Camelford Medical Centre

If there is a time critical medical emergency (which includes someone not breathing, losing consciousness, having a stroke, suffering a heart attack, experiencing a seizure, or severe bleeding), dial 999 immediately.

If there is an urgent medical concern which is not immediately life-threatening (e.g. if you feel unwell and cannot reach your GP, or if you need medical advice), please call 111. The trained staff will assess your symptoms, provide guidance, and direct you to the most appropriate care service. They might book you an out-of-hours appointment or advise you to visit a walk-in centre.

Other than Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day, we will be open as usual throughout the festive season.

Our emails will be monitored, and requests will be processed in the usual timely manner, so there is no need to order any earlier than you usually would.

Please check with your dispensing pharmacy for their required dispensing lead time.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our patients for their continued support for our dispensary, which has enabled us to develop the dispensary and increase the staffing levels during the last 6 months.

As a reminder, if you live more than one mile from a pharmacy, then you may be eligible to access our in-house dispensary services.

There are plenty of reasons to use our dispensary for your prescriptions:

• Expert dispensary care.
• Caring staff who know you.
• A one-stop convenience.
• A team of healthcare professionals to answer queries.
• The NHS payment for your prescriptions can be used to improve other surgery services.
• We now have a registered pharmacy technician four days a week.
• A dedicated phone line for dispensary queries.
• A dedicated email for dispensary which is monitored 8am until 6pm Mon – Fri.
• Daily deliveries of medication to our Camelford, Delabole and St Breward surgeries.
• Same day collection of acute medications, such as antibiotics and pain relief, which online pharmacies cannot provide.

If you would like to sign up, require more information, or would like to know how our services can benefit you then please do not hesitate to contact us by either opting for the dispensary line when dialling 01840 213894, or emailing camelfordmc.prescriptions@nhs.net.

The Dispensary Team (Zoe, Justine, Lizzie, and Katie) would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As you may know, many established pharmacies throughout Cornwall are closing. Some of them are reopening and being run by different companies but many are remaining closed.

If you live more than one mile from a pharmacy, we can dispense your medication from our branch at St Breward and you can collect either from there, or from our Camelford or Delabole.

Although we are a provider of medical care, we are also a business. In real terms, funding for general practice has decreased over the last few years and with increased costs, finances are now extremely tight for general practice. Due to this, staff recruitment and retention is a big issue throughout the NHS. As a result, we need to look at ways of increasing income so that we can reinvest in staff and improve services to our patients.

One of the ways to do this is to increase our dispensing income hence the reason for this message.

If a local pharmacy is more convenient for you, then I am not suggesting that you change, but if it is easier for you to come to your local surgery then that will be a much-appreciated show of support to us, and assist us in these increasingly challenging times.

If you would like us to dispense your medication then please email camelfordmc.prescriptions@nhs.net and let us know your name, address, and which surgery you would like to collect from. Please also ensure that you do live more than one mile from the nearest pharmacy otherwise we cannot dispense your medications and you will have to remain with your current pharmacy.

Ian Shepherd - Managing Partner