THE LAWSON PRACTICE

WELCOME TO THE PRACTICE

We are at 85 Nuttall Street, London, N1 5HZ. We are based in the grounds of St. Leonards and are the large building with the blue wavy roof to the right as you enter from Nuttall Street, or straight ahead if entering St Leonards from Hoxton Street.

We hope this web page will be useful to existing patients as well as to those just joining the practice.

The Lawson Practice is an NHS practice and we do not normally treat private patients.

There is disabled access to the practice.

REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS

Repeat prescriptions are issued by prior arrangement with the doctor. We have a computerised repeat prescription system and all patients on repeat medication receive prescriptions printed on our computer.

There are two slips to the prescriptions: one slip is torn off and given to the chemist, the other slip lists all the medication that you are using. When your prescription is due, tick the medication that you need on the computerised slip and either send it with an SAE to us or hand it in at reception. The prescription can then be collected the following day.

Please remember that we need 24 hours to issue the prescription. We cannot take requests for prescriptions over the telephone. However, we can accept faxes.

SURGERY TIMES

Opening hours are between Monday- Friday 8.00am-8.00pm.  Anyone attending the late night surgeries must use the main gate to St Leonards in Nuttall street to enter the grounds as the gate onto Hoxton street is closed at 6.30pm.  Appointments can be made on the day, or in advance by telephoning the practice, or coming into the practice in person.   We also offer Emis access where patients can book or cancel their own appointments and also request repeat prescriptions over the internet.  To be able to do this you will need to obtain a password and pin number, please call reception for more details. We like to encourage patients to stick with one particular doctor for continuity. However, if you feel you cannot wait for the next available routine appointment with your doctor, you are able to see any doctor. If you just need telephone advice, please call the surgery by 10 am. The receptionist will take your details and ask the doctor to call you back. People who walk in without having phoned, may have a considerable wait as they will be seen in the next available appointment for that surgery.

TEST RESULTS

Patients can ring in and speak to a receptionist for their test results between 2.00pm and 4.00pm.

VISIT REQUESTS

The doctors will visit patients at home who are housebound or unable to get to the surgery because of their illness. The surgery would request that unwell children are bought to the surgery by their parents. This is because it takes a considerable time to visit patients at home and unless we limit this service only to those that really need it, it would mean us being unable to offer as many appointments.

Visit requests need to be made in the morning in order to help the visiting doctor cope with the requests coming in. All patients will be telephoned back to discuss the problem and make an initial assessment. However we do realise that occasionally a problem will only present itself later in the day.

OUT-OF-HOURS CALLS

Emergencies that occur outside opening times will be covered by the CAMIDOC out-of-hours service. When you ring the surgery, the telephone will automatically divert to CAMIDOC. Details will be taken by a Camidoc receptionist, and then a Dr will ring you back. They may give advice or offer an appointment at the Primary Care Centre based at the Homerton Hospital, or arrange to visit you at home.

When you phone for a visit, the doctor will discuss the problem with you on the telephone whenever possible before visiting. This is so they can assess the urgency of the visit. If mobile, you will be expected to go to the Primary Care Centre. Visits are only for those who are immobile because of a medical problem.

CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY

All of our consultations are confidential. This means that we will not discuss the reason for your visit to the surgery with anyone else - including other members of your family - unless you personally give us permission.

Each member of staff is required to sign a “Contract of Confidentiality” – proven breach of which would result in instant dismissal.

In order to preserve your right to confidentiality, we will: -

• Not disclose dates and times of appointments, or results of tests to anyone other than the patient.
• Not tell anyone who enquires whether or not a patient is seeing a doctor/nurse, or if they have left the building following an appointment.
• Ensure the computer screen is cleared of your details once your consultation is completed

We realise this may inconvenience people if you are expecting someone to come and collect them, for example. Therefore, IF YOU WANT SOMEONE TO KNOW YOU ARE HERE PLEASE TELL THE RECEPTIONIST WHEN YOU ARRIVE; otherwise we will be unable to let them know.

