Childhood and Teenage Mental Health

While it is commonly believed that depression only affects adults, around 10% of children in Great Britain aged between 5 and 16 have a recognisable mental disorder; with about 4% of children suffering from an emotional disorder such as anxiety or depression.

The problem for many is that depression is difficult to spot and often regarded as teenage mood swings. However, if your child is appearing to have an extreme emotional response to a life event or has lost interest in activities which previously interested them they may be suffering from an emotional disorder.

If you are worried about your child’s mental health please visit your GP, who will be able to offer a range of support to help both you and your child. There are a range of talking therapies which are highly effective in dealing with both short term and long term depression, for more information on these therapies please view the NHS Talking Therapy Guide.

While it is commonly believed that depression only effects adults, around 10% of children in Great Britain aged between 5 and 16 have a recognisable mental disorder; with about 4% of children suffering from an emotional disorder such as anxiety or depression.

The problem for many is that depression is difficult to spot and often regarded as teenage mood swings. However, if your child is appearing to have an extreme emotional response to a life event or has lost interest in activities which previously interested them they may be suffering from an emotional disorder.

If you are worried about your child’s mental health please visit your GP, who will be able to offer a range of support to help both you and your child. There are a range of talking therapies which are highly effective in dealing with both short term and long term depression, for more information on these therapies please view the NHS Talking Therapy Guide.

Useful links

• Barnardo’s Mental Health Support for children and adolescents
• Mind- Mental Health Charity
• Sane – Mental Health Support
• Rethink Mental Illness
• Kooth (11 – 18 year olds)

Childhood Immunisations

One of the most important things that a parent can do for their child is to make sure that they have all their routine childhood vaccinations. It’s the most effective way of keeping them protected against infectious diseases.

Ideally, children should have their jabs at the right age to protect them as early as possible and minimise the risk of infection.

Find out which jabs your child needs, when they need them, and what the benefits of each jab are.

Please call the surgery to make an appointment.

For more information please visit the websites below:

Useful links

• NHS Choice – Vaccinations for you and your family
• Childhood Immunisation Schedule
• National Immunisation Schedule

We offer a range of clinics and services here at Richford Gate Medical Practice to help with cancer screening.

Macmillan Cancer Support

Have questions about cancer? Visit www.macmillan.org.uk or call 0808 808 000 free (Monday to Friday 9am – 8pm).

Bowel Cancer

Bowel cancer is a term used to describe cancer in the colon, rectum or the small bowel.

The symptoms of bowel cancer can include:

• Bleeding from the back passage (rectum) or blood in your stools
• A change in normal bowel habits to diarrhoea or looser stools, lasting longer than 4 to 6 weeks
• A lump that your doctor can feel in your back passage or abdomen (more commonly on the right side)
• A feeling of needing to strain in your back passage (as if you needed to pass a bowel motion)
• Losing weight
• Pain in your abdomen or back passage
• A lower than normal level of red blood cells (anaemia)

Because bowel tumours can bleed, cancer of the bowel often causes a shortage of red blood cells. This is called anaemia and may cause tiredness and sometimes breathlessness.

Bowel cancer screening

How do I get a screening kit?

If you are aged 60-69 years, you will be sent your screening invitation automatically through the post. All you need to do is make sure that your GP has your correct address.

‘People aged 70 years and over or under the age of 60, who wish to be screened, should request a kit. Simply telephone the free helpline on 0800 707 60 60.’

Breast Screening

The National Breast Screening Programme was introduced in 1988 as an early detection service for breast cancer. It states that all women who are aged between 50 – 70 years of age will be routinely invited for free breast screening every three years. The programme is very successful and currently saves around 1,400 lives per year.

Breast screening aims to find breast cancer at an early stage, often before there are any symptoms. To do this, an x-ray is taken of each breast (mammogram). Early detection may often mean simpler and more successful treatment. When women are invited for their mammogram depends on which GP they are registered with, not when their birthday is.

