Garden City Practice

We are located at Birdcroft Road, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 6EH

The practice is dedicated to providing exceptional patient care and has a strong team of GPs, nurses, a healthcare assistant all supported by a fantastic team of receptionists and administrators.

This surgery website has been designed to make it easy for you to access the information you need from opening times to being able to book an appointment online and a wide range of health related information. Please have a look around and feel free to send us feedback as we can use this to develop and improve the information we provide. 

We would also be grateful for reviews to be posted on Google - please click here.

RSV Vaccination is still available

RSV is an infectious disease of the airways and lungs and often causes symptoms simialr to a cold including a sore throat, cough, sneezing and a runny or blocked nose.  It ca also make you become wheezy or short of breath and can lead to pheumonia and otehr life threatening conditions.

Eligibility

Everyone turning 75 years old on or after 1 September 2024 will be offered a single dose of RSV vaccine. You can still have the vaccine up to the day before you turn 80. We are inviting patients who are currently 79 and turning 80 before 31 August 2025. We will then extend invitations to the remaining patients aged 75 to 79.

Further information about RSV is available here:

Your guide to the RSV vaccine for older adults - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

It is recommended that RSV is not given at the same time as your flu or covid vaccines. 

To allow administrative and clinical staff dedicated time to undertake education and mandatory training, it has been agreed with the training Hub of Herts and West Essex ICB that the practice will be allowed to close for one afternoon per month, except during August and December. The practice and phone lines will be closed from 1.30 - 5.30pm, we are sorry that we will not be able to deal with routine queries on these afternoons.

If you have an urgent medical need when we are closed please contact NHS 111 for assistance. 

Future dates agreed (to be concfimred by the ICB) are:

We thank you for your co-operation to enable the practice to undertake this essential training.

Due to the increasing numbers of eConsults that we were receivng, the practice has taken the decision to limit the number of eConsults that can be submitted each day. In additon we have limted eConsult to be available during our core hours only (8am to 6.30pm) so it is not available in the evening or weekends. Again these can go very quickly in the morning.

We have a limited number of appointments each day and to enable patients to access appointments via the telephone, at the reception desk and via eConsult we have had to limit the numbers of eConsults. We are reviewing this on a regular basis so as not to disadvantage those patients with no digital access as demand for appointments is greater than capacity we can offer every day. Once the limit has been reached a message will show that says "you can submit a consultation from 8am tomorrow......."

 Legal COVID restrictions have ended, but for now measures to prevent the spread of COVID remain in health settings to keep staff and patients safe.

People who have symptoms of COVID and a temperature should remain at home and avoid contact with other people while they have a temperature but can still seek health services if needed.

It is important that you let the practice know if you have any symptoms of COVID before you attend a face-to-face appointment. If you have symptoms of COVID and you need a face-to-face appointment, we will continue to offer an assessment at the Scarlett Room to the rear of the building.

We will also continue to ask you to wear a mask when you visit the practice. This will help to reduce the risk of staff absence in the surgery and also to help keep our patients safe.

Thank you for your understanding.

Ephedra Healthcare Ltd - www.ephedrahealthcare.co.uk

It is likely that you will not see/speak to a GP or nurse from this practice at one of these appointments, but be assured they have full access to your notes and can complete tasks as if working from our practice.  Do ask our reception team when you call if you would like one of these Extended Access appointments.  There are a few same day appointments on Saturday and Sunday at the Extended Access hub - please call 01707 294358 to book these.

From 1 June 2025 Extended Access will be closed on Sundays. No appointments will be lost as additioonl clinics will operate on Saturdays between 8.00am and 4.00pm.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/launch-of-nhs-pharmacy-first-advanced-service/#launch-of-nhs-pharmacy-first-advanced-service

We already ask patients when they contact us for a brief description of the issue you are calling about. We don’t need a lot of information here – but it helps our team direct you to the most appropriate person, in the most appropriate time frame.  Our receptionist may direct you to the Community Pharmacy for the above conditions; if they are unable to help they can refer you back to see the GP.

To ensure safety, we do restrict the number of patients seen by the doctors and our duty doctor and will ask patients to contact 111 online or by phone or visit your local pharmacy or the Urgent Treatment Centre at QEII when we feel we have reached capacity on the day.  We will not routinely ask patients to call us another day, but please bear in mind depending on capacity, we may not be able to deal with every request same day. Using 111 or your local pharmacy may be appropriate, and our staff will advise you if so.

The news about prescription medications available directly from Pharmacies is welcome, we always ask patients to visit their local pharmacies for many minor conditions as you will find you can access excellent help and advice quickly; a lot of minor illnesses and injuries do not need a GP or nurse appointment, so it allows us to be available for those that really do need an appointment at the practice. Information about how your pharmacist can help and a list of common conditions that can be assessed and treated by your local Pharmacists can be found here.

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/prescriptions-and-pharmacies/pharmacies/how-your-pharmacy-can-help/

Treating minor illnesses.pdf

Once we have reached capacity on the day we will ask if your issue is “urgent for today” – we can only deal with urgent issues requiring same day assessment. This may be triage by telephone, and the clinician will arrange to see you if clinically indicated.

For patients with routine issues, we offer appointments that can be booked up to 14 days in advance and we offer Long Term Conditon reviews such as for diabetes & asthma up to 4 weeks in advance and on some Saturday mornings. In addition, we offer evening and weekend appointments through the Extended Access Scheme at Spring House Medical Centre.

We would ask patients to cancel if you are not able to keep an appointment as soon as possible; you can call our main number and press option 2 and leave a message to enable us to offer this to another patient.

For more infroamtion about our appointments please see the aappointment section of our website.

We continue to work very hard to offer the best service for our patients, we appreciate your cooperation and support.

Garden City Practice

Guidance on how to book your appointment can be found on the SwiftQueue website.

Adults and children (over 11 years)

To book an adult or children’s (11 years and over) blood test, please click the appropriate hospital below:

• Hertford County Hospital
• Lister Hospital
• New QEII Hospital

If you need a fasting appointment, please book your appointment using the Fasting appointment links below.

• Hertford County Hospital (Fasting)
• Lister Hospital (Fasting)
• New QEII Hospital (Fasting)

Children (10 years and under)

If the patient is under 10 years old, please book using the following link:

• Hertford County Hospital (Children under 10 years)
• Lister Hospital (Children under 10 years)
• New QEII Hospital (Children under 10 years)

Children under 1 year

For blood tests for children under 1 year, please call Lister Bramble Ward on 01438 286315.

Please ensure your GP or Nurse has raised the appropriate request before booking your appointment.

X-Rays - Radiology 

Our team is committed to teaching and feel we have a responsibility to help develop the next generation of doctors, nurses, and allied health care professionals. We are an accredited training practice and have a variety of trainees throughout the year including foundation doctors, GP Registrars, medical students, and trainee nurses working here.

GP Registrars are fully qualified doctors who have usually completed a minimum of three years of hospital work after qualifying. As part of their training for General Practice they are required to spend a year working at a practice.

As part of their training GP registrars need to video some of their consultations as part of their assessment. These videos are only used for teaching purposes and only seen by doctors. Physical examinations are not video-taped. If a video session is taking place you will be given a form at reception, which explains what is happening. If you agree to be videoed, please sign the consent form - you have the right to change your mind at the end of the consultation and the tape will be erased. If you do not agree to be videoed the video recorder will be turned off before you enter the room. It will help us greatly if you do agree to be videoed, but we understand if you do not wish to consent to this. At no time will this decision prejudice your care with us.