Chicken pox is currently “doing the rounds” locally. It’s a useful time to share some self care tips about how to manage the symptoms at home as most children with chicken pox don’t need to see a GP. ⏺️ encourage your child to drink plenty of fluids - try ice lollies if your child is not drinking ⏺️ give paracetamol to help with any pain and discomfort - avoid ibuprofen ⏺️ use cooling creams or gels from a pharmacy ⏺️ speak to a pharmacist about using antihistamine medicine to help itching ⏺️ bathe in cool water and pat the skin dry (do not rub) If your child has chickenpox, they will need to stay off school/nursery until all the spots have formed a scab. This is usually 5 days after the spots first appeared. For further advice see the NHS website or contact NHS111. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chickenpox/
Weight loss and Exercise
Weight loss and Exercise
City of York Council (CYC) Health Trainers
The CYC health trainers offer free and confidential health and wellbeing support
They off one-to-one support and guidance, face-to-face or remotely, on the following:
- healthy eating advice and weight management
- finding new ways to be more active
- quitting smoking
- reducing your alcohol intake
- helping you find groups and activities to get back out in the community
Self refer via their website.
parkrun
We are a #parkrunpractice - this is an initiative which enables GP practices to socially prescribe physical activity by referring patients to take part in a parkrun. You can read more about parkrun here.
There are three parkrun events in York based at: The Knavesmire (York parkrun), York Sport (Heslington parkrun) and at New Earswick sports club (New Earswick parkrun). Our staff are often found running a local parkrun at 9am every Saturday morning and we run volunteer takeover events.
5K Your Way: Move Against Cancer run a monthly support event at Heslington parkrun on the last Saturday of every month.
There is also a junior parkrun on Sunday mornings at 9am on The Knavesmire.
Better Health
The Healthwise program is for York residents or patients from a York GP surgery. It is designed to assist people who are currently inactive with medical conditions or other specialist requirements that prevent them from entering mainstream exercise.
For more information about how it works and what activities are available, visit their website.
We are getting a lot of requests to prescribe Semaglutide (Wegovy), Liraglutide (Saxenda) or Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for weight loss purposes. While NICE have approved the use of Wegovy on the NHS recently, this is not available to us in general practice to prescribe. It is important that the medication is only used by specialist clinics as part of a variety of support options available to patients with obesity.
We are aware that some of our patients are seeking these drugs privately, if you are unsure if your private provider has informed us that you are taking the medication - please let us know. It is important we have an up to date record of medication so we can ensure safe prescribing of your other medicines.
If you have a raised BMI and would like to discuss options to support you with weight loss do get in touch to arrange a routine appointment. Referral to the specialist tier 3 obesity clinic has specific criteria but locally you can also seek help with obesity and weight loss via the council Health Trainers or Healthwise - details above.
Recently, we have had a number of patients seeking bariatric weight loss surgery (e.g. gastric sleeve) abroad. Please note that the NHS are not funded to provide routine aftercare for non-NHS private surgery. Patients will need to seek follow up care, including monitoring of bloods, through a private service either in this country or abroad. We cannot provide this service.
If you have this surgery privately in the UK, you are asked to have private, specialist follow up by your clinic for at least 2 years before being discharged to the GP for ongoing follow up.