The screening office runs a rolling programme which invites women by area. The requirement is that all women will receive their first invitation before their 53rd birthday, but ideally when they are 50.  If you are under 50 and concerned about any aspect of breast care, please contact the surgery to make an appointment with your GP.

Useful links:

• West London Breast Screening

Cervical screening test

Cervical screening, or smear test, is a method of detecting abnormal (pre-cancerous) cells in the cervix in order to prevent cervical cancer. The cervix is the entrance to the womb from the vagina. Cervical screening is recommended every three years for women aged 25 to 49 and every five years for women aged 50 to 64 or more frequently if smear results indicates abnormal changes.

Cervical screening is not a test for cancer; it is a test to check the health of the cells of the cervix. Most women’s test results show that everything is normal, but for 1 in 20 women the test will show some abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix.

Most of these changes will not lead to cervical cancer and the cells may go back to normal on their own. However, in some cases, the abnormal cells need to be treated to prevent them becoming cancerous.

Our nurses are qualified to carry out cervical screening and tests in the form of cervical smears. In order to have a cervical smear the patient must have received a letter requesting that they have a cervical smear and the appointment must please be made for when the patient is not menstruating.

These appointments typically take around 15 minutes. For any further information or to book an appointment, please call the surgery.

Useful links

• NHS Choices – Cervical Screening
• Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust

Anticoagulation is a drug which can prevent life threatening conditions. However, it can be dangerous if people taking it are not monitored regularly and advised which dose to take. Recent changes have been made to the way we prescribe it.

When a patient requests a prescription for anti-coagulation, the doctor must check that the necessary monitoring has been carried out. We can no longer prescribe a anti-coagulation drug “as directed” and the specific dose must be stated on the prescription.

Nurse led Anticoagulation clinics

We run Nurse led anti-coagulation clinics for patients who are already classed as being stable on the drug.

We run a HCA led anticoagulation clinic on Monday mornings providing blood testing and advice for patients on warfarin. We have a clinic based system which gives immediate INR (blood test) results. To obtain further prescriptions for warfarin, regular blood testing is needed.

If you are unable to make the Monday morning clinic, please speak to our practice nurse who may be able to offer an alternative time. Practice nurse telephone (020 8846 6655) times are 11:30 to 12:00 every day.

We run regular baby clinics and you can call us any time to book into one of them.  

All doctors can prescribe both the combined oral contraceptive pill and the progesterone only pill, as well as the contraceptive patch, and to give guidance on the use of natural family planning methods and counselling and referral for male and female sterilisation.

The doctors can also offer prescriptions of contraceptive injections which are administered by the nurse in the surgery. While we do not offer fitting of the contraceptive implant (Implanon) in the surgery, all the doctors will be happy to offer guidance relating to its use and to refer patients to the family planning service which offers a fitting service in the building.

Our nurses are trained to offer a range of service that include smears, child immunizations, travel vaccines, dressings, take blood (phlebotomy), blood pressures and chronic disease management (e.g. diabetes, asthma).

Early detection of cancer significantly improves outcomes. Ask about breast, cervical, and bowel cancer screening.

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Bowel Cancer

Bowel cancer is a term used to describe cancer in the colon, rectum or the small bowel.

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Cancer Support

Some services are not funded by the NHS

The NHS provides free healthcare. If you request our assistance for something not related to NHS treatment you will need to pay a charge for our time and resources.

Medical reports or certificates you ask us to prepare, non-NHS forms you ask us to fill in or sign, anything you ask us to do in support of privately funded treatment, and occupational medical checks you ask us to undertake, are all examples of requests we receive that are not part of the NHS service.

Please note that there may be occasions where we can’t provide a service at all, or can’t provide it within the timescale you need. Please be patient and we will do our best. All non-NHS services are provided at our discretion on a case-by-case basis.

A price guide is shown below but do ask us to confirm what the charge will be before we carry out the work. The completed report or form will not be returned to you until you have paid.