Staff Update:

*Dr Mitchell is retiring 31/03/25*

Message from Dr Mitchell

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have worked at Ardingly Court Surgery for the past five and a half years. I have got to know many of you during this time and I hope in some small way I have made a difference to your lives. Kemp Town has been an amazing and interesting place to work, with some wonderful people with fascinating lives. It has been a fitting place to finish my NHS career after 37 years.  I wish you all well and I know you will continue to be cared for by the amazing team at Ardingly Court Surgery.

Patients currently registered with Dr Mitchell do not need to worry or contact us. We have recruited another male GP Dr Badderley who will be joining us shortly and all prescription requests and appointments will be managed by other GPs in the meantime to ensure there are no gaps in service.  We also are pleased to announce that Dr Lemareka has agreed to continue working with us on a permenant basis beyond April 2025.

REGISTRATION

Online registration is now available! Click here to register

Ardingly court surgery Patient Newsletter

Please see our June edition Ardingly court surgery with updates and information on Prescriptions, Appointments, Staff and much more. Follow this link to view Ardingly Court Patient Newsletter June Edition

Community Pharmacy project

We are participating in a new approach to improve access for patients to GP appointments. The aim is to direct patients to the most appropriate healthcare professional, which may be a GP or a pharmacist.

From 09/02/22 if your symptoms could be resolved by a booked consultation with the pharmacist instead of the GP, you will be given a same-day referral to a pharmacy of your choice.

We think this is a good thing. Once you see how great your local pharmacist is – they are highly trained and skilled clinicians experienced in treating minor illnesses – we don’t think you’ll look back.

This will also help us to free up GP appointments for people with more complex health needs and ensure that everyone gets treated at the right time, by the right healthcare professional.

We are keen to hear what you think and will be listening to your comments and feedback about your experience of using this service.

To review commonly asked questions about scheme click here Commonly asked questions about Community Pharmacy Scheme

WE HAVE EXTENDED HOURS PLEASE ASK RECEPTION FOR THE TIMINGS

PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP 

We now have a Group that meet 6 monthly. Our next meeting is To be decided.

If you are interested in participating please contact the surgery's practice manager by Letter or by calling the surgery.

The PPG forum is not for clinical issues or complaints, but this is a great way for patients' voices to be heard, so please do post.

APPOINTMENTS

You will be able to book a Doctors appointment one month in advance.

You can access allocated appointments via your online system, over the phone or at reception.

There will be a variety of 10 minute and 15 minute appointments to best suit your needs.  This system will work alongside the old system whereby you can book on the day, and Nurses appointments as per normal.

Extended Hours Appointments

This is a pre –bookable NHS service you may have recently been offered an appointment at a Medical Practice to see a GP or other healthcare professional in the evenings or weekends.

Evening and weekend appointments are now available to book by calling the surgery. In order to utilise one of these appointments, you will be required to give consent for access to your notes to both read and add to them.

Appointment times vary dependent on availability 

Same day appointment will be available on weekends only Please call NHS 111 who may offer you an appointment at one of the Extended Hours hubs

Cancellation or amendments to extended hours appointments on the weekend must be done by using the number below.

Federation Cancellation line: 01273 003330 9:00am  - 20:30pm Monday to Friday and 8:45am - 17:00pm Saturday and Sunday 

Right to choose pathway for ADHD and ASD diagnosis 

If you are based in England under the NHS you now have a legal right to choose your mental healthcare provider this includes referrals relating to Autism and ADHD assessment. This service is offered through the NHS and is free.

This means for instance should you decide the waiting time for your ADHD or ASD assessment is too long you can choose an alternative provider to suit you. There are a number of clinics throughout the UK that can offer right to choose ADHD or ASD assessments.

It is important to note that many of the clinics that offer Right to choose can offer a diagnosis but are rarely able to offer medication titration so if this is something you are seeking please make sure to ensure this is something the provider of your choice can offer or this means that you may be able to obtain a diagnosis but you will need a local NHS referral should you decide you wish to commence medication. Please take into consideration GP’s cannot initiate medication of ADHD or ASD it is a specialist only initiation and will require monitoring by a specialist before a GP can take over prescribing.

How to start the process:

Book an appointment with your GP to discuss the possibility of you having ADHD or ASD who may then recommend a referral for an assessment and possible diagnosis. You can be referred under the NHS or if you choose to go through the Right to choose process you will need to research and select a clinic yourselves (it is not something the GP can advise on).

Once you have chosen which clinic you would like to have your assessment with and filled out the relevant forms they require please pass this on to the GP surgery whom will then send this to your chosen clinic.

Please see a list below of some clinics that offer the Right to choose pathway and support/information links for whilst you are waiting for a diagnosis:

Psychiatry-UK ASD - Adults Only

Psychiatry-UK ADHD - Adults only

Provide Wellbeing - Children Autism and Adult ADHD

Problem Shared - ASD and Autism - Adults or Children 7+

Psicon - Under 18 only ASD and ADHD

Skylight Psychiatry - ASD - Adults only

Clinical Partners - ADHD and ASD - children and Adults

Information on Right to choose

What is ADHD?

Support and Information while waiting for a diagnosis

ADHD Charity

National Autistic society

Patient Confidentiality and Care Data

How information about you helps us to provide better care

Confidential information from your medical records can be used by the NHS to improve the services offered so we can provide the best possible care for everyone.

This information along with your postcode and NHS number but not your name, are sent to a secure system where it can be linked with other health information.

This allows those planning NHS services or carrying out medical research to use information from different parts of the NHS in a way which does not identify you.

You have a choice. If you are happy for your information to be used in this way you do not have to do anything.

If you wish to opt out you can go to www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters for more information and set a 'national data opt-out' or simply call 0300 3035678. Unfortunately this 'opt-ou' can no longer be set by a GP surgery.

More information on how the NHS manages and respects your data can be found at www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters and also at http://www.nhs.uk/caredata. Please contact us if you have any questions.

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the new, Europe-wide law which comes into effect on 25th May 2018. It will be replacing the Data Protection Act 1998 in the UK. The GDPR is an opportunity for every organisation to give individuals (in our case patients) more control and rights over their personal data. The aim is to protect all EU citizens from privacy and data breaches in an increasingly data-driven world. 

CQC

We recently had a CQC focused visit which resulted in Ardingly Court Surgery being given a 'good 'rating - CQC focused report

URINE SAMPLES

From now on we cannot accept urine samples unless requested by a health care professional. All patients must fill in a sample form (found at reception) or it will not be accepted. All samples must be brought to the surgery by 1 pm, we cannot process them after this time. Thank you.