Lytham Road Surgery

14/11/2025

The expansion of the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service to include oral emergency contraception went live on Wednesday 29 October 2025. This means that patients you may require the morning after pill, can now attend a local pharmacy, no need to attend sexual health or the GP Surgery. Please contact your local pharmacy to see if this is something they are offering, or call reception and they can signpost you.

13/11/2025

Warning to parents of babies

Baby self-feeding products present a risk of serious harm or death.

A new variant of dangerous baby self-feeding products has appeared where the pillow part takes the form of an animal head shape.

Baby self-feeding products are designed to enable babies to bottle feed with little or no assistance from a caregiver. This creates a risk of serious harm or death from choking on the feed or aspiration pneumonia.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards has identified that all baby self-feeding products are dangerous due to their design and intended use and can never be made safe, regardless of any changes to their appearance. It issued a Product Safety Alert concerning them in December 2022. The public was urged to stop using them immediately and dispose of them safely. Businesses and local authority trading standards services were also asked to take specific actions to remove them from the market.

13/11/2025

Calling all men 65 and over – have you heard of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening?
You might not know this, but the NHS offers a free screening to all men in the UK during the year they turn 65. This screening is an ultrasound which looks for an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA), which is where the walls of the aorta get weak and swell up. 1 in 92 men will have an AAA.
If an AAA gets too big it can burst, and chances of surviving this are less than 20%. They have no symptoms so screening is the only way to catch it – you can then be monitored and treated before it causes any problems.
Keep an eye out for your invitation in the post – screening could save your life!
If you are over 65 and have never been screened, contact your AAA screening team on 0191 445 8747 to book an appointment at an NHS site near you. Visit www.gatesheadhealth.nhs.uk/services/aaa/ for more information, and watch our AAA Video: https://fb.watch/7tORZvND2n/

11/11/2025

Our Autumn/Winter Newsletter has been published, click the link to read it

11/11/2025

Today we pause to remember the courage and sacrifice of those who served in the armed forces.

As a GP practice, we also acknowledge the unique health needs of veterans and serving personnel. Mental health support, routine check-ups, and access to NHS services are available for all who have served.

If you have served please ensure we are aware by letting reception know or mention it to one of our staff when you come for an appointment

If you are a veteran, or supporting one, please know that our team is here to help.

10/11/2025

10/11/2025

October calls - we thought that patients might like to know some statistics with regards to calls we receive. In the month of October the results are:

Answered calls: 6307
Calls made from the practice: 3143

Call backs requested: 446
Call backs successful: 423 - remember we will only try once, be ready to answer your phone.

Our top superstar of answering calls is our lovely Imogen who answered just shy of 1500 calls this month! Well done!

Remember guys, we don't open our phone lines on a weekend, and we can see from our calls stats that people do try to call us - from 18:31 Friday to 07:59 Monday we have 64 attempted calls to the surgery - these calls come at all sorts of times of day, such as 11pm Friday night, 8pm Saturday night, 730am Sunday morning!

10/11/2025

Today we are looking at immunisations. Vaccines save lives — ask LRS about flu, shingles, childhood immunisations.

https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/how-do-vaccines-work

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/why-vaccination-is-important-and-the-safest-way-to-protect-yourself/

In the early 1900s, polio was a worldwide disease, paralysing hundreds of thousands of people every year. By 1950, two effective vaccines against the disease had been developed. But vaccination in some parts of the world was still not common enough to stop the spread of polio, particularly in Africa...

09/11/2025

“Lung Cancer Awareness Month: Persistent cough or chest pain? Book a review with our Preston team. Early detection saves lives.

https://roycastle.org/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21757906756&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkbfftYjZkAMVfptQBh3UaTleEAAYASAAEgIxHfD_BwE

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/lung-cancer/symptoms?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22609710123&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkbfftYjZkAMVfptQBh3UaTleEAAYAiAAEgKNbPD_BwE

08/11/2025

Common Illnesses

Our team are instructed to use this service when you call for an appointment if you haven't already done so. If the pharmacy is unable to help you, they should let us know and we will be in touch.

Pharmacy First Service

The Pharmacy First service enables community pharmacies to complete episodes of care for seven common conditions following defined clinical pathways which include self care and safety-netting advice and, only if appropriate, supplying a restricted set of prescription only medicines without the need to visit a GP.

Community Pharmacists can supply medicines, if clinically appropriate, for the following conditions,

Acute otitis media 1 to 17 years
Impetigo 1 year and over
Infected insect bites 1 year and over
Shingles 18 years and over
Sinusitis 12 years and over
Sore throat 5 years and over
Uncomplicated urinary tract infections Women 16-64 years

Every pharmacist trains for 5 years in the use of medicines and managing minor illnesses, so they are well equipped to provide health and wellbeing advice to help people stay well. They are also experienced in spotting warning signs, otherwise known as red flag symptoms, which may need a referral to another healthcare provider.

Our reception team can refer you to this service however you can also access this directly by attending your local pharmacy. This allows appointments to be available to patients who are suffering with conditions not covered by this scheme, thank you for your help with this.

To find a pharmacy near you please visit www.nhs.uk/service-search/pharmacy/find-a-pharmacy

08/11/2025

Ask a Pharmacist week!