Bruntsfield Medical Practice

It’s Freshers Week, and for students just starting out at Napier who need to register with a new GP surgery, Bruntsfield Medical Practice will be on hand at the Merchiston campus from Monday 5th September to Friday 9th September, except for Thursday 8th when we will be at the Fresher’s Fair at Craiglockhart.

Come find us and say hi to Charlotte, Liz and Harriet who will be manning our stall, and can answer your questions about the practice and give you the forms you need to register as a patient. You can also download the forms from this site and bring them in yourself to the practice. Our friendly reception staff are here to help you.

Remember, whether you fill in the forms then and there to hand over to the girls at the stall during Fresher’s week, or whether you bring them in yourself later on, you will need some form of identification to say you are who you say you are, and that you are a legitimate student at Napier. Especially if you have come from abroad to study in Edinburgh, as you will need a letter saying you are a full-time student before you are entitled to NHS care for the length of your course.

It’s important, especially if you have any ongoing medical conditions, that you register with a GP, and our practice is here to help you with any health related questions you have. We hope you don’t need us, but we’re here for you if you do.

Every other month or so, the practice will close on a Wednesday afternoon from 12.30pm for something called Protected Learning Time (PLT). These PLT afternoons occur Lothian wide, and are organised to allow practice staff to undergo training. These training sessions are sometimes organised centrally by NHS Lothian and include several practices together, and sometimes a practice will organise training just for their own staff.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 25th May 2011, one of our Practice Managers organised a training session with Mairi Howat, who is a Rehab & Mobility Worker with the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

There was a mixture of staff in attendance, including GPs, nurses, managers, secretarial and reception staff, all sitting round in the practice Health Education Room to listen to Mairi’s talk. The format was informal, and the tone was friendly and fun, but the topic was serious.

Mairi was an excellent speaker, with some great stories and anecdotes from her various clients during her years at RNIB. She also had a number of simple props with her such as blindfolds, and specially adapted goggles, to help demonstrate some of the more common eye problems that can cause vision loss, such as cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa.

She challenged us to use our other senses, and to try to complete simple tasks like walking across the room and finding the door, while wearing the adapted eyewear, to show us how someone with a visual impairment can no longer take these everyday tasks for granted.

The feedback from the event was universally positive, and everyone came away more enlightened and a little more aware of some of the issues faced by blind and partially sighted people.

The RNIB have an excellent and informative website at www.rnib.org.uk that contains information on a range of eye conditions, including those mentioned in this article, as well as contact details for RNIB Scotland based on Hillside Crescent in Edinburgh.

If you feel that you are having problems with your vision, you should make an appointment with your usual GP to discuss your symptoms.

The next practice PLT afternoon is scheduled for Wednesday 31st August, but you can keep up to date on all practice closures and events on our Surgery Hours page.