Norton Brook Medical Centre covers a large rural area in the South Hams; the practice boundary is a five mile radius around Kingsbridge. Our friendly team includes 9 GPs, 3 practice nurses, 2 HCAs and a phlebotomy team. Our non-clinical team consists of our practice manager and large helpful team of reception, administration and secretarial staff. 

Dear patients,

We’ve seen a lot of comments on Facebook recently regarding the current waiting time for a routine GP appointment and conflicting information about the COVID-19 vaccination programme. To answer a few of these questions and comments, here is a brief outline of how we’ve been involved in the vaccination programme over the last 12 months and the current situation with COVID boosters.

Exactly 12 months ago today, the South Hams Primary Care Network started vaccinating patients alongside South Devon and Totnes Network at St. Boniface, Buckfastleigh. South Hams Network, which consists of the following GP surgeries, Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Modbury, Chillington and Salcombe have been working together to staff and organise the vaccination programme firstly at St. Boniface and latterly at Follaton House, Totnes. As you may imagine, this has impacted greatly on the service we have been able to offer our patients.

We were all hoping that our service would return to some sort of normality in the new year; however, following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Sunday, we have again been asked to prioritise some services to focus on the delivery of booster vaccinations. The following link will take you to a letter from our Clinical Commissioning Group that explains what we are currently being asked to do:   

https://devonccg.nhs.uk/news/gp-practices-clinically-prioritising-some-services-to-focus-on-delivery-of-booster-programme

Please continue to contact us if you are uncertain whether your condition is urgent. The emergency GP will triage your request for a telephone consultation and either phone you or ask our reception team to phone you back and arrange a routine telephone consultation for a future date. If the clinician feels you need to be seen they will arrange a date and time for you to attend the surgery.

Please be polite to our staff as they are working extremely hard under unprecedented circumstances. Like all Departments within the NHS and businesses in general, we’re currently experiencing high levels of staff absence and we’re working hard to minimise the impact this has on our patients.

We hope you all have a relaxing and safe Christmas.

Become a Committee Member

Could you spare a small amount of time each year by becoming a member of the Committee which oversees the running of the Transport Service? This really isn't an onerous commitment and would help enormously to the functioning of the NBMC Transport service which is vital to so many of our vulnerable patients.

Proof of Covid Vaccination Status

Monday 14th June 2021

This practice is not able to provide you with a letter that shows your COVID-19 vaccination status. If you need to prove your COVID-19 vaccination status, please download the NHS App. If you cannot access online services, call 119.

What to Expect After Your Vaccination

Please visit the Gov.uk website for information on what to expect after your first vaccination.

Data Sharing

The Practice may collect, hold and share information about you in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to plan and manage services, check that care is being provided and prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

Information about your COVID-19 status may be shared within the NHS and with other partners involved in your care and treatment, along with:

• NHS England
• NHS Digital
• Public Health England
• CCG
• The Department of Health
• Other Government Departments where it is legally required, or where it is necessary for the protection of public health or management of the outbreak.

We do not need your consent or agreement to do this.

More information can be found at https://digital.nhs.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/data-and-services-supporting-coronavirus and https://www.gov.uk/guidance/notifiable-diseases-and-causative-organisms-how-to-report

Read the GP Practice Transparency Notice here.

Your Data Matters to the NHS

Information about your health helps the NHS to improve your individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan your local services and research new treatments. Read NHS Your Data Matters Leaflet or visit nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.

Norton Brook Privacy Notice June 2021 Click link to access Practice's privacy notice which explains how we collect and use personal data

Access

Our surgery is accessible to patients using a wheelchair. We also provide free parking spaces outside our practice. This includes a number of dedicated disabled spaces which are reserved for patients displaying a disabled badge. All of our consulting rooms are based on the ground floor.

For the hard of hearing, we have a Hearing Loop. If any disabled patient has a problem getting access to the medical centre or using our facilities, we are anxious to be told.

Patient Participation Group

For more information please follow the link PPG

Norton Brook Patient Support and Transport

For more information please follow the link Patient Support

Take the Friends and Family Test