The support we offer during your pregnancy.

Midwife

The role of the midwife

• A midwife is a qualified nurse who has undertaken further training to provide and promote normal midwifery.
• They help you to prepare for motherhood and promote good health for yourself and your baby by advising on the effects of drinking, smoking and good diet whilst you are pregnant.
• The midwife guides you through your pregnancy and endeavours to detect any problems and make relevant referrals if necessary.

First appointment with the midwife

If you are pregnant you do not need to see the Doctor in order to have your first appointment with the midwife.

You can arrange a booking appointment via the reception desk. This first appointment should be before 10 weeks of pregnancy. (Usually between 6-7 weeks). Patients can also self refer to a midwife via the MyPregnancyNotes.com website.

Due date calculator

The Midwife will discuss your options for delivery, arrange appropriate referrals and provide you with dietary advice.

She will also take blood tests and will subsequently discuss the results with you. Whilst you are pregnant and until your baby is one year old you are entitled to free prescriptions and dental treatment. The Midwife will organise for an exemption certificate to be signed and sent off.

During The Pregnancy

• Your maternity book lists when you will be seen by the Midwife, Doctor and hospital through your pregnancy. Should you have any concerns at any other time you can contact your midwife or, if she is not available, make an appointment to see a Doctor during normal surgery hours.
• At some point during the course of your pregnancy, the Health Visitor will meet you to talk to you about her role in your care and about the childhood vaccination programme.

After Your Birth

After delivery, your Midwife will visit you at home to help you and your baby. Following the birth, she will visit you on your first day at home. When your baby is five days old she will carry out the Guthrie test (which is a special screening test that the Midwife will give you information about) and at ten days old she will discharge you and your baby from her care. Extra visits may be arranged according to need.

Your Health Visitor will visit you at home when your baby is between 10 and 14 days old and can advise on feeding, weaning and any family issues you may have.

About 6 weeks after your birth you should be made an appointment for the mum and baby 6-8 week check where baby will have their immunisations. If you do not receive a letter for an appointment, please make an appointment. Your doctor will discuss contraception and any concerns you have about your own health. 

Breastfeeding

It takes time for you and your baby to learn how to breastfeed.

The NHS Choices page on breast feeding might be useful.

Your midwife can also offer support and advice.

There are also a number of national services offering local support groups, which can be accessed via their websites:

• Babycafe
• Association of Breast Feeding Mothers
• La Leche League GB
• Breastfeeding Network

The term ‘social prescribing’ is used to describe a service which supports people to access a range of non-medical services and activities in their local area.

Social prescribing can help people with different social, emotional or practical needs to find the right support and improve their health and wellbeing.

The service can help you:

• Get support to improve your physical health.
• Find employment or volunteering opportunities or learn a new skill.
• Tackle money, housing, work or benefits issues.
• Cope with a particular condition or difficulty.
• Access ways of improving your emotional welfare such as befriending schemes, peer support or arts and leisure activities.

Our local service is run by Patient Empowerment Project (PEP).

To make an appointment please contact them on 0113 279 5870 or email pep@barca-leeds.org

Advocacy means helping another person to communicate their views and wishes.

GPs often act as advocates for patients when dealing with issues in the hospital or by making sure that their patients’ and/or families’ voices are heard when a decision is needed about their care.

Advocacy involves looking at choices together and helping patients to make decisions. It may be writing a letter of support or communicating on behalf of the patient.

When advocates who are not part of social services or the NHS are needed, they can be found in Leeds at:

• Advonet
• Articulate Advocacy CIC
• Leeds Independent Health Complaints Advocacy

Who is a carer?

Many carers are not known by their GP practice as there is confusion around how to define the term ‘carer’.

A carer is a person of any age (including children) who provides unpaid support to a partner, relative, friend or neighbour who couldn’t get by without their help. This could be due to old age, frailty, disability, a serious health condition, mental ill health or substance misuse. Parents of children who are disabled or who have a serious health condition are also considered to be carers.

It is estimated that 10% of patients are carers.

Improving carer identification

As a practice, we want to increase the number of people on our carers’ register so that we can look after you better. We do this by:

• Asking patients with long-term conditions to name their carers
• Running awareness-raising campaigns to get carers to tell us about their caring responsibilities

What we offer to improve healthcare for carers

• Flu vaccination – most carers are eligible for a free flu vaccination to protect themselves and the person they care for
• Regular health check appointments to help you keep fit and well
• More flexible appointments
• Carer support groups
• Referrals to carers’ services for more specialised information, advice and support

Dedicated services for carers

If you care for someone and would like additional support then the following services may help

• Carers Leeds
• Carers Trust

Some things are not covered by the NHS…

Private Medical Services

You may have to pay a fee for certain services that are not covered by the NHS. These fees reflect the time it takes for the doctor to look at your medical records and some admin time.

Services include things like private health certificates, insurance claim forms, HGV/taxi medicals and some travel vaccinations.

This is our current list of Non NHS fees.

More information about why we charge can be found on the BMA website.

