Services

Bowel cancer can affect the colon, rectum or the small bowel.

The symptoms of bowel cancer include:

• Bleeding from the back passage or blood in your poo.
• A change from your normal bowel habits to a more loose poo, which has been going on longer than 4-6 weeks.
• A lump that your doctor can feel inside your bottom or tummy (more often on the right side).
• A feeling as if you needed to poo.
• Weight loss.
• Pain in your tummy or bottom.
• Being anaemic - bowel tumours can bleed, and so this often causes you to have a low amount of red blood cells. This is called anaemia and can cause tiredness and sometimes breathlessness.

How do I get a screening kit?

Age extension information for GPs In August 2018, ministers agreed that bowel cancer screening in England should be offered to people from the age of 50. NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) began the age extension process from April 2021, starting a gradual expansion of the programme to include 56 year olds. This is the first phase of the gradual roll out to lower the screening starting age from 60 to 50 between now and 2025.

NHS bowel cancer screening is offered every 2 years.

Visit the NHS website for more information

Macmillan cancer support

Do you have any questions about cancer?

You can visit their website, or call 0808 808 000 free (Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm).

The National Breast Screening Programme is an early detection service for breast cancer. It uses x-rays to look for small cancers that can’t be felt.

All women who are aged between 50 and 71 are routinely invited for free breast screening every three years.

Please ensure your GP has your correct address, as this invite is via post.

If you are under 50 and have any concerns about your breasts, please discuss with a GP.

More information can be found on the NHS website

Macmillan cancer support

Do you have any questions about cancer?

You can visit their website, or call 0808 808 000 free (Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm).

Care Co-ordinators provide extra time, capacity and expertise to support patients in preparing for clinical conversations or in following up discussions with Primary Care Professionals.

They work closely with the GPs and other Primary Care colleagues within the Primary Care Network (PCN) to identify and manage a caseload of identified patients, making sure that appropriate support is made available to them and their carers (if appropriate) and ensuring that their changing needs are addressed.

They focus on the delivery of personalised care to reflect local PCN priorities, health inequalities or at risk groups of patients. They can also support PCNs in the delivery of Enhanced Health in Care Homes

Cervical screening, or a “smear test”, is a way of checking for the presence of HPV (human papillomavirus) in the cervix (the entrance to the womb) in order to prevent cervical cancer.

Certain types of HPV can cause changes to the cells in your cervix.

If you don’t have HPV present, no other tests are needed, but you will still need a smear every 3 years.

If HPV is found, then the sample taken from your cervix is checked for any changes made to the cells. You will need either treatment for this, or have more regular smears.

You cannot have a smear if you are on your period.

The test is done by the practice nurses, is very quick and you may feel just a little discomfort if anything at all.

If you’re not sure when you are due a smear, please call reception who will be happy to advise you.

Please look at the NHS website for more information and if you have any symptoms you are worried about, please book an appointment with the GP.

Macmillan cancer support

Do you have any questions about cancer?

You can visit their website, or call 0808 808 000 free (Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm).

Many of our patients assume that because they have discussed their chronic disease with a Doctor, that they do not need to attend their Review appointment with the Practice Nurse.

This is not the case.

A Nurse will use a specific Chronic Disease template to record all relevant information and then arrange an appropriate review (or investigations) which are suitable for the individual patient.

It is very important that you attend your Chronic Disease review appointment.

Patients are invited during their month of birth for their annual review and any other follow-up reviews that are required can then be arranged.

We are able to offer patients the full range of contraceptive options at the practice including, Coils (Mirena IUS and Copper IUD); Implants (Nexplanon); Injections (Depo-Provera and Sayana Press) as well as oral contraceptive pills.

