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Health
Screening for prostate cancer in men
Many men over 50 years old are concerned that they could be developing prostate cancer, especially as this is the commonest cancer in men in the UK. We therefore frequently get requests for tests for prostate cancer. If you have urinary symptoms we recommend you to make an appointment to see your doctor in the first instance. Symptoms of particular concern are blood in the urine or in the semen, or increasing difficulty with passing urine and a poor urine stream.
If you do not have symptoms you may still think it would be a good idea to have the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test. Unfortunately this does not reliably show whether or not a man has prostate cancer, indeed studies of PSA screening have shown little overall impact on death rates and it results in a lot of men being treated unnecessarily. For this reason it is not generally recommended, but the test is available from the Health Centre to those who have made an informed decision to undergo it. An information sheet to help decide whether to have a PSA test is available at http://www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk/prostate/prostate-patient-info-sheet.pdf or from the Health Centre. An excellent on line decision aid is at www.prosdex.com.
Non NHS work
Our contract with the NHS covers the provision of medical services to the practice population. Other work is not funded by the NHS and therefore will normally attract a charge.
Some fees for non-NHS work are paid by a third party, for example medical examinations for insurance, writing reports for employers, medical reports for the local authority and providing information to solicitors. In these cases the third party will usually pay us directly. In other instances when we provide non-NHS services, we will request payment directly from the patient concerned; examples are as follows:
- PSV and HGV driver medical examinations.
- Claim forms for private medical insurance.
- Immigration medical reports and examinations.
- Letters and notes certifying fitness to participate in certain activities.
- Letters to education and housing authorities and other letters written at the patient’s request (but these are usually not beneficial and we recommend you check with the relevant authorities before asking for such letters).
- Forms for claiming on travel insurance when holidays are cancelled on medical grounds.
- Countersigning passport application forms.
- Private sickness certificates.
The full scale of charges is available on our website and from reception.
News from Wendover Health Centre
Our website
A wealth of information about Wendover Health Centre, and material on health, lifestyle and common diseases including flu is available at: http://www.westongrove.com/.
