For any additional vaccines you need for travelling abroad, you will need to visit a private travel clinic. We are currently only offering certain travel vaccinations, you can find more information about these on this page.
Our Nurses can provide appropriate immunisations for your travel. Please arrange an appointment for a travel consultation at least 6-8 weeks before departure if possible. Vaccines need time to take effect and some may require a course over several weeks.
Please be aware that you will need to complete a pre-travel questionnaire before your appointment. This needs to be completed per patient for those who are travelling. Please click on the “Access SystmConnect” button below and select “Health review” for the questionnaire or request a paper copy by calling 01249444343.
Select the region you are travelling to find out more.
EHIC to apply for your free European Health Insurance Card
Some vaccinations are available on the NHS, but many incur a fee or occasionally may need to be obtained by a private prescription from the surgery for dispensing at the chemist. The private prescription is £20.00 per patient per prescription, payable upon collection; the chemist will also charge for dispensing the drug.
Should a fee be required, you will need to pay this prior receiving the required vaccinations.
Prices are available on request.
Medical Advice
Some patients who feel they are at a particularly high risk from travelling may wish to discuss their travel arrangements with their GP. However, our nurses are capable of answering most questions and will call upon the GP’s advice if they feel the question lies outside their expertise.
Rowden Surgery doesn’t provide Yellow Fever assessment/vaccination or anti-malarials. Local pharmacies such as those below do offer these services-please click on the links for further information:
Most of the services offered by the surgery are free under the NHS. However, some services are not covered by the NHS and for these non-NHS services your GP may charge a fee.
The fee charged will reflect both the doctor’s time to carry out the service and his/her professional opinion. It may also include the cost of nursing or admininistration support, stationery and consumables as appropriate.
Please ask at Reception for the incurred fees.
Please be aware that we are able to accept payment by card/cash or cheque upon receipt of the above requests.
Minor Surgery
Several of the partners perform minor surgery for a variety of conditions. Your registered doctor will discuss the options available with you.
We offer an joint injection clinic and minor ops clinic offering skin tag removal, cyst removals, removal of ingrown nails and lots of other minor operations.
Please discuss with your GP for more information.
Maternity Care
Antenatal Clinics are offered by our local midwife team at Chippenham Community Hospital.
The midwife team can answer any pregnancy related questions.
Stop Smoking Service
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This service is altered due to COVID-19. We are currently offering a telephone consultation service only. This will still enable you to access medications and support from our specialist nurses. We can offer a limited amount of telephone consultations, however, there is a link below for further support services.
Hopefully your first stop smoking consultation will be a positive experience, we are here to encourage and support not to judge, and are happy that you have made the first step.
We will need to ask a few questions to find out your smoking history and talk about what you have tried, if anything, before.
We will go through the options available, from all types of Nicotine Replacement Therapy and the final decision on what to use will be yours.
We know that stopping smoking is not easy but rest assured you are no doing it alone, we are here to help every step of the way.
Don’t think that because you have failed to quit before that it means it will be the same again, research has shown that many smokers have had up to seven quit attempts before they have finally quit for good.
Your family are usually very happy to support you on this journey, a massive 73% of children worry that their mum or dad will die because of smoking.
This could be the most important thing you can do for your own health, the health benefits start quite quickly with your risk of a heart attack being halved after just one year of stopping smoking.
Annually, from the end of September we run a programme to vaccinate eligible patients. The surgery will not send you a letter inviting you but may send you a text message if you have let us know your mobile number. To make an appointment in one of the scheduled flu clinics please phone our reception team.
Non-urgent advice:
If you are over 65 you will also be eligible for a Pneumovax immunisation (if you have not had this previously). Please mention this to the receptionists when you telephone us to make your appointment.
If you are between 70 – 80 you may be eligible for the shingles vaccine. Please contact our team to make an appointment.
Diabetes Clinic
Diabetes is a serious illness that requires regular follow-up. We can provide most of this care within the practice, but we also use external services provided by outside agencies where appropriate.
The nursing team will perform your annual check and review your recent blood test, management of co-existing diseases that impact upon diabetes and referral for insulin support where needed.
There is lots of helpful information at the Diabetes UK website.
Your annual review will consist of an initial appointment in the LTC (Long Term Condition) Clinic followed by either a telephone or a face-to-face review with our Diabetic nurse.
You will be invited via text message or letter to book an appointment in the “HCA LTC clinic”
Please let us know your mobile number in order to receive the text invitations.
Contraception
All doctors offer advice on family planning and methods of contraception. We also offer emergency contraception through our triage service.
Several of our doctors fit intrauterine devices (coils) and contraceptive implants.
Please contact the surgery to make an appointment regarding contraception.
Cervical Screening: Smear Tests
Try not to put off cervical screening. It’s one of the best ways to protect yourself from cervical cancer.
Cervical screening (a smear test) checks the health of your cervix. All women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64 should be invited by letter.
We know it might be daunting, but our qualified nurse will do her best to put you at ease.
Contact the surgery to book your appointment. Your results will be sent to you in around two weeks.
We offer a comprehensive childhood immunisation programme.
The immunisation clinic is run by our nursing team every Wednesday from 10:30 – 12:30.
Children will automatically be sent appointments at the appropriate times. We strongly believe that prevention is better than cure and feel that it is essential that children are protected against these potentially serious diseases.
