Merger of The Oaks Partnership with The Cedars Surgery  

The practices has merged on 13^th November 2023.

The Cedars Surgery has been responsible for The Oaks practice since 1^st April 2023. Your practice is not closing. As part of this merger, The Oaks has become Swanley Medical Practice, joining with the Cedars and Hextable, retaining its name as the Oaks for the site and patients will be able to request where they are seen where possible.

We are planning to call ourselves Swanley Medical Centre and keep the names of the three buildings as the historic names – Oaks, Cedars and Hextable. All registered patients will be able to access all of our sites which are listed here so Oaks patients who live closer to Hextable can request an appointment at that site.

The Cedars 26 Swanley Centre Swanley BR8 7AH

The Oaks Nightingale Way, Swanley BR8 7UP

Hextable Surgery 31A Main Road, Hextable BR8 7RB

The reason for the merger is so we can share systems and processes across our sites to make the practice more efficient. Currently our team have to run 2 computer systems alongside each other, which is proving more and more difficult, and is not an efficient use of resources. This is particularly difficult and time consuming, especially for booking patients in for their vaccinations. Once the systems are merged, there will be just one computer system for all patients. Patients will see no change to their services other than being able to deal with your queries more quickly.

This is particularly difficult and time consuming, especially for booking patients in for their Covid and flu vaccinations. Once the systems are merged, there would be just one computer system for all patients. Patients will see no change to their services other than being able to deal with your queries more quickly.

Unfortunately, the NHS App for the Oaks will need to be disabled on 3^rd November and patients will need to wait until after merger to register with Swanley Medical Practice. Help will be available if required.

We are committed to ensuring that continuity of care is retained for patients with on-going health care issues as we know that this is important to you, and good for patient care.

As a practice, we have a commitment to ensure we meet the needs of the local community and listen to the views of our patients.

This change will happen between 9^th November and 14^th November. During this time our computer systems will not be able to be accessed. Please make sure that any medicines that may be due for review at this time are requested in advance.  You will not need to do anything for the change to take place. 

The change is scheduled to be completed on 14^th November. 

Online service user access:  Apps switched off – 3^rd November.

Online services at The Oaks will be switched off, ahead of the merger of IT systems.   If you try to use your normal Apps i.e. NHS Apps, MyGP etc. during this time, they will not work and will give an error code that starts with 3c.  Please do not contact your practice about this error, as the patient transfer will be in progress.

After the merge

Online service access for the transferred patients will not be immediately available and may take until the end of the month to setup.  Your practice will text you when the apps are ready to be reused. Please give your new practice until 30^th November to instruct you on how to access your app.

Please contact us by emailing:  kmicb.swanleymedicalpractice@nhs.net or calling the Surgery if you have any questions or queries.

Sometimes we all need a bit of help, especially with the recent increases in the cost of energy, food and other bills.  This hub provides advice and information for people impacted by the cost of living crisis.

https://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/homepage/97/help_with_the_cost_of_living

Please see attached for information on some food banks within the Kent and Medway area.

Please don’t forget to pay for your parking

Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras in Action in the CCP Car Park.

ANPR Cameras are in operation in the private CCP Car Park outside the practice.  Please ensure that you pay to park to avoid any fines and take note of the notices displayed by CCP Car Parks.  Disabled blue badge holders do need to pay to use the car park.  The car park machines take cash and debit/credit cards and there is an app that can be used called Tap2Pay.

The Oaks Partnership is not liable for any fines that may be imposed by CCP as a result of not paying for parking.

No urine samples will be accepted after 11am each day unless specifically requested urgently by the surgery.  This is so that samples that need to be sent on to the microbiology laboratory can be collected each morning for analysis.

Thank you.

We are aware that there has been much in the media about GPDPR.  Please follow the links to further information from the NHS and why your data matters to them.  There is also a section on mythbusting social media posts about the national data opt-out.  If you do wish to opt out of the service you may do so online or by downloading, signing and returning your opt out form to the practice.  You may also change your mind.