About Us
Welcome to Goldington Avenue Surgery.
The team are here to provide all patients with a professional and caring healthcare experience in friendly and personal surroundings. With discretion and confidentiality guaranteed your welfare is safe, secure and in good hands.
A heartfelt plea to all our patients
We operate a zero-tolerance policy towards verbal abuse. Shouting, swearing, or aggressive behaviour towards our team will not be tolerated. This behaviour directly impacts staff wellbeing and compromises our ability to deliver service. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone violating this policy.
Blood test appointments
Using the online booking service (available 24/7). Patients will need to register online at https://myappointments.online/login or call on 01234 607075
For urgent blood test
Your blood test form is attached as discussed, marked as urgent.
They are done at Gilbert Hitchcock House on Kimbolton Road, open Monday to Friday 9-4pm, by appointments only but they will try to accommodate you sooner if marked as urgent. Please call the Phlebotomy team on 01234 792160 (Monday–Friday, 10am–3pm).
Booking an appointment in person by visiting the department. Patients will be given an appointment, if available, at the next appointment time for that day, or offered an appointment for another day.
Children’s Blood Tests Children under 16 need to attend the Paediatric Outpatient unit located in: Children’s Outpatients Department, Cygnet Wing, Bedford Hospital, Kempston Road, Bedford, MK42 9D
Disabled Access
Intercom system – there is an intercom at the front door in the event that you require assistance to enter the building
Automated door openers – there is a push button at the main door and internal door to automatically open them
Doorway widths – every doorway is wheelchair accessible
Wheelchair – if you would benefit from use of the practice wheelchair, to or from your car into the practice, please ask one of the reception team and they will make this available to you. Although please bear in mind that they cannot help you into the wheelchair.
Stair lift – for access to our upstairs consultation rooms
Hearing loop – a portable hearing loop is available for use in any part of the practice
Patient toilet – which is wheelchair accessible
Braille signs – each consultation room, waiting room and patient toilet, have a braille sign
Our Our Union Street site is fully accessible on the ground floor, featuring automatic doors and dedicated accessible parking spaces.
Home Visits
Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible.
You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls
You can also be visited at home by a community nurse (formerly known as District Nurses) if you are referred by your GP.
You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.
My Hospital Journey
A web page has been developed, which is available on the Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust website to provide you with information on why there are long waits in the system in certain departments, what is being done to reduce the waiting lists, how we are working to keep you safe when attending hospital for appointments, how and when you will be communicated with, how you can manage your condition while you wait, and how you can prepare for surgery to ensure you are fit enough for it to proceed when your appointment is issued to avoid any further delays.
The link below will take you to the ‘My Hospital Journey’ web page for Bedford and Luton & Dunstable Hospitals.
My hospital journey – Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust
There is also information on these pages where you can follow a link to view average waiting time information for each department and find further help whilst you are waiting, including links to information about the NHS App and the platforms developed by NHS England/NHS Improvement: My Planned Care and Decision Support tools.
More information on these platforms are detailed below:
NHS App
Owned and run by the NHS, the NHS App is a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services on your smartphone and iPad/tablet, including ordering/managing prescriptions/repeat prescriptions, viewing health information, managing appointments and referrals, and much, much more.
You can also access the NHS App services from the browser on your desktop or laptop computer. To find out more about what the NHS App can offer simply go to: www.nhs.uk/nhs-app
My Planned Care
This online platform contains average waiting time information for 1st Outpatient Appointment and further treatment for each speciality under the Hospital Trust.
The platform includes helpful advice and information such as how to manage pain, finding mental health support, keeping healthy, and information for accessing financial help and other local support whilst you wait. It can also help you to prepare for your appointment or operation, including how to form a plan for your care and treatment alongside your healthcare professional.
Updated weekly, the site is easy-to-use and has ‘open-access’ so carers, friends, relatives and NHS teams can also easily access this information.
