Clinics and Services

Antenatal Care

Full antenatal care is available at the surgery. Patients may opt to have their care, including their first appointment, provided completely by their doctor, completely by a midwife, or on a “shared care” basis where both the doctor and midwife are involved. You will be given a leaflet telling you more about this at your first antenatal appointment.

There is a midwife session at the surgery every Thursday morning but you can choose, if you prefer, to be seen at either Clacton or Harwich hospital. Antenatal blood tests can be done either at the surgery or at hospital.

Contraceptive Services

Great Bentley Surgery offers the full range of contraceptive services including pills, injections, caps, coils and contraceptive implants. More information about the types of methods is available in leaflets available from the surgery. We have an experienced team of doctors and nurses available to advise you and all coils and implants are fitted by Sister Webb who has full training in these methods. We run dedicated family planning clinics but can also accommodate family planning advice within normal surgeries.

Children’s Health

We run special clinics in conjunction with local Health Visitors providing checks on young children’s development. Please register your baby and any children under five for these checks.

Children’s Immunisations

We strongly recommend that all children have the full range of childhood immunisations except in those extremely rare cases where there are contra-indications. Please see the normal schedule provided. 

If you have any concerns at all about your child being immunised, please come and discuss the matter with a doctor, nurse or Health Visitor. Childhood ailments can permanently maim, disable or even kill and it is vital that your child is fully protected. If you simply want further information about any immunisation, please ask for a leaflet. Alternatively, you can visit the Department of Health’s website, www.immunisation.nhs.uk.

Minor Injuries

Our local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has commissioned a dedicated minor injuries unit in Clacton on sea and Harwich and this service is also provided at the Colchester Walk in Centre. It should be noted that Accident and Emergency is only for very serious and life thretening emergencies.

Great Bentley Surgery is commissioned to provide limited minor injuries care but we would recommend calling the surgery for advice and not just turn up. Our daily triage service will ensure that you speak to the on call GP very quickly who will be able to assess your minor injury. If it is something that we can deal with here, the on call doctor will arrange for you to be seen. If not, the on call doctor will recommend the best place to go for the care you need.

Other NHS Services provided by the practice

As well as what are obviously routine NHS services, the practice also provides a range of more specialist care.

In-House Blood Testing

This saves patients having to travel to a hospital blood clinic unless they particularly wish to do so.

Vaccination Clinics

Influenza and pneumonia vaccinations are free of charge to people aged 65 and over, or who have special risk factors, such as heart disease, asthma, COPD or diabetes.

People who should have a seasonal flu jab:

The injected flu vaccine is offered free of charge on the NHS to people who are at risk. This is to ensure they are protected against catching flu and developing serious complications.

You are eligible to receive a free flu jab if you:

  • are 65 years of age or over
  • are pregnant
  • have certain medical conditions
  • are living in a long-stay residential care home or other long-stay care facility
  • receive a 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

Front-line health and social care workers are also eligible to receive the flu vaccine.

This information was correct as at 1st January 2018 and can be checked here.

Tetanus Vaccinations

We do give tetanus vaccinations to adults, however, once you have had five you have adequate protection for life unless you are unlucky enough to suffer a tetanus-prone wound. Please ask if you are unsure.

Cervical Smear Screening

Ladies are called by letter at appropriate intervals.

Smoking Cessation

If you are genuinely determined to stop smoking, we offer regular sessions with a Smoking Cessation Advisor who can provide support which includes prescribing nicotine patches etc to back up your willpower.

NHS Healthchecks (aged 40 to 74 years)

Elderly Patient Checks (aged 75 or over)

Non-NHS Work

There is also a range of work that the practice carries out which does not come within its NHS contract of service. This includes:-

  • Insurance company reports and medicals
  • Completion of claim forms
  • Occupational medicals
  • Private sickness certificates
  • Travel vaccinations (see below)

These services are chargeable. Appointments for medicals are treated as lower priority than looking after sick patients, so need to be booked well in advance to ensure that they can be done when they are needed. We require four weeks’ notice of occupational medicals.

The current scale of the most common non-NHS fees are detailed on our fees page. If you need to know the fee for any other service, please call us on 01206 250691 or send an email to us. It is recommended that you check the fee, and who is responsible for paying it, before asking for non-NHS work to be done.

Travel Vaccinations

Due to increasing pressure on our limited resources, with effect from 1st January 2018, our travel health service will be changing. We will now only be able to provide limited travel advice and access to vaccinations available free on the NHS only. We will no longer be able to provide administration of private travel vaccines such as yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, Hepatitis B, Meningitis ACWY. These will have to be sourced through private providers.

It is also very important that patients contact us as early as possible. Some vaccines need to be administered well before you travel. Ideally patients’ should seek advice eight weeks before travelling.

If you required travel vaccinations, you will need to complete our online travel form.

This will be assessed by one of our nurses and you will be contacted with advice on what vaccinations you will need and to make an appointment to have them done.

Please be aware that we need one form fully completed by each person requesting vaccinations.