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Medway LARC networking project

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Information about our service

This service is operating in a different way.  Please see our Sexual Health Service for more information.

Please note that during Covid-19, some surgeries have decided to temporarily suspend accepting referrals from patients not registered with their own practice or are unable to offer a LARC service at this time.

We anticipate this situation may change. In the meantime, please contact either Clover Street or Sarah Perkins directly (sarahperkins3@nhs.net) for the most recent update.

Keep up-to-date with the latest information, read our page on Coronavirus.

If you are a GP practice in Medway and would like to offer coils and implants (LARC) to your patients but don’t have the provision to fit them, we can help.

We have seven GP practices across Medway (see below) that are happy to accept patients from other practices in order to fit coils and implants. We hope that this will help you to offer more LARC fittings to your patients, and so benefit people across Medway.

Why?

Long acting reversible contraception is proven to be the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancy in younger women.

  • Uptake of coils and subdermal implants is directly related to a decrease in unplanned pregnancies / termination.
  • Medway has a higher than national average of teenage pregnancies.
  • The aim of the network project is to increase the uptake of LARC for women of all ages in Medway, acknowledging that not every GP practice has the time or resources to offer LARC.

Please follow the referral pathway carefully and note the following

  • Practices can only accept patients that are Medway residents
  • The networking project can take referrals for coil fittings only. Coil removals can either be arranged by a patient’s own GP surgery or the Medway sexual health team.
  • The networking project can accept referrals for both implant fittings and removals
  • These practices are only able to offer an appointment for the actual procedure, so patients must be counselled in their chosen method before they are referred.
  • We have created a referral pathway for each procedure to ensure that the patient and clinician have all the relevant information they need beforehand. This will need to be completed with the patient and then sent, along with the prescription for the device, to the appropriate surgery who will then contact the patient with an appointment date and time.
  • We are working with the CCG to have these forms loaded onto DXS and will let you know when this has happened.  In the meantime, you will need to use paper copies which can be found on this page.
  • Please be aware that the patient will only be offered the LARC method they have been counselled for.
  • DNAs will be referred back to your surgery.
  • Coil patients will also be offered a repeat appointment by the fitting practice for a six week check.  Should there be any issues arising from the procedure, they will be asked to contact their own GP initially.

Please do not give the device to the patient to take as this often results in sterile packaging being opened beforehand and the device unable to be used.

Surgeries offering LARC

Apex Medical Centre
The Medical Centre
Gun Lane
Strood ME2 4UW
Contact: Hayley Mills on 01634 729 681 or hayley.mills1@nhs.net

Bryant Street Medical Practice
The Medical Centre,
29 Bryant St
Chatham ME4 5QS
Contact: Lisa Wellfair on 01634 848911 or lisawellfair@nhs.net