*Appointments are subject to availability due to coinciding clinics and duty doctor obligations.

There is a midwife attached to the practice. She provides an essential link between the expectant mother, GP, hospital and Health Visitor. All midwives carry the statutory responsibility to care for women throughout pregnancy and labour and to summon medical aid when necessary.

The Health Visitor is a highly trained and experienced Registered General Nurse with further qualifications, usually in midwifery or mental health nursing. Their aim is to work within the community to promote better health and to prevent serious or chronic illnesses by detecting them at an early stage before they develop. To achieve this aim, they work in liaison with other professionals and become involved at an early stage. (A Health Visitor will visit every child, in their home, 10 days or so after birth.) A Health Visitor may prescribe some medicines and may, on occasion, arrange referral to other specialists but he or she is there primarily to offer advice, direction and support on any health-related problem, whether physical, emotional or social, either in the GP surgery or at your own home. Other specific services provided by the health visitor at this practice are health and development checks for children under five, antenatal parentcraft and relaxation classes, and counselling for those who have recently suffered a loss in the family. The Health Visitors may be contacted via 0300 3001500. You do not have to go through your GP.