Zetland Medical Practice

08/11/2025

Paracetamol and pregnancy - reminder that taking paracetamol during pregnancy remains safe

There is no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children. In case people were worried by Donald Trump's announcement last month.

Paracetamol is recommended as the first-choice pain reliever for pregnant women, used at the lowest dose and for the shortest duration. It also acts as an antipyretic and is therefore used to treat fever.

07/11/2025

Do you have Coeliac disease?

Do you know it is recommend that you have a pneumococcal vaccine?

The pneumococcal vaccine helps protect against serious illnesses like pneumonia and meningitis. It's recommended for people at higher risk of these illnesses, such as babies and adults aged 65 and over.

Here at Zetland we will offer this to all our Coeliac patients.

If you have been offered and said no, but now would like a vaccine please get in touch.

06/11/2025

Our Tuesday Bake off Winner was Sue!

Congratulations on your wonderful corn-beef pie which fed the whole surgery.

Special mention to Dr Tan whose buns went down well too

05/11/2025

Have you had a heart attack and cannot take a statin? Or you are on a statin and your cholesterol is still not to target? - listen up!

There is a new injection which has been made just for you called Inclisiran

Inclisiran is a cholesterol-lowering treatment that reduces levels of a ‘bad’ cholesterol, called low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, in the blood.

High LDL cholesterol is a well-known risk factor for heart and circulatory disease.

Inclisiran was approved for use on the NHS in 2021, after clinical trials showed it can cut levels of LDL cholesterol by around 50 per cent.

NHS England says inclisiran, whose brand name is Leqvio, could prevent 55,000 heart attacks and strokes, with the potential to save 30,000 lives by 2031.

We have been offering this at the surgery for a while and are now actively looking for anyone who we have not yet spoke to yet who may be eligible - so you may receive a text or call from us.

If you think you are eligible please get in touch with us. Even if you don't get care at Zetland I encourage you to ask your doctor if you may be eligible, as the lower your cholesterol, the lower your risk of another heart attack or stroke.

04/11/2025

The surgery is closed from 13.00 today, as all local GP surgeries are, for protected learning time.

If you need medical attention after 13.00 please either call 111, attend Redcar Minor illness unit or if very unwell call 999.

Thanks

04/11/2025

We all have the power to be a 💪

Reporting side effects help regulatory agencies like us understand more about the safety profiles of medicines.

Help keep others safe from future harm – 👉 https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

03/11/2025

📣 starts today!

Medicines safety starts with you and me. Whether you’re a patient, healthcare professional, regulator, or company, we all have the power to make medicines safer.

Be a and report suspected side effects 👉
https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

02/11/2025

If you choose to walk-in rather than call or submit online between 18.00 and 18.30 to our surgery then you need to attend Ravenscar Surgery rather than Zetland Medical Practice.

This is located on the 1st floor of Redcar Primary Care hospital.

01/11/2025

How have we made sure this is safe?

Both the surgery and the provider of the GP Triage system have completed or have:

Clinical Safety Case & Hazard Log (DCB0129)
Named Clinical Safety Officer (CSO) - Dr Alex Jones is our surgery CSO
Cyber Essentials Plus certificate
Pen-test report
Data Security & Protection Toolkit (DSPT) submission
GDPR compliance & Data Processing Agreement
Medical Device classification (MHRA) level 1

We have also sought advice on completing these and implementing this change with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and spoken to other GP surgeries already using this system.

In studies of this product it gave the same outcome as a doctor providing manual triage in 95% of the time. The other 5% it was more cautious - e.g. the GP Triage suggested an earlier appointment then a doctor did. It never suggested a later one.

We plan to have a doctor who has blocked time each day to review the GP Triage system to ensure that we agree with the outcomes of the triage. Reception staff can also flag if they feel triage outcome was incorrect. Audits of the system will be completed monthly in order to ensure we agree with the Triage outcome.

31/10/2025

What about my elderly relative who cannot use online services?

Please do not worry.

We have zero intent of making people use the new online triage system unless they wish to.

If you call up for an appointment you will speak to the receptionist who will take the details from you and input into the triage system. The only difference will be rather than your appointment recommendation being based on the receptionists care navigation it will be based on the AI triage outcome with oversight from the duty doctor that day.

Same applies if you walk in and request an appointment. Our staff will sit with you and ask you questions about your condition, so as long as you can answer them (in the same manner you did for care navigation which all GP surgeries have used for many years) then there will be no difference to now.

The only thing that is important is that if you are able to type for yourself online, then you may as well use that route, because walking in or phoning simply means we are doing the typing for you. You can also submit on a relatives behalf, or a child's behalf.

If people able to use online do, then if frees up the phones and reception desk for our older and vulnerable patients who can't.

We are wanting the service to be fair to everyone and accessible to everyone.

31/10/2025

What are we hoping to achieve by introducing a GP AI Triage system?

1) Patients get a same working day response to requests for an appointment in line with the new GP contract imposed Oct 2025

2) Duty doctor does not have to manually triage and therefore can utilise time to deliver patient care (although will have blocked time to provide manual oversight of GP Triage system).

3) Reduce chance of burnout of doctors who struggle to deliver 80 contacts a day, which has been deemed unsafe by BMA and LMC guidance. These organisations suggest 25 a day should be a maximum.

4) Improve patient satisfaction by both stopping '8am scramble' for appointments and also reducing wait time for routine appointments as more doctors available to deliver appointments (as duty doctor not needed to be completely blocked to triage manually).

31/10/2025

This looks really helpful

Colleagues from our OPTIMISE cancer prehabilitation programme have partnered with local training group, Boro Runners to offer a Run, Walk and Talk group for people affected by cancer.

The group is open to anyone who is currently preparing for treatment, going through treatment, recovering from treatment and living with and beyond cancer and is led by qualified coaches and run leaders.

The first event was held on Saturday 25 October and runs every Saturday at Stewarts Park from 10.30am to 11.30am.

Personalised cancer care prehabilitation lead Chloé McMurray said: "We are so grateful to be collaborating with Boro Runners who are running these free sessions for any person affected by cancer, including friends and family.

"We want to encourage people to participate at any stage of the cancer pathway, whether this be high suspicion, diagnosis, during treatment, recovery or living with and beyond cancer - all abilities are welcome.

Our first session on Saturday was such a lovely, warm friendly experience with lots of laughter and we hope to continue to grow the community and support people to be more active and improve wellbeing on every step of this journey.'

For more information, please contact stees.prehabilitation@nhs.net.