Welcome To Hillsborough Medical Practice

Our aim is to keep all our patients up to date with what is happening in the practice! Please find some useful information below:

FLU VACCINE 

The flu vaccine program has been extended and anyone aged 50 and above can now avail of it at their GP Surgery. If you would like a flu vaccine, please contact our team on 02892 682216 to arrange an appointment. 

NI DIRECT

Check out the A - Z illnesses and conditions/symptom checker provided by NI Direct Government Services. Click on the link below to find out more information about what they offer.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/health-and-wellbeing/illnesses-and-conditions

Welcome Shannon Higgins PA (Physician Associate) 

We are delighted to welcome Shannon Higgins PA to our team. Shannon will be involved in a wide range of clinics at the practice from chronic disease monitoring to morning triage. You may receive a phonecall from Shannon or be booked an appointment for her to assess you. Shannon is a highly trained generalised who can support our entire team. 

Monday Morning Phonecalls 

Due to unprecedented demand we have launched a GP URGENT only service on a Monday morning. This means that no routine phone calls are available to book on a Monday. This allows the GP team to be able to focus on the high amount of emergency calls that the practice is receiving. However, if you have any questions at all, please ring our office team who can advise and direct you from there. We have had to introduce this due to the unprecedented demand currently on the practice. Routine calls are still available with our nursing team and pharmacy team on a Monday. An example of the volume of calls that the practice is currently dealing with is Monday 17th October 2022. Our GP team dealt with just over 100 patients via urgent triage phone calls whilst also seeing 54 patients face to face. 

Please note that we have different staffing levels each day and have a mix of both parttime and full time staff at the practice. Therefore, not all staff members will be in the practice everyday. 

Complaints Policy

 Please find our complaints policy below:

Complaints Policy

We encourage all patients who have any issues to please ring and discuss this with the practice as we find we can often resolve the matter this way. Please ask to speak to Gillian or Leigh in the office who can then pass you to the Practice Manager if required. If you wish to submit a formal complaint please do so in writing to The Practice Manager. We hope that any issues that you have can be sorted by speaking with us. Please ring the practice and speak to our team or our Office Team Leader / Practice Manager at any time. We will endeavour to response to all phone calls as quickly as possible.

Please note that we can not deal with HSC Trust complaints and these must go directly through them.

Zero Tolerance Policy

Hillsborough Medical Practice has a policy of zero tolerance of verbal and physical violence towards all out staff members. The Practice is committed to ensuring that our staff treat our patients with dignity and courtesy at all times. We expect our patients to treat staff in the same manner. Shouting and swearing at the practice staff will not be tolerated under at circumstances. We have experienced a great increase of abusive behaviour towards our staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please appreciate our team are doing a difficult job as well as possible. We must remind patients that repeated breach of this can result in patients being removed from our patient list.

Welcome to Hillsborough Medical Practice

With patient’s needs at the heart of everything we do, our website has been designed to make it easy for you to gain instant access to the information you need. As well as specific practice details such as opening hours and how to register, you’ll find a wealth of useful pages covering a wide range of health issues along with links to other relevant medical organisations.

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PHARMACY FIRST SCHEME?

If you have an everyday health condition, you can use the Pharmacy First service to get advice and treatment from a local pharmacist, without waiting for an appointment to see your GP.

Many community pharmacies have longer opening hours including weekends and holidays, making them more accessible than a GP surgery.

You can call into the pharmacy for a private consultation with the pharmacist without needing to make an appointment.

This service is offered from every community pharmacy in NI and provides advice and if necessary treatment for conditions such as

• acne 
• ance                                                                             
• athlete’s foot
• diarrhoea
• earwax
• groin infection
• haemorrhoids
• head lice
• mouth ulcers
• oral thrush
• scabies
• threadworms
• vaginal thrush
• verrucae

To visit the Public Health Agency Website, please click below:

Welcome | HSC Public Health Agency (hscni.net)

To visit NI DIRECT (Specifically for COVID-19) information, please click below: 

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/get-covid-19-vaccination-northern-ireland

To visit ASTHMA UK, please click below:

https://www.asthma.org.uk/

To visit DIABETES UK, please click below:

Diabetes UK - Know diabetes. Fight diabetes. | Diabetes UK

For information about self certifying from work, please visit NI Direct using the link below:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/apply-statutory-sick-pay

For information on further sicklines relating to COVID-19, please visit the link below:

https://111.nhs.uk/isolation-note/

For information on the CYPSP please visit the below site: 

https://cypsp.hscni.net/

FEEDBACK FORM ON WEBSITE 

We have a feedback form on this website. Please only use this to provide feedback on our services at the practice. Matters such as covid vaccine queries, issues with phonelines, medical matters or complaints can not be dealt with or responded via this method. Please ring our office on 02892 682216 for any of these issues. For appropriate feedback submitted we will take this on board, however due to COVID pandemic pressures we are unable to respond individually. If you wish to discuss any matters further, please ring and speak to our team.

Please note formal complaints should be put in written form and address to the Practice Manager or Dr C Hall.

Many thanks.

New General Data Protection Regulation

In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, we have made our policy on Data Protection available for all our patients to access. Please find the link below.

Hillsborough Medical Practice General Data Protection Regulation Policy

Opening Times

 Please find below the opening times of the surgery. During these times you can visit and phone reception.

We close at 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon but an emergency Doctor can be reached until 6pm by calling 07864727275. On a Wednesday afternoon while the surgery is closed, prescriptions can not be collected or appointments made. 

Our phone lines are also switched off on a Friday from 5.15 pm to 6pm and everyday over lunchtime which is 1pm - 2pm so please ring the above emergency mobile phone if there is a medical emergency during these times. Please do not block the emergency line with routine queries. You will be asked to ring back when the phone lines reopen if this is the case. We appreciate your co-operation on this matter.

Patients are reminded that we do not open on a Saturday and Sunday. During these hours an Out of Hours Service runs via LaganDoc. Please note that on PBL training afternoons, LaganDoc also provide cover. LaganDoc can be reached by telephoning: 028 9260 2204

Out of Hours Service

After the practice closed, on weekend and bank holidays the out of hours service via LaganDoc can be reached on 02892 602204.

LaganDoc can help with urgent queries that can not wait until the practice reopens. Please find a list of the Bank Holidays during

which the practice is closed below:

*Please note when a bank holiday falls on a weekend, the practice will remain close on the days given in lieu.

The practice will be closed on the following afternoon's (from 1pm) for staff training. The practice will close at 1pm and reopen at 8.30am the following morning. If you need medical attention during this times please contact LaganDoc on 02892 602204.