Medical services and clinics

All women between the age of 20 and 65 should have a regular smear test every three to five years. We send out appointment reminders to all of our patients to let you know when your next smear is due.

We send out appointments for regular checks and immunisations for pre-school children. This is to make sure that our doctors and health visitors can check that children are developing normally and that there’s nothing to worry about.

Our doctors and nurses give confidential advice on all aspects of family planning, including coil fitting and emergency contraception.

We offer a wide range of health screening for men and women at our surgery.

Women aged between 50 and 60 are advised to attend the Breast Screening Unit every three years for a mammography. This is to make sure we can check and detect any abnormalities as soon as possible. These appointments are sent out by the local Breast Unit.

Find breast screening services.

Our antenatal and postnatal clinics are held at our surgery by our doctors and midwives.

We offer routine vaccinations and general advice to our patients travelling abroad.

It may take up to eight weeks for a full course of vaccinations, so please contact us in advance to give you plenty of time if you’re planning to go abroad where you need to be vaccinated.

Some services available are not covered under our contract with the NHS. This means that these services need to be paid for.

The services that include charges are:

• Medicals for pre-employment, sports and driving requirements.
• Insurance claim forms.
• Passport signing.
• Prescriptions for taking medication abroad.
• Private sick notes.
• Vaccination certificates.

Our reception staff and GPs will be happy to talk through the charges with you during your appointment.

Find out about local counsellors and advice services. You can access these services by speaking to your GP or the surgery’s receptionist.

At Westbury Group Practice, we are very proud of the services we provide and hope we are able to fully support the health needs of you and your family. We are continually looking to develop our services and welcome any comments you may wish to make. Our core services:

• General management of medical conditions.
• Health promotion and advice.
• Emergency care if appropriate.
• Referral for other services, if appropriate.
• Urgent care for temporary residents.

A GP face to face appointment is ten minutes long, telephone appointments are five minutes. At each appointment only one medical issue should be discussed. If you have more than one issue, please ask the reception team to book you a double appointment. If there is still insufficient time, the GP will deal with your most urgent issues, and ask you to book another appointment to discuss anything further.

As a practice we have a very skilled team of clinicians who are scheduled daily to carry out the visits.  In the first instance, if you are housebound and needed a home visit the visiting clinician would either be our practice paramedic or Advanced Nurse Practitioner.  This decision will lie with the GP who triages your visit.

On their visit they would carry out observations and if necessary, liaise with the GP and discuss your clinical need and future care plan.

If you have recently been invited to attend for a Shingles vaccination please click on the attached link for further information about Shingles and the vaccination.

click HERE for Shingles information on the NHS website

PLEASE NOTE: The drop-in Phlebotomy clinics continue to be postponed due to the COVID-19 Situation.

If a clinician has requested you have a blood test, please call reception who will be happy to book you an appointment.

The White Horse Health Centre offers a drop-in phlebotomy clinic (blood tests) to provide a fast, efficient service for you, our patients. The clinics run as follows;

• Tuesdays – 07:30 – 10:00
• Wednesdays – 08:00 – 10:00
• Thursdays – 08:00 – 10:00
• Fridays – 08:00 – 10:00

This means, if you see a doctor between these times, and they request that you have a blood test, you will go to reception who will book you in. This will save you having to come back again on another day. Also this is more flexible for people who work and need an early appointment and saves patients having to wait for a booking. These drop-in clinics are for people aged 16 years and over only. Please note that any blood tests requested by Salisbury District Hospital can only be taken on a Tuesday or Friday.

We understand that some patients will still want to book an appointment, therefore we do offer limited bookable appointments. Please note that any blood tests requested by Salisbury District Hospital can only be taken on a Tuesday or Friday.

If you need a private medical examination for insurance purposes for example, contact us. There may be a fee for this service, take a look at our Non-NHS fees on our Non-NHS Services page.

Minor Surgery is carried out at the White Horse Health Centre. Your GP will advise if you will benefit from a Minor Operation and refer you accordingly.

We have implemented a new system for recalling patients that require reviews for long term health conditions. This is to improve the service we offer and reduce the number of times patients need to visit us. If you’ve been diagnosed with a long term condition you might be aware that we send recall letters asking patients to come in for an appointment. At present, this is not sent at a fixed time of the year. The new system spans over nine months, April to December.

During this time we will invite you to make an appointment(s) to be reviewed for any long-term health conditions you have. If you do not respond to this communication, a second invitation will be sent. Our new system bases the recall communications on the first letter of your surname, ordered alphabetically. For example, patients with a surname beginning with the letter A will be recalled first. During the initial setup of this new system, you may be recalled sooner than required. We ask that you continue to make your appointment at this time. You will then be recalled at the same time every year.

Social Prescribing looks at supporting you with your practical, social, and emotional needs that effect your Health and Wellbeing. They can give you the time and space to listen to what really matters to you, and help you create a personalised plan and work out what your goals are.

You may feel lonely and isolated and want to connect with others, they can look at supporting you to explore and access other services and activities.

Perhaps you need financial help, support with weight loss or counselling, Our Social prescriber can help you access these services and refer you if necessary.

You are eligible for the service if you are a patient of Westbury Group Practice, are over the age of 16 and are in need of help, guidance and encouragement to improve your mental or physical health and wellbeing. Patients of Westbury Group Practice can self-refer either by completing a short online form, or by collecting a paper version that is available from our reception team. Any of our clinicians can also refer patients to the service.

click HERE to view/complete the Self-Referral online form

The NHS provides a selection of free batteries for hearing aids. There are a number of places across the UK where NHS batteries are available, for example GP surgeries and hospitals. You can get the batteries you need from us, and any other organisation, if you carry your NHS brown record book with you when you pick them up.

The batteries supplied to us are in high demand and occasionally we do run out. Should this happen, you can send a stamped self-addressed envelope to the Audiology department at the RUH in Bath and request more. You will need to send your brown record book with your request, this will be returned to you with the requested batteries. You can also turn to Deaf Access, they also provide the service.