GPs and their practice teams provide the vast majority of NHS care outside of hospitals, supporting you and your family throughout your lives. In a perfect world, we want to be able to offer every patient:

 Safety – prompt access to a GP or practice nurse you trust, with well-staffed surgeries and enough resource so that no patient feels left behind.

 Stability – a family doctor who knows you, your medical history, and your community – without the stress and difficulty of finding it difficult to get an appointment.

 Hope for the future – care that focuses on keeping you well, not just treating illness. We want more time for meaningful consultations, joined-up support closer to your home, from modern GP surgery premises with safe and effective technology to make this possible.

 The government talks of “bringing back the family doctor” but what politicians promise is often not planned properly or funded fairly to be able to be delivered in reality.

We aim to respond to all appointment and advice requests promptly, prioritising those most in need. Sometimes we may need to offer you an appointment on another day or direct you to another suitable service.

 For safety reasons, urgent medical requests cannot be accepted via our online system. For something urgent, pick up the phone or walk in to our reception.

 The need to prioritise urgent cases to keep patients safe can result in longer waiting times for routine/non-urgent appointments.

The new requirement to allow patients unlimited online access for non- urgent medical requests, throughout core hours, makes it more likely that we will have no choice but to create hospital-style waiting lists to meet patient need. 

We want to guide you through the NHS, co-ordinate your care, and support you to stay healthy. We want every patient to feel safe and confident in their GP practice – now and in the future.

GPs are on your side

The Challenges Your Practice Faces

Rising demand, fewer GPs – GPs care for 17% more patients than in 2015, but with fewer GPs. Funding has not kept pace, so many patients find it hard to see their GP quickly, leading to the stressful scramble to secure an appointment. 

Practice closures – Around 2,000 practices have been lost since 2010, that’s one in four surgeries, leaving fewer local practices and longer waits or travel for patients.

Funding pressures – Practices receive just 31p per patient per day to provide unlimited consultations with our doctors and nurses, making it hard to employ enough staff and sustain services.

Workforce challenges – More GPs are leaving the NHS than joining. While our staff work tirelessly, system pressures and patient frustration can affect everyone’s morale and wellbeing. We have unemployed GPs now – and practices lack funds to hire them.

 Unsafe workloads – Many GPs see far more than the accepted safe limit of patients per day, often working over 60 hours a week. Recent government changes risk making this worse.

 Ageing buildings – One in five GP surgeries is now over 75 years old – older than the NHS itself which started in 1948. There is very little investment to provide modern facilities fit for today’s needs.

 Access versus continuity – Government policy means speed of an appointment comes before choice. This lack of continuity of care, means patients often don’t get to see a familiar face who knows them well.

 Demand management – We always aim to respond to all appointment and advice requests promptly, prioritising those most in need. Sometimes we may need to offer you an appointment on another day or direct you to another suitable service.

For safety reasons, urgent medical requests cannot always be accepted via our online system. For something urgent, pick up the telephone or walk into our surgery.

 The need to prioritise urgent cases to keep patients safe can result in longer waiting times for routine/non-urgent appointments.

 The new requirement to allow patients unlimited online access for non-urgent requests, throughout core hours, makes it more likely that we will have no choice but to create hospital style waiting lists to meet demand.

We may unfortunately sometimes face challenges beyond our control:

– difficulties with accessing services at the local hospitals and long waiting lists

– workforce challenges – not enough GPs to look after you

– the need to provide our teams with compulsory NHS training and education

– unforeseen events

– NHS IT challenges with old and slow equipment

– lack of investment in practice buildings and development

– public health emergencies

•          Our core contract hours are Monday - Friday, 8am– 6.30pm.
•          Our consulting times are between these hours.
•          Please note at certain times, e.g. lunch or the ends of the day, a clinician may not be present in the building (e.g. out on home visits).
•          In any emergency, please dial 999 for an ambulance or attend the nearest Accident & Emergency Department.

We believe patients deserve more

-At present, GPs and their teams are under huge pressure – caring for more people with fewer resources.

– Without proper investment, the safety, stability and continuity of care that patients value most are at risk.

– As your GP practice, we will always do what we can to deliver the best service possible for you and your family. With the right resources and support, we could expand our services, employ more staff, and deliver the safe, timely, and personalised care you deserve.

– Please remember that our current GP contract funds patient care on average at 31p per day per patient, which is not enough to meet rising demand and to provide the care you and your family deserve.

So please bear with us – and thank you for your support as we try our best for you and your family.

See NHS England’s You and Your General Practice document here: NHS England » You and your general practice – English    

From 1st October, the government has told GP practices to change the way they work. You may see a difference in how you contact us, and how long you have to wait for appointments. If you have any concerns about this, we encourage you to contact your Local MP.

