Video about New eConsulting option - non-urgent - Click for Video  

Note any digital images that are attached to eConsults will form part of the clinical record

FAQ about eConsult [PDF] NHS App myGP App

Survey on future working options - required due to COVID

Welcome to Ball Tree Surgery

We are aware that this is a concerning time for everyone and are trying to minimise the impact on our services while working with NHS England guidance.

Ball Tree continues to provide essential services and we are still here to care for you and your family. 

If you are unwell e.g. chest pain/ found a breast lump / other significant illness you should still be calling us for help. 

We are still providing services such as Childhood Immunisations - please call us for how to access.

We are working to support those who need our help with coronavirus - please see information below.

Importantly, if you have other problems that cannot be solved via the NHS website, with self-care or pharmacy advice then you can still contact us, especially for children.

All of the queries we receive are being directed to the appropriate member of the team i.e. pharmacist, nurse or GP.

We will call you or send you a text to ensure you then get the care you need.

To limit the spread of coronavirus, unless you have not been able to access us in any other way, please do not come to the surgery unless you have been contacted by one of the team and given an appointment.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing developments of the Coronavirus situation our service and NHS England guidance is changing frequently at the moment. 

Please accept our apologies in advance where we need to make further changes at short notice.

We know that this will be inconveniencing people further in already concerning times. 

Our teams are working hard behind the scenes to adapt our processes and systems as guidance updates to improve access.

Thank you for working alongside us during this challenging period.

INFORMATION FOR PATIENTS ABOUT CORONAVIRUS

PLEASE DO NOT COME TO THE SURGERY UNLESS A CLINICAN HAS SPECIFICALLY ASKED YOU TO COME TO AN APPOINTMENT

PLEASE DO NOT CALL THE SURGERY ASKING TO BE TESTED - PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION AT THE LINKS AND BELOW

Please let your relatives, friends and neighbours know about these changes if they do not have access to mobile SMS or email

Please do not request prescriptions for Paracetmol and Ibuprofen.  These are only available for specific long term conditions.

Information and symptoms

General COVID Advice - NHS 111 Online LATEST Guidance

If you are worried about symptoms - NHS 111 What to do if you are worried

Advice

Advice for all - Social Distancing

Advice for more vulnerable - Social Distancing

Advice for very vulnerable - Shielding

Advice for Parents regarding Children Returning to School (National Guidance) [PDF]

Face Mask - Self Exemption (We are not able to provide letters of exemption)

Mental Health

Coronavirus and your wellbeing - MIND

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/coronavirus-and-your-wellbeing/

https://www.westsussexmind.org/news/news/covid-19-corona-virus-west-sussex-mind-services

Every Mind Matters   https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/

NHS Mental health signposting   https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/

Mental Health Apps List of Mental Health Apps - April 2020 [PDF]

Wearing Face Masks Help with anxiety relating to wearking a face mask from MIND 

Support

Local Council Support for Vulnerable People (If you know people who do not have internet who may need this support please see below)

For those without internet, needing to access the support from Adur and Worthing Councils, there is a helpline open Monday to Friday 9:00am until 5:00pm.  The helpline is just to help fill in the online form.  It is not for advice or guidance. There is limited resource to run the helpline so there may be some delays via this route.  More info about this and the number is under Info On Self-Care on our website.  Printable information [PDF]

Register to volunteer to support the Adur and Worthing Scheme - scroll down for more information

UK Government Support for extremely vulnerable people

Self Isolation Self-Certification - You do NOT need a Sick Note from the GP for Self-Isolation

Lancing and Sompting local support via Facebook

Top Ten Tips for Managing COVID at Home [PDF]

Isolation Pack for Over 70s - Useful information [PDF]

Local and Community Resources to help with impact of COVID [PDF]

Support for Younger People [PDF]

Support for Older People and those with dementia [PDF]

Support for Maternity and New Parents

Planning your birth during covid-19

Looking after yourself and your baby in pregnancy during covid-19

Parent information for newborn babies during covid-19

e-Consultations

NEW Online Advice from Ball Tree Web GP Service - non-urgent service and only for really pressing matters due to staffing levels

Video about New eConsulting option - non-urgent - Click for Video  

Any digital image attached to the eConsult will form part of the clinical record.

