clinics are by appointment only. Just call your surgery to book any available evening and weekend GP appointments.

Carer's Pledge

The Medical Group pledges to care for our patients who are carers. We aim to identify all our carers and do all we can to support their health and well-being. We have a carer display in all five of our surgeries and close links with Durham County Carers Support.

Information and / or Communication Support Needs

We want to get better at communicating with our patients. We want to make sure you can read and understand the information we send you. If you find it hard to read our letters or if you need someone to support you at appointments, please let us know.

Please tell us if you need:

Information in braille, large print or easy read.
A British Sign Language interpreter or advocate.
If we can support you to lipread or use a hearing aid or communication tool

Please tell the receptionist when you arrive for your next appointment.

The Medical Group now has a young people information page which is aimed at children & young people aged up to 18 years old. Why not take a look by clicking on Young People Information which can be found in the further information section down the right side of this page.

Patient Online - Giving you more choice in accessing GP Services

Patient Online will help you to take greater control of your health & wellbeing by increasing online access to services. If you wish to, you can now use the internet to book appointments with a GP, request repeat prescriptions for any medications you take regularly and also view your medications and allergies online. If you would like to register for Patient Online please speak to a member of our Reception Team

Electronic Prescription Service

We are about to introduce an Electronic Prescription Service. This service will mean that we can send your prescription electronically to the Pharmacy you choose to get your medication from without the need for paper in most cases. The Electronic Prescription Service is reliable, secure and confidential.

If you would like to use the Electronic Prescription Service:

•You will need to ‘nominate’ a pharmacy to receive your prescriptions electronically. You can ask a member of staff in the pharmacy to arrange this. Practice Staff will also be able to arrange this for you after Tuesday 3rd June 2014.

•You can then continue to order your prescriptions in the usual way, but instead of a paper prescription being collected by you or your pharmacy, the prescription will be sent to them electronically.

•You should try to ensure that on most occasions you collect your prescriptions from your nominated Pharmacy. However, if you don’t wish to use your nominated Pharmacy for a particular prescription just make sure you let the surgery know when you request the prescription. For example if you wish to collect a prescription from the surgery reception, or a different pharmacy.

•Nomination is very flexible and can be cancelled at any time by asking a member of staff at the pharmacy or the surgery

Chaperones

If you feel you would like a chaperone present at your consultation then please inform your Doctor/Nurse who will be more than happy to arrange this for you.

The Patient Group

THE MEDICAL GROUP - THE PATIENT GROUP

The Patient Group was started 9 years ago and in that time we have helped effect change in a number of areas; for example on-line appointments, telephone consultations, surgery opening hours, information on prescriptions and parking as well as encouraging patients to complete Healthwatch cancer screening surveys . We now have a membership of 36 patients, 18 male and 18 female with an age range of 34-83 and we meet most months. We discuss a range of health-related issues; for example recently we have discussed out of hours provision, patient transport, disposal of medicines and counselling services. We have a range of speakers and members take part in training and development events; for example a number of members joined with practice staff in becoming Dementia Friends.

Meetings in 2020:

2020 Meeting dates will be:-

Monday 27^th January - Meadowfield
Tuesday 24th March – Ushaw Moor
Monday 1^st June – Esh Winning
Tuesday 28^th July – Tow Law
Monday 28^th September – Langley Park
Tuesday 24^th November - Meadowfield
All meetings are held at 6pm

Meetings are held on a rotational basis. Meetings are held on an evening between 6.00pm - 7.00pm. Minutes of The Patient Group meetings are displayed in each surgery and we also have our own column in the practice newsletter.

Members can also contribute via email or letter as per the Join our Patient Group section. Currently 2 members who are unable to attend meetings contribute in this way.

Please see Patient Survey Report tab for information about how our group assists the Practice in reviewing patient feedback.

Care Quality Commission

Members of our Patient Group have set up a sub group to review the CQC Standards . The Group are keen to be involved when CQC Inspectors carry out their inspection of The Medical Group. Sub group members have provided the following information about our group and it's involvement in practice issues; this information is also available on the Patient Group notice boards, which can be found in the reception area of each of our surgery sites:

The Medical Group is one of 31 GP practices who have come together to commission (or buy) local health services for people in North Durham. This consortium is known as The North Durham Clinical Commissioning Group (North Durham CCG). On 1 April 2013 the North Durham CCG took full responsibility for planning and purchasing a range of health services for people in Durham, Chester-le-Street and Derwentside. 5 members of our Patient Reference Group attend the monthly meetings of the North Durham CCG Patient Reference Group.

By law all GP practices in England must make sure that the care and treatment they provide meets national standards of quality and safety. Pratices must be registered with the Care Quality Commission whose role is to monitor, inspect and regulate services. As part of this process they inspect GP practices and talk to staff and patients and look at patients' experience of care, as well as checking systems and processes. The Patient Reference Group will be involved when the Medical Group is inspected and a small group of members have worked with the Practice Manager to prepare. In addition, the CQC inspectors will talk to patients attending the surgery whilst the inspection is taking place.

2016 Achievements

Please click on the link to view the PowerPoint of achievements made in 2016 PowerPoint Presentation

PLEASE NOTE; Members of our group are unable to deal with individual issues. If you have any concerns/complaints/comments please contact the Practice Manager, Mrs Lesley Hunter on 0191 3780651

THE PATIENT GROUP

MEMBERS WANTED

TO JOIN OUR

PATIENT GROUP

Ø Are you interested to learn more about the changes in the NHS and how these may affect you as patients?

Ø Would you like to pro-actively contribute to the development of services in the practice?

Ø Would you like to support the commissioning of health services for the wider population?

IF THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS IS YES PLEASE COMPLETE A SIGN UP FORM.

complete the form Complete the Patient Group Sign-up Form Online

If you prefer, you can download the sign up form as a pdf document, print it out, complete it and return it to the practice.

download the pdf form Download the pdf version of our sign up form

We are keen to gain feedback from a representative cross section of our practice population. We are aware that it can be difficult to be involved when you have work/caring committments but even if you are unable to attend our meetings you can still be involved by letting us know your views by e-mail or letter.

We will be in touch shortly after we receive your form. Please note that no medical information or questions will be responded to.

Many thanks for your assistance

The information you supply us will be used lawfully, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to know what information is held about you and sets out rules to make sure that this information is handled properly.