If you would like more information about available contraception please visit the NHS website

Get information about COVID-19 vaccination, who can get it, and safety and side effects

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations on the NHS website

Find information about the flu jab, including who should have it, why and when

Learn more about flu vaccinations on the NHS website

• Our Health and Wellbeing Coach works with adults over the age of 18 and accepts referrals where the Health and Wellbeing Coach can support with a patient’s health and wellbeing.
• Coaching is not counselling as the role of the Health and Wellbeing Coach is not to tell people what to do, but to support them to gain perspective and clarity, to acknowledge their issues, find solutions and make plans, set goals and work towards making positive changes
• Coaching is not a crisis service and there is often a short wait to be contacted, so our Health and Wellbeing Coach will not work with patients who are actively suicidal or who are abusing substances.
• Our Health and Wellbeing Coach will work with patients with low level mental health issues and can signpost/refer to appropriate services if required.
• Our Health and Wellbeing Coach will also see new parents as well as students looking for support

Please ask one of our Care Navigators to send a referral request to one of our GPs to assess your suitability for the service.

We have a midwife attached to our practice. Pregnant patients will have continuity of care from initial booking to full term. Parents have a choice of where they wish to deliver their baby. If you are low risk, you may opt for a home birth. Local centres include the Lucina birthing centre at UHCW, labour ward at UHCW and the Bluebell Centre and labour ward at Warwick Hospital. Post-natal 6 to 8 weeks checks for both mother and baby are performed at the practice.

The surgery carries out joint injections. Please telephone the surgery to book an appointment to see a GP to discuss your injections in more details.

Following this appointment, if the GP feels that you would benefit from a joint injection, an appointment for the injection will be booked for you

Did you know we now have three FCPs at our practice? They are Specialist Physiotherapists by background with considerable experience and expertise in identifying and managing musculoskeletal conditions.

This means that rather than you having to wait to see the doctor first with your bone, joint or muscle pain you can now have direct access to our Specialist Physiotherapists.

The FCP role will allow you to be seen by the right person at the right time for your condition so that you can achieve your desired outcome in less time.

The appointments will be for 20 minutes where you will be assessed and the appropriate treatment pathway will be decided upon via telephone and or face to face.

The appointments are not for hands on treatment as such but the majority of musculoskeletal problems can be sorted out with advice and exercise prescription allowing you to self-manage and improve your symptoms.

If you require onward referral to specialist services or for clinical tests such as x-rays or bloods, you can be referred directly by the FCP.

What we are seeing nationally in pilot studies is that after patients see an FCP, just 5% of patients choose to see a GP afterwards and 96% would recommend the service to friends and family.

If you feel you have bone, joint or muscle pain and want to see the FCP please speak to our reception staff.

Self-Care Guides

Visit the UHCW website for self-care guides on managing your symptoms.

View the self-care guides

Under this scheme, practices can request a Paramedic to visit a patient (aged 65 years and over) at home, in place of a GP home visit. The key objective is to reduce avoidable hospital admissions by providing a timely response to patients requiring a visit, and ensuring patients are cared for at home if appropriate. It is also anticipated that the service will support practices’ resilience through the additional capacity it provides.

The service is available to adults registered with a GP practice in Coventry or Rugby, inclusive of care or nursing home residents, who are at high risk of acute admission and requires home assessment and/or an urgent priority

The GPs at the practice carry out a triage assessment of a patients needs to ensure appropriate access to this service.

Woodside Medical Centre has a FCP (First Contact Physiotherapist) who works at the practice offering face-to-face appointments one day a week.

We also have a second FCP who offers virtual telephone appointments one day a week.

If you have a new issue which you feel could be dealt with by the FCPs, please telephone the surgery on 024 7541 0100 and speak to one of our receptionists.

We hope patients find the following links useful:

• Pain-ed - Surprising Facts About Posture
• Pain-ed - Lower Back Pain Facts
• My Knee - Understanding Osteoarthritis

If you are planning a vacation, it is advisable to find out in advance whether you need any vaccinations. Book an appointment with the practice nurse to discuss what disease risk there may be at your destination and what you can do to protect yourself. You can have your vaccinations at the practice but please be aware, some are not available on the NHS free of charge and you will be told if some of these have an additional cost.

Before you travel please take our travel risk assessment questionnaire