Ballymoney Family Practice

11/10/2025

📮 FLU LETTERS 📮

Today we vaccinated 1300 patients and it was was a very sleek service. No more than a 5 minute wait and hardly any queues.

We have been notified from some patients that they have not received their flu letters even though they were all posted at the same time. Some patients only received letters this morning!

If you are one of these patients please don’t panic just come to our next clinic on Saturday 25th October 2025 at the same time that is on your letter and we will get you vaccinated.

Thank you to everyone who turned out today, we always enjoy our Saturday clinics when we get to have a chat with our fantastic patients.

11/10/2025

10/10/2025

🩼🩼 Tomorrow is the first of our flu/covid clinics. We envisage this to be a very busy day at the Practice.

🚘🚙 We also envisage the car park to be busy as well. We have Stephen and Thomas as your attendants tomorrow and we would kindly ask that you follow their instructions when parking so that we can ensure disabled people get priority near the entrance and those more able bodied park at the rear carpark and walk to the entrance 🚶🚶‍♀️

There has been an extension to the carpark in the last couple of years which has made a great difference to the large volume of traffic. Not everyone needs to park at the entrance as this causes obstruction. We would encourage if you can to please use this.

This is for pedestrian safety and will also ensure everyone gets vaccinated in a timely manner.

Thank you for your cooperation.

10/10/2025

"What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation." – Glenn Close ☀️🗣️

Thank you to Louise, our amazing Mental Health Practitioner, for arranging a beautiful breakfast buffet for the staff on World Mental Health Day. Also we want to thank you for looking after our patients and our staff and ensuring we maintain good mental health. 💖

Pictured is Trestment Room Nurse Helen enjoying a few treats this morning 🥰

09/10/2025

🩼🩼 Any patients eligible to have the Flu Vaccine come your GP surgery this year should by now have received a letter from the practice. The categories for Flu are:
- Age: Everyone aged 65 and over.
- Children: Children aged 2 and 3
- Health Conditions: Anyone aged 6 months to under 65 wirh certain long-term health conditions.

🦠 This year the Department of Health has changed the criteria for the COVID Vaccination. Those eligible are:
- Age: Everyone aged 75 and over.
- Health: Anyone aged 18 to 74 who have a health condition or on medication that includes them as ‘Severely immunocompromised’ ( this is a very small number of our practice population)
Unfortunately we cannot deviate from the guidance provided by the Department of Health.

🗓️ If you are unable to attend the appointment date/time on uour letter please contact reception where one of the receptionists will make arrangements for an alternative.

We have approximately 7200 eligible patients for Flu and there has been a huge effort gone into making our clinics run smoothly. We appreciate patience and understanding at this busy time and rest assure everyone is doing their best to keep you safe this winter! 😊

07/10/2025

👼 October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss awareness month. Here are details of a local coffee morning in aid of Billie’s Little Angel Gowns NI 👼

05/10/2025

At present GP practices are constantly under scrutiny from the General Public but the truth is we’ve never worked harder. Here are are a few figures to help patients understand why the phone lines are busy and why it takes 48 hours to process a prescription.

Last week from Monday 29/9/25 to Friday 03/10/25 there were:

- 2088 telephone calls answered (averaging 56 calls per hour)
- 7344 items of prescription processed, this via the voicemail service/online/paper requests
- hundreds of patients arriving at the reception desk each day
- 1429 incoming laboratory results
- 1992 appointments carried out in Ballymoney Family Practice during the week.
- 798 individual letters coming from hospital and other outside agencies which staff gave to scan and GPs to action

This doesn’t include the mammoth registration tasks that take place behind the scenes, preparation of medical records, sorting of post and many more tasks which are unseen but vital to running your GP Practice.

We are very lucky that the good people of Ballymoney support us on a daily basis. We again ask for your continued support so that we can maintain a safe and efficient service to our patients as we start a busy week ahead. Remember a kind word to the staff means so much 😊

21/09/2025

📚✍️ On WEDNESDAY 24th September 2025, the Ballymoney Family Practice Team will be taking part in staff training and development. ✍️📚

☎️ Therefore our phones lines and reception will be open Wednesday from 8.30am and will close at 1.00pm. Dalriada Urgent Care will be available for anyone unable to wait 📞

Our online services will continue including the ability to book GP appointments and order prescriptions if you have an online account.

Remember you may also telephone 02827660301, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to order repeat prescriptions via the voicemail facility.
(Please always allow 48 working hours for prescriptions to be processed)

If you require a Doctor in an emergency please contact Dalriada Urgent Care - 028 2566 3500.👨‍⚕️

Our ongoing training and development and team building for all staff is of the utmost importance, this ensures that we are up to speed with the latest front line care systems to help deliver a first class service to our patients and to maintain our staffs emotional health and well being in the workplace.

Normal hours will resume on Thursday.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

21/09/2025

🥰 Today is world gratitude day. Today we are grateful for our NHS created in 1948 to ensure that everyone has access to free healthcare and we are blessed that we still have this today.

We also show our appreciation to all the staff working within the NHS and the complexity of the efforts they put in 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Lastly we show gratitude to all the wonderful staff who work in Ballymoney Family Practice, our GPs, Reception Team, Practice Nurses, Treatment Room Staff, District Nurses, Physios, Mental Health Practitioners, Social Workers, Pharmacists, Health Visitors and Counsellors. Especially at this time when resources are stretched and everyone is working as hard as possible we want you to know that we are grateful for the services you give to our local community and for going over and beyond to help when people need you most! ♥️

Thank you ☺️

20/09/2025

🕺🪩 We all at Ballymoney Family Practice are extremely proud of our very own Adam Wilson, Physiotherapist who very bravely took himself out of his comfort zone and entered a dance competition ‘Strictly through the Decades’. Adam danced in memory of his friend Kerry McFadden-Newman who sadly passed away earlier this year. He has spent months rehearsing for this huge event this evening and has put in a tremendous amount of work!

🚴 Normally you would see Adam leaving work to cycle home or taking the staff out on a Wednesday lunch time dander but never quick stepping his way through the waiting area! Tonight his family and his friends here at the Practice gathered at the Lodge Hotel to support and cheer him and wow what a performance. 🤩

Unfortunately Adam didn’t win the competition but there was a huge amount of money raised for the chosen charity, Alzheimer’s Society, which was of course the main focus of the evening.

Even though he didn’t officially win he will aways be the best in our eyes! Well done Adam! 🏅

17/09/2025

Anyone looking information on education system? Send Elaine an email and she will send you through the link.

12/09/2025