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Hildenborough & Tonbridge Medical Group
Westwood Wellness
The newsletter of Hildenborough & Tonbridge Medical Group
Issue Number Five. March 2025
Are you going through a tough time?
We are all under so much pressure these days, but there’s help available if life is getting you down. Without seeing your GP you can now refer yourself to Kent and Medway Talking Therapies.
This is a free and confidential NHS service giving mental health support to anyone over 17½ years old and living in Kent and Medway. Talking and listening therapies - such as counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy - can help you feel like yourself again.
If you need help in a mental health crisis or emergency, call 111 and choose the option for mental health: you will speak to a mental health practitioner specially trained to help if you’re experiencing an urgent mental health crisis.
You could be in a crisis if:
- You feel like you want to hurt yourself
- You feel like you want to hurt someone else
- You hear strange voices
- You feel that people are watching you
- You feel like others want to hurt you
- You feel extreme and overwhelming distress
- You can’t cope with day-to-day life
Go to: Kent & Medway Talking Therapies or Kent & Medway NHS.
If you think there is a risk to your life or someone else’s, don’t call 111: dial 999 instead.
Physios Direct!
Need physiotherapy? Now you can go to the Adult Community Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Clinic - no GP appointment necessary. MSK physios assess and treat injuries and conditions like muscle or ligament damage, tendon problems, or joint pain, especially after hip or knee replacements. They deal with pain in the back or neck, arm and leg problems, sports specific injuries, repetitive strain disorders, and long-term pain conditions - including osteoarthritis.
They aim to help you understand your condition, and give you back movement, strength and function. Treatments can include individual or group education, and activity advice sessions to help you manage your problem.
You may join a face-to-face or virtual exercise group led by a physiotherapist or physiotherapy assistant; there may be a specific exercise prescription for your problem; or you may need individual gait, biomechanical and postural assessments, with treatments to include electrotherapy, manual therapy, acupuncture or ergonomic advice.
All-in-all, it’s a comprehensive, holistic treatment package to suit your needs. Our nearest MSK clinic is at Tonbridge Cottage Hospital in Vauxhall Lane.
Don’t book on the NHS app
Appointments booked through the app don’t go via our Care Navigators – and as a result as many as 1 in 3 patients have been getting the wrong type of appointment. We are suspending that service: please go to our website and use eConsult instead (during surgery hours only).
eConsult forms go via our Care Navigators: they’ve had intensive training to help save you time by sending you direct to the best practitioner for your problem. For example, if you need a Clinical Pharmacist or a Musculoskeletal Assessor, there’s absolutely no need to see a GP first. Win-win!
Missed appointments
Every year around 2,000 patients make appointments but don’t turn up. This wastes everybody’s time, and we’re determined to tackle it.
We are keeping a record of those who neither cancel nor attend their appointments: on the first occasion we’ll be contacting these DNAs (Did Not Attend!) by text or letter. If there is a second missed appointment, we will write again outlining the practice policy. Should there be a third unattended appointment, the patient’s details will be brought to the attention of the partners, with the ultimate sanction being removal from the practice list.
A few bits of admin (but they’re important!)
Specimen bottles - plastic please!
If you are asked to bring in a urine specimen and it comes to us in a glass bottle or jar we won’t be able to process it. Please use a plastic bottle, and seal it in a clean plastic bag before handing it over to your Care Navigator.
Parking at Hildenborough
Our car park is private property, and parking is for patients visiting the surgery only. Please only park at HTMG if you are coming to see a clinician or picking up/dropping off prescriptions. If you live close by please consider walking up to the surgery.
Surgery Closure Dates
Friday 18th April 2025: Bank Holiday ~ Monday 21st April 2025: Bank Holiday ~ Monday 5th May 2025: Bank Holiday ~ Thursday 8th May 2025: Training afternoon 1pm – close ~ Monday 26th May 2025: Bank Holiday.
Changing your details
If you move address or change your telephone or mobile number please let us know by completing the feedback form on our website.
Comings and Goings
Welcome to Gill who joins our Care Navigation team, and to Dr Anna Stevenson who will supervise the Same Day Access (SDA) clinic at Hildenborough Surgery on a Tuesday afternoon.
Farewell to Medical Secretary Pam, retiring after 11 years with us.
Published: Mar 21, 2025