Medicals

Medical examinations for insurance policies, HGV or PSV drivers, elderly drivers, sub-aqua purposes etc, can be arranged by appointment. As these invariably do not come under your doctor's terms of NHS service, a fee will be charged.

New Patient Consultations

Every patient registering with Crystal Peak Medical Centre will have the opportunity of a new patient consultation. The appointment gives you a chance to meet us, have your health checked and bring to light any ongoing medical problems or important past medical history, including continuing your medication. Your appointment may be with your doctor, a practice nurse or the Health Worker.

Well Woman / Cervical Smear Clinic

All women aged 25 - 65, who have ever been sexually active need a regular cervical smear test detect any early changes that might lead to cancer later on. The PCT invites patients on a routine basis for a cervical smear, blood pressure check, urine test and teaching on breast self-awareness. The routine appointments are offered as follows

• Women aged 25 - 49 years - once every 3 years
• Women aged 50 - 65 years - once every 5 years

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Children and Teenagers

Health Visitors
Health Visitors are available to monitor the growth and well being of children and to give support and advice to parents on issues such as feeding, development, sleeping and behavioural problems. They are a knowledgable point of contact and can direct you to other services and agencies if appropriate.

Infants and children up to 5yo are seen by appointment in the joint Health Visitor/Dr clinics which are held weekly in the afternoon.
 
Teenagers
We would generally prefer a parent or guardian to attend with a child or teenager. However there are circumstances when a teenager may wish to be seen alone, for confidentiality reasons. Hence we will see those 13 and over unaccompanied, but depending on the problem, they may be asked to re-consult with a parent or guardian

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Smoking Cessation

We are committed to helping those who wish to obtain help with smoking cessation.

Our practice policy is based on both the local Sheffield Stop Smoking Service (SSSS) and NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) Guidelines and is updated annually

There are several ways you can get help:

• Direct self-referral to the Sheffield Stop Smoking Service: 0800 068 4490
• Make an appointment to see either a Practice Nurse or GP at the practice.We will generally encourage you to obtain behavioural support, as this improves your chances of quitting. However this is NOT an absolute pre-requisite for obtaining smoking cessation aids on prescription, and this depends on personal circumstances
• Approach your local Pharmacist, where they are part of the accredited SSSS scheme

Diabetes

We think it is important to see our diabetic patients at regular intervals in a structured clinic involving both nurse and doctor.
 
Why?
You understand your diabetes better and therefore manage it more successfully.
You get the opportunity to ask questions and discuss your worries.
Regular monitoring of your diabetes enables us to get the best control of your blood sugar. Regular monitoring of your diabetes ensures that complications are picked up early.
 
What happens at the clinic? 

• Dietary advice
• Advice on home monitoring of your blood sugar
• Examination to check blood pressure etc
• Blood and urine tests
• Review of your blood sugar control and your medication 

Hypertension

We will check your blood pressure as often as necessary either during a surgery attendance or when you see the Practice Nurse. If hypertension (high blood pressure) is diagnosed then we might prescribe some routine blood pressure treatment. Before starting on treatment which may be lifelong, we take great care that treatment is indicated. It is very sensible when attending for a blood pressure measurement to sit quietly in the waiting room for ten minutes or so to allow the pressure to settle. This might help in reducing "white coat" hypertension which we all suffer from in a greater or lesser degree

Lifestyle

We would always advise dietary means of reducing blood pressure along with regular exercise. Your doctor might give you a handout with suggestions to consider and follow. Needless to say, cessation of smoking, reduction of weight and a reduction in alcohol intake to the recommended limits are often all that is needed to reduce blood pressure successfully along with some regular exercise. Increasingly the role of salt in the diet is becoming a factor and pressure groups are encouraging supermarkets to add less salt to the processed food. All persons and especially hypertensives should be encouraged to stop all added salt with their food especially at the table. A salt substitute may be helpful in reducing the intake of salt although occasionally this has been known to be a cause of an excess of potassium in the blood.

Blood pressure monitors

To help with the diagnosis of hypertension, the practice has purchased several blood pressure monitors, which we will loan to patients for home monitoring- when suggested by one of the GPs or nurses (£20 deposit required-the Practice Nurse will show you how to use it). We also have regular checks on the blood pressure machines that we use in the surgery. With new EU regulations regarding mercury in the surgery, we are experimenting with some new electronic blood pressure machines.

More and more people wish to monitor their BP at home, and we are happy to support you in this, as long as we agree on some basic "rules", so we know that this process is a fair representation of the situation.

