Annual Reviews

From the 1^st April we will be inviting patients for their long term conditions annual review during their birthday month.  Blood tests, BP, and weight will be done the month prior to this. You may find that the period from your last review to your next one may be more or less than 12 months as we transition to this system during the year.

Please ensure that you do let us know if you have any health concerns before you are called, especially if your birth month is further ahead in the future.

How will I be invited?

You will receive an invitation that includes an appointment for any blood tests that you may need along with your long term condition reviews with the practice nurses. We will try to keep this to as few appointments as possible, however in some circumstances if you have multiple long term conditions this may be more than one appointment. Some of our information gathering may be a questionnaire sent via text message, and if you are able to, it would be really helpful if you could fill this in as it speeds up the process and means that your appointment will be maximised for you.

We encourage all patients to take responsibility for their own health and therefore we ask that you be aware when your review is due and respond as soon as possible. Please ensure that if you cannot make the appointment you let the surgery know via phone or online contact form as soon as possible as our long term conditions review team will need to adjust things accordingly.

Nb - Barnsley has a service for blood taking at the glassworks and there are often more options for appointments times for blood test here  - let u know if you wish to use this service and we will ensure that you have this option too. 

What happens after my review?

After all of the different components of the review have been undertaken your whole record will be checked and your review dates moved forward by a maximum of 12 months.

If you have repeat medications your prescriptions will also be reauthorised for an other year and you will be able to request where possible the repeats for another 12 months.

Why do I get called for these reviews?

All medication and long term conditions are assessed at least annually for safety and monitoring. These checks are imperative to ensure that your medication is all suitable and safe for you to continue, and that your conditions are controlled as well as we can do.

Why do I get called at least annually?

A good example here is blood pressure medications. This requires an annual check of your kidney function. In thankfully rare circumstances, their use can reduce your kidney function. The test is annual and without the results we cannot safely continue to prescribe the medication. It may be stopped by a clinician until the checks have occurred. The risks of continuing the medication outweigh the risks of stopping it.

Under what circumstances do you stop the medication?

Up to three reminders are sent before a prescription item will be paused or repeat frequency reduced. Medications are ONLY reduced, withheld or stopped when PATIENT SAFETY is at risk. We will communicate this to you.

There may well be some teething problems as we transition to our new recall system so please let us know if you have any queries.

If you have received an invitation or reminder for a review or blood test, PLEASE take responsibility and contact us as soon as possible to make this process as smooth as possible.