NHS England Advice

If you or anyone in your household (including children) develops a new fever and/or cough they should self-care and self-isolate for 7 days. i.e. not leave the house. This is EVEN IF THE SYMPTOMS ARE VERY MILD and wouldn’t normally stop you or a child from carrying on as normal.

Anyone who is unwell and feels they need to be seen with their cough, shortness of breath or a fever should go to 111.nhs.uk online for advice. Do not come to the surgery or go to a pharmacy or A&E.  The lines are very busy but you can call NHS 111 if you do not have internet access.

Anyone who has had contact with a known case of coronavirus should now self-isolate for 14 days.

All GP surgeries have been instructed by NHS England to:

• Cancel all routine face to face appointments
• Switch all appointments to telephone consultations
• Clinicians will provide advice and treatment over the phone where possible
• If a clinician feels a patient needs a face to face consultation after a telephone call they will be asked to come in.
• If you need to be seen you will be asked to attend at a particular branch and your clinician may need to wear gloves gown and a mask so do not be worried.

Ball Tree cannot test for Coronavirus

Help to keep Ball Tree Open

We need your help to ensure that we can protect patients and staff to stay open at this difficult time.

Please do not come to the surgery for any reason unless you have been advised to by a clinician.

Do not attend Ball Tree if you have a fever or cough or have been in contact with someone with COVID-19 or travelled to a high risk country even if you had a prior appointment booked for another reason.

If you are told to come to the surgery for an assessment, listen carefully to the instructions.  You may be asked to wait in your car until the clinician calls you in/ to wait in a different area.  This is to protect you and other patients

Surgery phone lines are facing high demand.  Please check the NHS website for advice and online 111 tools to try and self-manage first.

Make sure that you have registered for electronic prescribing with a local pharmacist so that you can request repeat medication online or via App avoiding the need to come to the surgery.

Accessing Help

If you have a hearing impairment that prevents you from using the telephone, please use the e-Consult system shown at the top of this page.

This may be a worrying time and some may find that they are struggling with their mental health.  There are local self-referral pathways to access psychological therapies these can be done on-line and over the phone too. CLICK - West Sussex Mind 

Lastly please look out for your vulnerable neighbours, family and friends.  Please if you know you have a housebound neighbour, check that they have enough food and can collect their medicines.

Message from our hospital colleagues

A&E is still available for emergencies - COVID-19 or otherwise

Always call 999 if you have a genuine emergency such as chest pain or symptoms of a stroke (FAST) DO NOT DELAY

Do not attend the Emergency Department unless it is an emergency.

Do not attend hospitals for visits or appointments or attend care homes if you have even the mildest of symptoms of a fever/cough (you should be self-isolating for 7 days) OR have been in contact with someone with COVID-19 in the last 14 days

If you want your health carers to be there when you need us we need your protection and help.

What is coronavirus?

A coronavirus is a type of virus. As a group, coronaviruses are common across the world. Typical symptoms of coronavirus include fever and a cough that may progress to a severe pneumonia causing shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Generally, coronavirus can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease.

Wuhan novel coronavirus is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan City, China.

Advice for recent travellers 

If you have returned from countries listed above in the last 14 days:

• stay indoors and avoid contact with other people as you would with other flu viruses
• call NHS 111 to inform them of your recent travel to the city

Please follow this advice even if you do not have symptoms of the virus.

We are asking people to take simple, common-sense steps to avoid close contact with other people as much as possible, like they would with other flu viruses.

This means remaining at home for 14 days after arriving from the destinations above and not going to work, school or public areas.

Where possible, you should avoid having visitors to your home, but it’s ok for friends, family or delivery drivers to drop off food.

If you develop symptoms

If you develop a fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat or difficulty breathing, you should continue to follow the advice above.

Please do not leave your home until you been given advice by a clinician.

