Welcome to Brook Street Surgery
At Brook Street Surgery in Holywood we take pride in offering the highest standard of patient-centred healthcare.
If you require a routine appointment or wish to speak with a GP please telephone 028 90 421880 from 8.30am until the call list has reached full capacity. Urgent calls only after 10.30 am. You and the GP will decide whether you need to be seen in person at the surgery.
When requesting an appointment please advise the receptionist if you have any COVID-19 related symptoms or are self-isolating due to COVID-19.
Nurse appointments can be booked for blood tests, BP checks, wound checks and dressings that have been requested by hospital, a clinic or by a GP.
When ordering a repeat prescription please ensure you have provided details of the local chemist your prescription is to be sent to.
ACCESS INFORMATION
We fully understand our patients' frustration with the telephone queuing system and would love to be able to offer comprehensive quick access to all. Unfortunately, due to NHS chronic underfunding combined with the huge surge in demand for our services seen since the covid crisis this has become extremely difficult.
Telephone triage is currently the most effective method of prioritising care to the people who need it the most and for this reason it or some form of it is likely here to stay.
How it works; if your problem is very urgent you can press a button to get straight through. For non-urgent problems the doctors each have a very large but limited number telephone consultations available daily that are released on a first come first served basis. This inevitably leads to a rush in the mornings but we believe it's the fairest system. Receptionists have some discretion to help the very elderly or vulnerable with accessing the service. You can also book a routine telephone consultation online; if you haven’t already signed up to this and are interested, you can speak to a receptionist by phoning later in the day (when the lines are less busy) who will help set it up.
If you get an engaged tone when you ring us in means that there are more than 10 patients in the queue. We acknowledge that this is very frustrating but we believe it is fairer than the previous system which had patients holding in a long queue only to be told all the routine appointments had gone. We welcome comments and suggestions on the matter (in writing please to practice manager).
We are a GP TRAINING PRACTICE so please do not expect to be consulted by a GP partner every time. Our trainees are fully qualified doctors who have spent many years in hospital and are now either passing through general practice or have decided their career path is to become a GP. They are usually excellent young doctors and they have full access to a GP partner for advice at all times.
We also have a NURSE PRACTITIONER, Lesley-Anne, who is a highly experienced nurse and is qualified to consult with patients much as doctor would, including prescribing and referring.
We also have a FIRST CONTACT PHYSIOTHERAPIST. Martin has been with us since April 2023 and works every morning (mornings only) seeing patients face to face in the practice. He has had specialist training making him more advanced than a regular physio. His role is to diagnose and manage musculoskeletal problems rather than to do hands on physical therapy. He can advise on exercises, prescribe some types of painkillers, refer for regular physio, do some types of joint and soft tissue injections, refer for orthopaedic investigations or to a hospital clinic if needed. He probably knows more about orthopaedic matters than the doctors and we would encourage you to consult with him first.
If you have a query about your medication we have two excellent PHARMACISTS, Judith and Vivienne, that may be able to help. They work in the practice and can take calls from patients.
THE SURGE IN DEMAND / GP WORKLOAD
All GP practices are suffering and for many reasons, below are just a few:
- Outdated GP contract model. It’s simply not fit for purpose.
- Lack of new doctors wanting to become GP partners.
- Long hospital waiting lists to get seen or have procedures have patients repeatedly returning to GP during their wait.
- Job now so stressful it’s impossible to do full time. For example, a 4 day week in practice amounts to 50+hrs of work after paperwork factored in.
- Frustrated patients taking it out on staff and doctors demoralises the whole team.
- We have seen a rapid rise in our patient population in recent years. Now close to 10,000. Our contract doesn’t allow us to set a limit so we just have to keep accepting new patients. Despite the refurbishment, space is limited. We were unable to buy neighbouring land to extend the car park that would have enabled us to extend the footprint of the building.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
- Be nice! Treat our staff with respect. (Most of you are and do - THANK YOU 🙏🏻).
- Be patient when trying to get a consultation.
- Complain to your MLA about the lack of investment in GP. It’s not about pay it’s about making the job doable.
- A few words of appreciation every one in a while, if you think we deserve it!
We run many clinics for chronic disease care and offer a wide variety of other medical services such as antenatal and postnatal care, minor surgery, childhood vaccinations and well-person check-ups.
In addition to everything you need to know about the practice you will also find a wealth of health-related information in the menu above. Please have a look around and do send us some feedback if you like.
CLOSURE DATES DURING 2024/2025
The practice will be closed on the following bank holidays:
- Monday 1st January 2024
- Monday 18th March 2024
- Monday 1st April 2024
- Tuesday 2nd April 2024
- Monday 6th May 2024
- Monday 27th May 2024
- Friday 12th July 2024
- Monday 26th August 2024
- Wednesday 25th December 2024
- Thursday 26th December 2024
PATIENT SURVEY
We would be grateful if you would complete the short on line survey about the Practice, in particular how likely or unlikely you would be to recommend the Practice to someone who has just moved in to the area.
Your opinions are very valuable to us but the Practice will not be able to identify your individual answers which will remain anonymous.
Thank you for your co-operation
(Site updated 28/08/2024)