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – My Planned Care NHS
Decision Support Tools
NHS England has added new information to their website to support shared decision making between you, as a patient, and your clinician. We hope you will find they are useful before, during or between consultations, depending on your care pathway. They can help you to understand your condition, the treatment options available to you and support you to make a decision on the best treatment option for you depending on your personal circumstances and desired outcome.
NHS England » Decision support tools: making a decision about a health condition
Training Practice
We are a training practice, which means that fully-qualified doctors, who have usually completed their 3.5 years of training in hospital medicine, and 6 months working in a practice to develop their skills in general practice, before completing a final year in general practice with us.
What does this mean?
It means we are officially approved to teach and train GPs and Medical Students.
Why become a training practice?
By fulfilling the criteria needed and incorporating this into the way we work we expect to improve and maintain a higher standard of care for our patients.
How did we achieve this?
For The Surgery: The practice is examined to ensure that it provides an appropriate learning environment. It must provide a good example both of clinical care and of management. The infrastructure must be sound, the records of high quality and the team committed to learning. The surgery was re-assessed (as part of the re-accreditation process) in May 2016 by East of England Deanery based in Cambridge.
The Trainer:
The trainer is examined independently to ensure that they have sufficient knowledge of practice and of education, skills appropriate to one-to-one teaching and educational management, and attitudes supportive of learning.
Dr Elizabeth Tatman is the lead trainer in the surgery.
How are these standards maintained?
Every 2-3 years the practice is visited and inspected by a team of representatives from the Deanery who review the practice and interview the staff to ensure standards are being maintained. There is also feedback from the GPs who have been trained at the practice. Dr E Tatman is also formally assessed during this visit.
What is a GP Registrar?
This is a qualified doctor who has decided to embark on a career in general practice, much like a surgeon or physician in the hospital. Like these doctors part of their training involves them spending a total of 18 months working at a teaching practice. This is usually divided into a 6 month and 12 month attachment.
How much experience do they have?
By the time you see a GP registrar they will have spent at least 5 years at medical school to qualify as a doctor. Then they will have done 2 years working in hospitals (previously known as “house jobs”). They will then start a 3 year training programme to become a GP, during which they will spend 18 months in a training practice. Often the GP Registrar will have more up to date knowledge on hospital treatment and service than we do as they have just come from a hospital job. So by the time you see this doctor they may well have been working as a doctor for 4 years.
What support does the registrar receive from the practice?
Training and education is scheduled into every day, and all of the GP’s at this practice participate in these sessions. An example of a training plan is: a 2 hour tutorial on Monday morning, a 30 minute debrief Tuesday lunchtime, a 1 hour tutorial Wednesday, a 30 minute debrief Thursday and Friday lunchtime. While structured training sessions are an important part of the support that the practice provides, this is also supplemented by involving the registrar in clinical audits, clinical reviews and meetings, as well as providing information on practice management and business management to ensure that the registrar has a good sense of how a practice works from all aspects. Senior GPs are always available to assist the registrar, if this is required during a patient consultation.
Do you think you would want to be a registrar at this practice?
We usually take ST3 placements, but will start taking ST2 placements in August ’17. If you would like to arrange for an informal visit with the either lead trainers (Dr P Tatman or Dr E Tatman) or the Practice Manager (Mrs C Prentice) please call the surgery to schedule this.
Visiting The Practice
At our Goldington Avenue site there is limited parking available near our practice, in and around the surrounding roads. Please consider cycling, as we have a bike rack that you can lock your bike to, or consider walking if you live nearby, to alleviate the parking stress that is often experienced in this area.
At our Union Street Clinic site there is an onsite car park, with some parking spaces available, however when we are running at full capacity there are not sufficient parking spaces for all patients. There is parking in the road outside, but this is ‘pay to park’. Please also consider walking if you live nearby.
This information supports the practices travel plan as recently requested by the local authority in planning application number 22/00292/FUL