Children and Confidentiality

Teenagers who see a doctor or nurse have the same rights of confidentiality as long as that doctor or nurse thinks they are mature enough to make decisions for themselves. We prefer to see anyone 14 years and under with a parent or guardian.

VIOLENT AND ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR

We do not tolerate racist or other abusive behaviour towards any patient or member of staff, and patients who display this behaviour will be removed from our list. We also operate a No Smoking, No Food and No Alcohol policy in all parts of the surgery and seek the patient’s co-operation in this.

TEACHING MEDICAL STUDENTS

As this is a teaching practice, from time to time doctors have students with them. The student may just be sitting in with the doctors or may be filmed seeing patients. You may be asked if you would mind either talking to a student or a student being present when you see the doctor.

tell the doctor and your wishes will be respected. Declining to see students will not affect your treatment. In addition, all practice members are encouraged to attend relevant training courses to improve standards of care.

TRAINING PRACTICE

This is a training practice and doctors who have experience of hospital work and wish to gain further experience in family medicine join the practice for a year. They work with the doctors in the practice sharing all aspects of patient care.

NEW PATIENTS

To give the best possible care to our patients we have to restrict the number of patients we care for. We therefore have a small practice area from which we accept new patients.

Our current practice boundary is Balls Pond Road, Graham Road, Mare Street, Hackney Road, Shoreditch High Street, Great Eastern Street, New North Road, Southgate Road. We have a larger outer area where existing patients can move to and still remain on our list. If patients move outside this area we will ask them to register elsewhere. This is sometimes upsetting especially to patients who have been with us a long time but we do have to set limits to our practice area. However we do not discriminate against patients who wish to join our list on the grounds of race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation or appearance, disability or medical condition.

HELPFUL HINTS

Please do ……

• Keep any appointment made
• Cancel any unneeded appointments. We can offer them to someone else. The practice now has a policy that means if you miss two appointments in one year you will be unable to make further appointments, and will need to come and wait in the surgery.
• Try and give as much information as possible when asked
• Try basic remedies first i.e. Paracetamol or Calpol
  We feel it is reasonable for patients to take some responsibility for their own and their family’s health so we would expect them to keep a simple first aid kit containing a supply of paracetamol in the house.
  
• Come to the surgery rather than ask for a visit when possible. It takes 4 times as long to do a home visit and we have more facilities and equipment available at the surgery. Home visits are reserved for the immobile, and patients will only be visited at home if deemed necessary by the doctor.
• Realise that although you may see a doctor privately, or a hospital Consultant, the doctors here are still legally responsible for your medical care. It may be necessary for the doctor here to see you too if you are put on new medication, and so prescriptions may not be issued on demand.
• Let us know if you’ve changed your address or work/home phone number-we may need to contact you urgently.
• Phone for results between 2:00pm-4:00pm.
• Arrive on time for your appointment. Clinicians will decide whether they are still able to see you if you are late. It may mean you will have to wait until the end of surgery to be seen, or make another appointment.

Please try not to……

• Let yourself run out of medication and then demand an immediate replacement. It takes 24 hours to process repeat prescriptions.
• Visit the surgery saying the problem is urgent if you’ve had it for four weeks!

Please understand that ……

• Each doctor spends part of each day dictating referral letters and completing all sorts of administration. If a letter or form is required promptly, don’t leave it till the last minute and expect it to be done immediately. Please allow at least one week.

We understand that however hard we try to avoid it, things can sometimes go wrong and that you may like the opportunity to discuss a particular event or to make a complaint. Our Practice Manager, Yvonne Pope, is available to discuss any concerns you may have. If you feel you would like to put your complaint in writing, we have a Complaints Procedure which any of our reception team will be willing to explain. Should you feel this does not resolve your problem, and you can contact the Patient and Liaison Service (PALS) which is situated in St. Leonards and can be contacted on 020 7683 4453.