Firstly, we do not recommend wrist-monitors, and we would ideally like you to use monitors validated by the British Hypertension Society. If not, we would like you to bring your monitor to surgery so we can test it alongside our readings.

Secondly, you must be able to fit the cuff appropriately, ensuring it is of the correct size for the arm, and to know that the cuff should be approximately level with the heart, with the arm supported and that you are seated with your legs uncrossed, having sat rested for at least 3 minutes.

Thirdly, we would like to see an average of 2 readings in the morning and 2 readings in the evening, over 7 days, with the 1st day's readings discarded from the calculation. There should ideally be a gap of 3 minutes between readings. The target (unless you are also diabetic or have kidney disease) would be for the AVERAGE to be less than 135/85. This means that both the systolic (top figure) has to be less than 135, AND the diastolic (bottom figure) has to be less than 85. Once BP is controlled to this level, with titration of medication and lifestyle change, then this process really only needs to be repeated every 6 months.

The Practice Nurse will also monitor blood pressures during the normal surgeries. The frequency of these checks depends upon many factors but we would wish all patients on medication to have at least an annual check of their blood pressure. Certain drugs will need a regular blood test to monitor any side effects.

British Hypertensive Society - This site has useful information including approved monitors.
 

Ultrasound Scans 

Your partner can be present for routine scans. A nuchal translucency scan is usually undertaken from 10 weeks pregnant (remember the convention is that the weeks are counted from the 1st day of your last period, not from the actual fertilisation date, which for most women will be sometime around day 14, day 1 being the 1st day of the period). A further dating scan may also be done at 12 weeks or more. If you require a more specialist scan, the radiologist may request your partner to wait outside in order to ensure optimum conditions for the procedure.

Screening for Down's Syndrome, Spina Bifida and other anomalies. Maternal serum screening (MSS) in the form of a blood test is offered at 16 weeks. An anomaly scan is available at 20 weeks.

Folic Acid

It is recommended that folic acid in a dose of 400 mcgms be taken before conception and for 12 weeks after conception. This has been found to be beneficial to the normal development of the foetus. A prescription can be obtained from your doctor but as you will be required to pay a prescription charge for it at the chemist, it may be cheaper to purchase over the counter. The important information is to take folic acid before conception rather than when you get a positive pregnancy test. If you are on treatment for epilepsy, you will be advised to take a higher dose.

Our service

We offer shared antenatal care: shared between the midwife, doctor and hospital. The current system is that your "booking" (letting a health care professional know you are expecting and planning your pregnancy care and likely delivery date), is now done directly with the midwife, rather than the Dr. Please contact our receptionists to arrange this appointment, unless this is an unwanted pregnancy in which case you need to see a Dr. You may also seek advice from the website: www.sheffield.nhs.uk/maternity where you will also see a number 0114 2756699 open Mon-Fri 9am-4pm, thae "Maternity Hotline". Because nuchal translucency scans are now offerred through NHS Sheffield, it is important that you "book" earlier than has been the case in the past; ideally by 8 weeks, so your nuchal translucency scan can be arranged woithin the next 2-4 weeks.

A note about weeks of pregnancy might be helpful.  If your menstrual cycle is a regular 28 days then the pregnancy is counted from the first day of your last menstrual period. Obviously you could not be pregnant then, (usually release of the egg takes place half way through the 28 days cycle) but a pregnancy "lasts" 280 days from the LMP, unless the cycle is longer than 28 days then the additional days are added to 280 to give the expected date of delivery. Ultrasound scanning is now so accurate and routine that this is usually used to confirm the duration of the pregnancy. Any gestation between 37 and 42 weeks is considered within the normal range.

Outlined below is the usual schedule for your antenatal care.This is for low risk pregnancies and may change depending upon circumstances.

Please inform the surgery when you are discharged from hospital after the delivery of your baby.

After delivery the community midwife will visit regularly until she is satisfied that all is well. Our health visitor will contact you after this to discuss vaccinations and any other problems.

A postnatal check with your doctor is recommended between 6 and 8 weeks after delivery. This gives an opportunity to discuss any problems and future contraception.
 

Test Results

Please call between 10am and 12 noon in the morning and 3pm to 5.30pm  in the afternoonto enquire about your test results as our reception staff will have more time to deal with your request between these times.

Note that the practice has a strict policy regarding confidentiality and data protection and we will only release test results to the person to whom they relate unless that person has given prior permission for the release of this data or they are not capable of understanding the results.

When you take your test you will be told how long it will be before the results are returned to the practice.

It is your responsibility to check your results and to make an appointment to discuss them with your doctor if your are advised to do so.

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