Our contracted hours are Monday to Friday 08:00 - 18:30. Our consulting times are between these hours. Please note at certain times, e.g. lunch or the ends of the day, a clinician may not be present in this building.

In case of emergency please dial 999 or attend the local Emergency Department at Scunthorpe General Hospital.

We are asking all patients to help reduce waste when ordering their next repeat prescription. Please check and only order what you are running low on. Don't worry, you can order items later when needed. 

Thank you.

For further information on the campaign please click on the link below:
https://letsgetbetter.co.uk/yourmeds/

We currently have 4 GP Trainees.  The GP Registrars will be with the Practice until February 2026. We wish them all every success in their placements with the practice.

We carried out a review of the data available to us about Cedar Medical Practice on 02.02.2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage. This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service. If you have concerns about (this will be prepopulated with your location name), you can give feedback on this service. We will add this text to our website to inform the public about this outcome. Care Quality Commission

Social prescribing is when residents are linked to local community groups and services to enable them to develop skills and confidence to improve their self care and tackle the social causes of ill health and wellbeing. Who is social prescribing for? The service is for all adults (18+) who are North Lincolnshire residents in need of information, advice and support to cope with everyday life.

Social prescribing focuses on:

• Supporting people to cope with their long-term conditions; or those of someone they may care for; increasing independence to enable and empower people to self-manage their own health and wellbeing
• Reducing social isolation; supporting those who are feeling lonely and looking for social opportunities to get more involved in the community
• Signposting people with social, emotional or practical needs to a range of local services, often provided by the voluntary and community sector
• Promoting a holistic approach to health and wellbeing by focusing on the wider determinants of health and supporting people to access relevant services e.g., housing, welfare advice and employment programmes, as well as health promotion services such as smoking cessation and physical activity.

Benefits of providing this service
Many people go to their GPs as a familiar route to seek help, but often the problem is not just a medical need – this is when the social prescribing route will be offered. Evaluations of local social prescribing schemes have reported reduced pressure on NHS services, with reductions in GP consultations, A&E attendances and hospital bed stays for people who have received social prescribing support.

How do I access social prescribing?
Speak to your GP practice staff who will be able to directly refer you to a social prescribing link worker.

We carried out a review of the data available to us about Cedar Medical Practice on 11.05.22. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage. This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service. If you have concerns about (this will be prepopulated with your location name), you can give feedback on this service. We will add this text to our website to inform the public about this outcome. Care Quality Commission

The NHS App is a simple and secure way of accessing a range of NHS services on their smartphone or tablet. It was developed to help people in England get more information about their health and care – and more control of how they use NHS services. You can use the app to: get your NHS COVID Pass order repeat prescriptions get health advice view your health record register your organ donation decision find out how the NHS uses your data view your NHS number. Most patients will not need to visit their GP practice to set up a login for the app, but can prove their identity in the app and create their NHS login. The app can be downloaded to a smart phone or tablet via Google Play or the Apple app store. You need to be 16 or over to use the NHS COVID Pass service and registered with an NHS GP practice in England. If you don’t have access to a computer or smartphone and have been fully vaccinated, you can call 119 for a copy of the NHS COVID Pass letter (not your GP Practice). It can take up to 5 working days for your letter to reach you. If you have any further questions visit www.nhs.uk or call 119.

For further information:

• NHS App support: www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/nhs-app-help-and-support/
• About the NHS App: www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/about-the-nhs-app/
• Demonstrating COVID-19 vaccination status: www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-covid-pass

The current NHS Digital (NHSD) extract of GP data for Research purposes (known as the GPDPR) has been delayed due to NHSD wishing to review the way in which this data will be collected, to conduct more public involvement and information about the plans and change the way in which patients can opt out of the extract of their GP data.

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This service is for patients who are not able to get to the surgery in the week during usual surgery hours.

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Health App Link Developed by clinicians, ORCHA's AppFinder gives you unlimited access to thousands of independent app reviews across all health conditions, each of which includes a breakdown of key assessment criteria relating to Clinical Assurance, Data Privacy and User Experience.

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The Carers' Support Service is open for business, and has been throughout this pandemic, If you need Carer support you can contact the Carers Support Service North Lincolnshire by emailing info@carerssupportcentre.com or calling 01652 650585.

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Calls to and from the surgery are recorded and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 and the Data Protection Act 2018, calls are recorded for monitoring, training and dispute resolution purposes.

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Advice for patients

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GPs in Humber, Coast and Vale will no longer usually prescribe medicines that patients can buy over-the-counter for a range of minor health concerns, including hay fever, coughs and colds, aches and pains and sunburn.

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CEDAR MEDICAL PRACTICE has now started to use the Electronic Prescription Service

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Would you like to have a say about the services provided at Cedar Medical Practice?

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