Antenatal Clinic

Held on Monday afternoons at each surgery. The clinics are midwife-led, with GP supervision. As long as your pregnancy is uncomplicated, then more or less all your antenatal care will be at the surgery. You will only need to attend the hospital for your scans and delivery.

If you are pregnant, please make an appointment with any midwife initially.

Baby Clinic

Although there is no drop in baby clinic at the surgeries, you can book a development check by Dr. Phillips at Orrell Surgery and also for immunisations by the nurse.

Drop in clinics are still available in the community with the health visitor. Please see the North West Boroughs Healthcare website for health visitor details.

Health Checks

For the NHS Health Check for age 40-75 years, breast examination, HRT and contraception advice, as well as general health advice e.g. blood pressure, smoking cessation, weight etc. please make an appointment with the practice nurse.

You are welcome to make an appointment with the doctor or nurse to have your blood pressure check, discuss risk factors for heart disease, discuss weight loss, smoking cessation, exercise etc.

You can also make an appointment with the doctor to have a prostate check, testicular examination etc.

Cervical Screening (Smear) tests

Women aged 24-65 are invited to attend for smear tests every 3 years (25-50 years) or 5 years (50-65 years). When you receive your invitation, please book an appointment with the nurse. 

Contraception

The practice offers advice on contraception and sexual health. We offer advice on all methods of contraception including emergency contraception.

Please make an appointment with the doctor to discuss starting or changing contraception, or with the nurse for a Pill check if you are already prescribed the contraceptive pill.

Minor Surgery

We offer a range of minor surgery. This includes cryotherapy (freezing) of warts and verrucae; joint injection; and removal of skin lumps and lesions. Please make an appointment with the doctor.

Carers

It is the policy of the practice to identify and support carers.

A carer is anyone, irrespective of age whose life is in some way affected because they need to take responsibility for the care of a person who has a mental problem, a learning disability, is elderly and frail or whose health is impaired. This includes the parents of a child with a disability (parent carer). Carers do not get paid and can be of any age, sex. They can be from any background, culture or community. They can be family members, neighbours or friends. Some carers may care for more than one person. Many people who support others do not even realise they are carers.

Supporting Carers

We try to identify carers by various means. This includes asking newly registered patients, via registration through our online form, via notices in the surgeries, opportunistically during consultations, via our reception staff who may know patients who are carers or have carers e.g patients who regularly collect prescriptions or messages for other patients of the practice

Once a carer is identified, a note is added to that patient’s computerised records stating that they are a carer and also to the the records of the cared for person. If the carer requires referral to Social Services then the GP / Nurse will arrange this. The practice will refer to the carer to the appropriate carers centre with the agreement of the carer. Please see our links below to be redirected to the website of the appropriate carers centre:

St Helens Carers Website

Wigan Carers Website

Chronic Disease Management

These clinics are to monitor patients with chronic diseases such as asthma and other chronic lung diseases, diabetes, coronary heart disease etc. They are nurse led, with the doctors overseeing the clinic, reviewing results, medication etc. Please ask the doctor or nurse for details.

Travel Advice

For travel advice, immunisations, advice on malaria prevention, etc, please visit our digital Travel Room and complete our Travel Form. You will then need an appointment with a practice nurse. This appointment should be made at least 6-8 weeks before you are due to travel.

Phlebotomy Clinics

If the doctor requests a blood test, we have special clinics where you can have this done. Please note that if the doctor requests a fasting blood test, then you must not have anything to eat or drink (apart from water) for 12 hours before the blood test.

Clinics are suspended until further notice.

Alternatively you can attend:

• The Thomas Linacre Outpatient Centre, Parsons Walk, Wigan, WN1 1RU from 07:30 – 16:45 Monday to Friday.
• The St Helens Urgent Treatment Centre(UTC), The Millennium Centre, Corporation Street, St Helens, WA10 1HJ from 07:00 – 09:00, Monday to Friday, and on Saturday between 08:00 – 11:00. No appointment is required between these hours.

Social distancing measures must be adhered to at all times.

INR Clinics

For our patients who are on warfarin treatment we offer in-house INR (blood) monitoring to ensure that they can be monitored safely and conveniently near their home.

Electrocardiogram

To ensure that patients are treated as close to their home as possible, we perform Electrocardiograms (ECGs) at the surgery. The doctor or nurse will refer you for this and make you an appointment with the healthcare assistant who will perform the ECG. The readings are then transferred to a specialist centre who will interpret the ECG and a report sent to your doctor.

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring

Some patients can find attending the GP surgery stressful and this can on occasion cause their blood pressure to go up. This phenomenon is known as “White Coat Hypertension”. To ensure that our patients are diagnosed correctly the doctor or nurse may want to monitor your blood pressure away from the surgery. They will do this by letting you borrow a blood pressure monitor so that you can monitor your blood pressure at home and bring us your readings so that we can calculate an average of these. Alternatively, we also have blood pressure monitors that will monitor your blood pressure automatically over a period of 24 hours and the information is downloaded onto the computer which will analyse the data and provide an average for us.

Non NHS Forms & Examinations

Under their NHS contract, the doctors are not obliged to complete certain forms such as passport applications, insurance forms, holiday cancellations, or provide certain letters e.g. private sick notes, fitness for travel, etc. Therefore these forms / letters attract a fee, which is approved by the British Medical Association (BMA). The person requesting  the completion of the forms is responsible for the payment of this fee.

Similarly our doctors will undertake medical examinations for special purposes such as insurance, HGV and Taxi Licence, adoption, child minding, employment etc. Special appointments may be made for these and a fee approved by the BMA again will be payable. Please ask our receptionists for details of these fees and appointments.

As a general rule at Billinge Medical Practice, we charge rates that are much lower than those suggested by the BMA.