Please visit NHS 111 ONLINE https://111.nhs.uk/ or Call 111 for more advice - note calls to 111 are very high and so online may be faster for you

What are the symptoms of coronavirus and what can help stop its spread?

The main signs of infection are fever (high temperature) and a cough as well as shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Frequent hand washing with soap or gel, avoiding close contact with people who are ill and not touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, can help cut the risk of infection.

Catching coughs and sneezes in a tissue, binning it and washing your hands can minimise the risk of spreading disease.

Self Care Leaflets and Advice for those with long term health conditions

COPD and Asthma - Keeping Yourself Well

Diabetes Type I - Sick Day Rules

Diabetes Type II - Sick Day Rules

How To Look After Your Kidneys

Diabetes and CKD - Keeping Yourself Well

Adur and Worthing Coronavirus - Call for Volunteers

This week Adur and Worthing Council have launched their Neighbourhood Teams to help vulnerable members of our community during this crisis, in partnership with the NHS, the County Council and the voluntary sector. 

They have now launched an online form and phone line to enable people to get in touch with them  for help and support, which is building a comprehensive picture of the need out there.  We want to ensure that those that are vulnerable during these times - especially those who might not be in a position to ask for help or have any friends, neighbours and families - can access the urgent help they need. 

Community support we have in mind will include help with food, guidance with money (including welfare benefit claims), having someone to talk to, mental health support, safety advice, for example avoiding ‘scams’, and support with accessing digital services.

Register to volunteer

They are helping to build a list of volunteers, that can help with the requests from across our organisations and communities, who can be tasked with actions suited to their skills and what they are able to do.   They hope to get many people that can help involved in groups like this. We have made it really simple and easy to register here

We hope to get many people that can help including those from our partner organisations and communities. They have made it really simple and easy to register here: https://adur-worthing-eforms.onmats.com/w/webpage/volunteer-to-help

Welcome to Ball Tree

The Medical Team at Ball Tree aims to provide all our patients with access to quality personalised care in a friendly environment.

We aim to be Safe, Effective, Responsive, Caring and well-led as directed by our governing framework and our regulators the Care Quality Commission

Our team have created a mission statement for our practice which outlines our aspirations - Mission Statement

Every patient registered with Ball Tree has a named GP responsible for their overall care. We strongly encourage you to see the same GP for ongoing problems whenever this is possible.  We believe that prevention of illness is better than cure and actively educate and encourage our patients to make healthy choices and share responsibility for improving their well being.  Please see our Practice Leaflet [PDF] for more information.  NHS Patient Choice Programme & Choice Framework

Self-care can often be the best care for many conditions and we ask our patients to think carefully before booking to see a GP or Nurse.  Before contacting us about minor conditions that have only been present for a couple of days we recommend the Self Care Forum or NHS Choices where there are many helpful resources.  You can also pop into your local pharmacy who will be happy to help you with many common conditions and problems - see a list of common issues where No Prescription Is Required [PDF]  There is a video just below and a leaflet Help my NHS

Our duty of care extends widely and we believe that every child and vulnerable adult has the right to be safe. We are committed to safeguarding all our patients and staff.  If you have personal concerns or would like to share concerns about welfare of child or adult, we have a dedicated member of our team who, supported by our partner organisations, can work with you.

We are working with Going Local - a community referral service accessed via our GPs to help people by supporting access to local organisations for finance, employment, housing and digital engagement.  Going Local has highlighted a range of local activities that may be of interest... Going Local [PDF]

Ball Tree Patient Voice: If you have feedback - compliment or complaint please see our information on the routes available to get in touch

Ball Tree Patient Voice: Click Here for the results of our latest patient survey

Local GP Access Hubs

GP and Nurse appointments are now available during the evening and at the weekend at local GP access hubs

• Urgent appointments for a new illness
• Same day and next day appointments
• Access to your GP medical records with your consent
• Appointments booked via Ball Tree
• Clinical are operated by IPC which is a not for profit organisation owned by local GP practices

If you are offered one of these appointments by the team please do consider accepting as it will likely mean that you are seen sooner.

We will lose this valuable service if people do not accept the appointments that we offer there.  

