Leighton Buzzard Update – 05 April 2024

In our last update in February 2024, we were pleased to discuss the Winter Pressure Clinics delivered in the Town. These clinics, which finished at the end of March 2024, successfully supported additional access to primary care during the winter months, providing an additional 1,113 appointments for minor illness.  

The Primary Care Network in the Town has recruited an additional first contact physiotherapist who has pre-bookable and on the day appointments for musculoskeletal issues (these include, but are not limited to, muscle and joint pain). Patients can ring their surgery and book straight in, and there is no need to be assessed by a GP first. We know that around 25% of all appointments in primary care are for MSK issues, and we are committed to ensuring more patients can be seen by the most appropriate clinician at the earliest opportunity.

We are also pleased to share the graphic below which supports patients to understand whether access to physiotherapy in the first instance may be right for them.

Additionally, there is now a Primary Care Network Duty Pharmacist each day.  This is an important service, available to all patients registered in the Town. The Duty Pharmacist deals with medication queries for that day, and appointments are telephone appointments bookable by the surgery. Please contact your surgery if you would like to discuss this support further. A further pharmacist works in the evening for those who need evening appointments, and we look forward to hearing from patients about how this is working for them.

Work continues on the Outline Business Case for additional services in Leighton Buzzard. We look forward to sharing the findings in May. In the meantime, the Primary Care Network is operating from additional rooms at Leighton Buzzard Health Centre. These rooms are enabling more appointments to be offered to patients and supporting recent recruitment initiatives. We are working with the landlord of the building to plan the conversion of an administrative area into a further clinical room to offer even more capacity for seeing patients there in the near future. BLMK INTEGRATED CARE BOARD, 05 April 2024.