Welcome to Albert Road Surgery
Our Practice is highly patient focused and we aim to deliver the best care for our patients by combining the skills of the practice team with that of other healthcare professionals and voluntary organisations where appropriate.
We provide modern health care facilities and focus on continually improving the health of our patients and residents of the community.
Once registered, patients and healthcare professionals work together to ensure the most appropriate care is provided.
General Practice Data for Planning and Research
The way data is collected from GP systems is being replaced.
This collection is called GP Data for Planning and Research and its purpose is to support the data needs of the health and social care system including policy development, public health, planning and commissioning of services and research. This new collection is designed to reduce the number of requests for access to data received by general practice. For more information please click here.
Appointments at Albert Road
You may have seen on the news that from Monday 17th May, doors at GP practices are ‘re-opening’.
As you will know, our GP practice has been open throughout the pandemic, offering patients telephone and online appointments, with face to face consultations available for those who need them. This was in-line with national requirements to keep patients safe, whilst COVID infection rates were high and before the vaccination was widespread.
GP practices are now being encouraged to offer patients a choice of whether they would like a remote or face to face consultation. However, before we have more people coming in to the surgery to see us in person, we need a bit of time to put in place measures to keep everyone safe.
Due to the nature of the pandemic we have had to limit access to the practice in order to make the building ‘covid secure’; a waiting room that could previously hold 15 patients can now only hold 3-4 if they are to socially distance properly. We also have a duty of care to protect not only our staff, but patients who may be more vulnerable to the consequences of catching covid.
As we wait for more national guidance on this, we ask that patients continue to contact us via telephone or online as you have been doing. We are facing unprecedented demands for our services and will need to continue to adjust how we use our clinicians time to best support our patients – particularly those who need us the most.
Thank you for your support, cooperation and understanding during this very challenging time.
Attending the Practice
It is a requirement for patients to wear a face covering when entering the surgery. If you do have an appointment we would be grateful if you could come with your face covering on which can be in the form of a mask, scarf, handkerchief or any sort of fabric that covers the mouth and nose.
Any patients who have had contact with someone confirmed as having COVID-19 OR are displaying symptoms of coronavirus must self isolate.
Symptoms to look out for:
- A high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back.
- A new continuous cough – this means you are coughing repeatedly.
- New loss of taste and/or sense of smell.
PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND THE PRACTICE IF YOU FEEL UNWELL. This puts both other patients and our staff at risk. Please see https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus for more information about coronavirus and current guidance.
Vaccine latest – July 2021
Patients over the age of 18 are eligible for the vaccine.
Text messages have been sent to all patients over the age of 18 who have not yet had their covid vaccination – you can either click on the link in the message to book your appointment or contact your GP and they can book you into a local vaccine centre.
There are also three local drop in centres for residents of South Tyneside:
- The Glen Primary Care Centre, Hebburn – Tuesdays 3-6pm
- Cleadon Park Primary Care Centre, South Shields – Thursdays 3-6pm
- Flagg Court Health Centre, South Shields – Saturdays 3-6pm
For patients enquiring about Covid vaccination certification, please be aware that we are unable to issue this certification at the practice.
Please see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/demonstrating-your-covid-19-vaccination-status-when-travelling-abroad for further information. Or https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/covid-pass/get-your-covid-pass-letter/
Proof of your vaccination status will be available on the NHS app. The app can be downloaded from https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/nhs-app/id1388411277 for iPhone or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nhs.online.nhsonline for android.
Alternatively, you can call the NHS helpline on 119 and ask for a letter to be posted to you. This must be at least 5 days after you have completed your course of the vaccine, the letter may take up to 5 days to reach you.
CQC Rating
We are pleased to announce that our CQC rating has been published on the website on 10th February 2020. The Practice is rated as GOOD.
Please click the CQC link on the right hand side of this page to read the report.
Named GP
All patients now have Dr McManus as their named GP.
Sharing your information
To ensure you receive the most comprehensive treatment, we share information with other healthcare professionals when needed. All healthcare professionals are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as our own staff. If you wish to opt out of this then please contact the surgery. For further information please also read our Privacy Notice.