Private Medical Forms

There are also times when we are asked for information about a patient’s health, such as when you are applying for a mortgage or life insurance. We only do this with your permission and you have the right to see the report before it is sent. To avoid any delays, please make sure you sign the consent form that the company gives you.

What is flu?

Flu occurs every year, usually in the winter, which is why it is sometimes called seasonal flu. It is a very infectious disease that can come on very quickly. The most common symptoms of flu are fever, chills, cough, headache, pains in your joints and muscles and extreme tiredness. Healthy people usually recover within 3 to 4 weeks, but some people can develop serious life-threatening complications and need to be admitted to hospital.

Colds are much less serious and usually start with a stuffy or a runny nose, sore throat and cough.

How do we prevent the spread of flu?

Flu is unpredictable and there can be different strains of the virus. However, over the last ten years, the flu vaccine has generally been very good at targeting the circulating strains.
The flu vaccine is available every year on the NHS to help protect adults and children who are most at risk of flu and its complications.

Can I have a free flu vaccination on the NHS?

Flu can affect anyone but if you have a long-term health condition flu can make it worse, even if the condition is well managed and you normally feel well.

We provide flu vaccines if you are:

• aged 65 or over,
• pregnant,
• aged 2, 3 or 4 (by nasal spray),
• over six months of age and have one of the following conditions:
  • chronic respiratory disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis and cystic fibrosis. Also, people with severe asthma who need to continuously or repeatedly use their inhaler, take steroid medication, or who have been admitted to hospital because of their asthma
  • chronic heart disease, including heart failure, congenital heart disease, and heart disease caused by high blood pressure
  • chronic kidney disease, such as kidney failure and people who have had a kidney transplant,
  • chronic liver disease, such as cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis,
  • chronic neurological diseases, such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, motor neurone disease or multiple sclerosis,
  • diabetes
  • a suppressed immune system, due to disease or treatment. This includes people who have a damaged or no spleen, those people with HIV, people having chemotherapy or other immunosuppressant treatment, and those on high doses of steroid medication.
• very overweight with a BMI over 40.
• living in a long-stay residential care home or other long-stay care facility (not including prisons, young offender institutions or university halls of residence),
• receive carer’s allowance or you are the main carer for an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if you fall ill,

For more information please see the Department of Health Website.

Flu Clinic

Every autumn, around September, we start our flu clinics. We aim to vaccinate as many of those at risk, as indicated above.

Keep an eye out under the News Section of this website for when the clinics start.

Stopping smoking increases your life expectancy and helps improve your quality of life, not to mention making you wealthier as well!

It is never too late to stop and the NHS is here to help you.
Getting NHS support really works – it can be four times more successful than going it alone (cold turkey) and it’s completely free of charge. So why not try it? You have nothing to lose.

Leeds Stop Smoking Service

This is the service we recommend to our patients. It is free to everyone and has helped over 10,000 people stop smoking in the last 10 years.

If they recommend medication or patches to help you stop then we will prescribe them for you (according to your agreed treatment plan).

Here is a list of Leeds Stop Smoking clinics and when they are held.

How to book an appointment

It’s quick and easy to book your appointment with a Stop Smoking Advisor, simply:

• Phone: 0800 169 4219
• Text: SMOKEFREE to 60066
• Email: stopsmokingleeds@nhs.net
• Website: Leeds Stop Smoking Service

Further information

Electronic cigarettes

E cigarettes are marketed as a cheaper, safer alternative to conventional cigarettes. As they do not produce smoke, research suggests that electronic cigarettes are relatively harmless in comparison with smoking. To find out more have a look at the ASH Briefing on electronic cigarettes.

Local smoke free stories

In need of inspiration? Then why not listen to some people who have been successful at giving up – today is the day.

Do you need to loose weight? there are a number of online resources and local clinics that you can access without having to see your doctor for a referral.

Not sure if you need to loose weight then try out this weight calculating tool.

Online help

Advice for adults:

• NHS Choices weight loss guide is an excellent guide with suggestions on a 12 week plan. It also has email support.
• One You Leeds provides some general advice and links to services locally.

Advice for children:

• NHS Choices excellent guide on what to do if my child is overweight.

Face to face support

Support for adults:

• Weigh Ahead Weight Management Service is the free NHS service that our Nurses and Doctors will refer you to if you need additional support. You can self refer to this service.
• There are also private services (that you would need to pay for) such as Weight Watchers and Slimming World who both provide popular classes locally.

Support for children:

• There is a dedicated service for children called Watch It, the details of which are at the bottom of the weigh ahead page. You can self refer to this service.

We work closely with other services to help support people and their families at this very difficult time.

The local service

Together as a team we work with individuals and their families to address physical, emotional, social, spiritual and financial issues.

The core team includes a GP, District Nurse and MacMillan Nurse.

Please book with your GP if you or someone you care for needs help now.

Advice

The Sue Ryder website has some excellent articles called Practical & Emotional Advice, we recommend them highly. Don’t forget to click on the ‘load more’ button on the bottom of the first page, its easy to miss.

Other useful sites

NHS choices page on end of life care.

Also Leeds Palliative Care has a wealth of information on local services.

Wheatfields hospice

St Gemma’s hospice