Howden Health Centre

23/01/2025

Red Weather Warning for West Lothian Friday 24th of January.

The met office has issued a rare red weather warning for tomorrow daytime.

To keep as many people as safe as possible by avoiding all unnecessary travel to the health centre, we have changed all routine face-to-face appointments to telephone consultations . We have cancelled a number of other routine appointments and will reschedule these to another day where possible.

We will still have an "Urgent Care Only" service for the day for any unscheduled care. If you have an urgent health need which cannot wait until next week, please telephone the practice for further advice.

Met Office UK weather warnings for rain, wind, snow, ice, fog, thunderstorm, lightning and extreme heat.

27/03/2023

There is currently a major problem with the practice’s IT system. We have no access to patient records, the appointment books, or repeat prescriptions.

We apologise for the difficulties you may be having this morning.

If you are able to contact us later on today, we may be back to normal operations.

If you have any urgent health needs in the meantime, please consider checking

NHS 24 - Scotland's national telehealth and telecare organisation. We're one of Scotland's 7 special health boards. Find out about how we're run, our values and our performance.

22/09/2021

The way you will get your flu vaccine this year has changed.

People aged 70 or over will now be sent a letter by the national booking system with details of an appointment at a vaccination centre.

From now on, GP practices will not administer the Flu jab. Across Scotland, Health and Social Care Partnerships are taking on this role in line with the GP Contract agreed by BMA Scotland on behalf of Scottish GPs. This change has been agreed to relieve pressure on GP practices. As a result your local practice will not offer any flu vaccinations or handle any booking queries for people in eligible groups.

Instead, the flu vaccine will be delivered by the four Health and Social Care Partnerships in Lothian - East Lothian; Midlothian; Edinburgh and West Lothian.

If you require further information or you need to rearrange your appointment, please contact the helpline on your appointment invitation or the local enquiry line on 0300 790 6296.

Please do not contact your GP.

You can find out more on the websites of the Health and Social Care Partnerships or on NHS Inform

The vaccine is your best protection against flu. Your local NHS health board will be in touch to arrange your vaccination appointment when you are eligible.

28/06/2021

NHS Digital Data Sharing Opt Out

We would like to reassure our patients that the proposed extraction of GP data by NHS Digital does NOT include any patients registered with this practice or in NHS Scotland. NHS Digital provide services in England so are not able to access any data held in Scotland. You are not required to opt out as your data is already safe. We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously and safeguards are in place to protect this, including when data is used for research.

Further information on how NHS Scotland handles your personal information is on the NHS Inform website: https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/health-rights/confidentiality-and-data-protection/how-the-nhs-handles-your-personal-health-information

If you would like to discuss this further, please contact: Sharon Devine, Practice Manager, Howden Medical Group Practice.

What NHS Scotland, may do with your personal data, in all of our activities.

27/06/2021

This month sees the launch of the new WESTSPACE site : https://westspace.org.uk/.

WESTSPACE is the one stop shop online mental health and wellbeing resource for all adults in West Lothian. It is clear, concise and locally lead. The site is fully accessible and using the recite me tool the viewer can use audio description, change the colour of the screen to support conditions such as dyslexia, print of any page or translate the full site into over 100 languages.

The site contains an easy access service directory, showing your 3rd sector and charity partners in West Lothian and this directory can be filtered by several categories including local area. The service information is regularly updated and contains info such as cost (if any), location, accessibility and waiting times. The site also has a fantastic self-help page with useful guides and resources, worksheets, YouTube videos, apps and suggested podcasts for each area such as help with sleep, anxiety, men’s mental health and many more.

Please have a look at the site and share it far and wide.

West Lothian's online space for mental health and wellbeing information.

17/03/2021

The new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People will be fully open in Little France from 8am on Tuesday 23rd of March 2021. All services, including A&E, will then be located at Little France, and the Sciennes site will close.

12/03/2021

If you are an unpaid carer, and wish to have a COVID-19 vaccination, please see the link bellow for more information about how to self-register from Monday the 15th of March.

If all of these apply to you, you can register either online (at https://register.vacs.nhs.scot) or via the Covid vaccination helpline (0800 030 8013) from Monday 15 March.

25/02/2021

Mental Health remains a big part of our population's needs, particularly at this time in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Please see the link below for further information about the 3rd sector mental health providers in West Lothian.

West Lothian Social Enterprise Network

22/02/2021

https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/invitations-and-appointments/missing-appointment-details

What to do if you think you should have received an invitation to your coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination appointment by now, or if you have lost your invitation letter

03/02/2021

Covid-19 Vaccination at Howden Medical Group Practice

Across Lothian, vaccination of the following groups of people is taking place at GP Practices:

People over 80 years of age
People aged 75-79
People who are clinically extremely vulnerable (shielding)

If you or your relative or someone you care for is in this groups you / they will receive an invitation from us, either by letter or by phone to have your vaccination here at the practice.

We understand that there is concern that some people in this cohort have not yet been invited for vaccination either at the practice or at home.

You may also be concerned that someone you know in a lower priority group has been invited to be vaccinated at a mass vaccination centre ahead of your own vaccination appointment.

Invitations to mass vaccination centres are being administered nationally and are separate from the GP programme. Those letters can be sent out quite far ahead of appointments. Our contact with you will be much closer to the date of your appointment as our clinic dates are arranged when each delivery of vaccine arrives.

However, we can assure you we are vaccinating as fast as vaccine supplies allow and everyone eligible for vaccination here will be invited to attend as soon as possible.

We are very grateful for your patience while you wait your turn.

For more information about the vaccination programme please see

https://www.nhslothian.scot/Coronavirus/Vaccine/Pages/default.aspx
https://www.nhsinform.scot

25/01/2021

Howden's vaccinators are hard at work again this week. We have over 150 patients in the 80 years-plus age group booked in for their first AstraZeneca COVID-19 immunisation at the health centre. We are also immunising some of our housebound patients.

We anticipate we will be able to start to offer the vaccine to patients in the 75-79 year age group in early February, closely followed by all patients who have been shielding.

Once again, this will depend on the supply of vaccine. We are aiming to have it administered as quickly as it arrives with us. Please do not call us, we will call you!

For patients in the 70-74 year age group, NHS Lothian is arranging your immunisations, not the practice. This week you will have already started to receive letters with appointments for the mass vaccination centres in Lothian. These will also start in early February.

23/01/2021