To keep your local GP service at Ball Tree available and sustainable we need our patients to see the most appropriate person and often this will be at the Access Hubs.

Talk to our reception team and they can advise you further!

Flu Jabs Available - especially for those aged 18 to 65

IMPORTANT:  There are two DIFFERENT Flu Jabs
Please make sure you book the correct type for either Age 65 and OVER or for Age UNDER 65 in the App or Online.  

For eligible patients aged over 70 we will be offering the Shingles vaccine during at the Flu appointment - for more information on this please see www.shinglesaware.co.uk

GP Appointments

Please download our GP Appointment Guide [PDF]

On the day GP appointments are only available if you are urgently unwell

We have more pre-bookable appointments for non-urgent matters - book online or via the MyGP App or call your usual branch

Communication: Let us know if you need support accessing our services or our communication materials and we will do our best to meet you needs.  

Under pressure:
Please be aware that General Practice is facing significant challenges due to increasing workload and reducing resources (despite what you may see in the headlines - there is no new money).
Please use our services wisely so that we can continue to provide a safe and caring service for all our patients.
Patients NOT coming to appointments costs us tens of thousands of pounds each year - which could be going towards your health care
Please lobby your MP - we are in need of a new building and additional resources - Lancing is not currently a priority for the area - please help us raise its profile

LGBTQ+ Friendly

Ball Tree is a safe and welcoming space

We have pledged to be Antibiotic Guardians This is important for YOU and those whom you love. Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to our current way of life.  Without effective antibiotics, many routine treatments will become increasingly dangerous.  Please do not expect to receive antibiotics... trust the expertise of our GPs to prescribe them when they are truly needed. Click here for information.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

	Ball Tree is committed to working to receive a Mental Health PACE Setter Award - supported by Coastal West Sussex Mind Over the next few months we will be working with our patients and staff to help improve our access to services and also to help the health and wellbeing of our team.
	Ball Tree hosts Time to Talk - Click the logo to self-refer

Practice Leaflet

Ball Tree Surgery - Practice Leaflet - December 2018 [PDF]

Our Opening Hours

Ball Tree Surgery

Kingfisher Branch

When We Are Closed

When the surgery is closed (Out of Hours), you are still able to access a GP.   Telephone NHS 111 (free from land line or mobile) NHS 111 Team will talk through the reason for your call, and just like our reception team, if they agree that you need an urgent appointment they are able to book this for you at a local surgery / arrange a home visit. They may advise you to attend Accident and Emergency - but this would only be in the most serious of situations.

 Usually it is always better to telephone:

• 111 - When you need advice or guidance when we are closed (or you can talk with a local pharmacy if they are open).
• 999 - To report a serious accident, injury or illness - 999 Team will advise you and may arrange an ambulance.

Only visit Accident and Emergency if you or someone you are caring for has a very serious injury or illness. If you attend A&E for less serious issues, it causes huge problems for the hospital and costs the NHS many times the cost of using 111 or visiting your GP during usual opening hours.

Your Local Pharmacist

Your local pharmacist will be able to give you free health advice at any time – you don't need an appointment.
Many pharmacies operate extended hours on a rota basis.  Download our guide to local Pharmacy Opening Hours [PDF]

Serving You

Our dedicated team are here to treat those minor ailments that occur as well as providing specialist management of long-term conditions and clinics covering a wide range of healthcare issues. The technology also means you can now do a lot of things from the comfort of your home such as order a repeat prescription or cancel an appointment.

Partners in Care

Once registered, patients and healthcare professionals work together to ensure the most appropriate care is provided. This partnership philosophy extends even further and our active patient group exists to make sure that patient needs and the practice offering are always heading in the same direction.

Access

Our surgery has suitable access to the ground floor for patients using a wheelchair. A stair lift is available to the first floor which staff will be happy to operate for you. We also have a parking space which is reserved for patients displaying a disabled sticker.

We can arrange interpretation and translation services for patients who do not speak English. Please let us know if you need this service when booking an appointment - it may require additional time for us to be able to arrange interpreting services and we will also need to book a longer appointment.