Caring as an adult or young person can take its toll on your health and so it’s helpful for your GP to know about any extra pressures you are facing that might have an impact on your physical health or emotional wellbeing.
- Informal care giver: Anyone who provides unpaid care and support to a family member, friend, or neighbour who cannot cope without help. This often involves assisting with daily routines like cooking, bathing, medication management, and emotional companionship.
- Formal Carer: Anyone who provides at least 35 hours of weekly care for a partner who is unable to care for themselves.
Your GP can help by letting you know about available support or services in your area. They may be able to recommend or refer you to suitable specialists including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, continence advisers and dieticians or other more general sources of support your primary care team can offer.
Please let us know if you are a carer either by speaking to one of our reception team or completing the online contact form via Accurx.
If you identify yourself as a carer/young carer, our staff will try to offer you:
- Flexibility on appointment times where possible.
- Support for the person you care for in the waiting room or a private area if you need to bring them to the surgery but would like an appointment in private.
- Information about local carers support services which may be able to arrange transport and/or sitting services to help you leave home to attend surgery.
- Help and advice concerning ordering prescriptions.
- An annual flu jab.
- Information about your right to a Carers’ Assessment of your own needs as a carer/young carer.
- Discussing with you what you would like us to do in the event of you or the person you care for having a medical or other emergency.
- The opportunity to have your contact details recorded so we can contact you rapidly in case of a medical or other emergency.
- A named GP for continuity of care
Caring should not be at the expense of your own health and wellbeing. Please tell us how your caring role is affecting you and if you have any support needs we can help you with.
We will be happy to help and treat the conversation in the strictest confidence.