Richmond Medical Group 2015-10-20 Person 5 5 0

I am a relatively new patient at the Sheen Lane Health Centre and had never had a potentially serious problem before today, only a couple of routine matters. I had a very nasty insect bite just below my calf muscle, probably contracted in Richmond Park (where there have been warnings about ticks and Lyme's Disease and other hazards) which had blown up into a horrible big wobbling blister.I'd tried a tea-tree-based antiseptic and an anti-histamine but to no effect.It was getting worse, with the bulbous blister beginning to ooze alarmingly. Having taken advice in my local pharmacy (Dumler's) - where I know Maryam the pharmacist well - I phoned the Sheen Lane surgery, asking for an appointment. The receptionist was tremendously helpful, taking on board the key symptoms, promising to get a doctor to phone me back. Minutes later I received a call from Dr Sophie Jukes, exactly as promised. After a short and succinct discussion Dr Jukes asked me to attend the surgery within the next 20 minutes, if possible. I immediately went to the surgery where I was called within less than five minutes. I had never met Dr Jukes before but instantly felt I was in safe hands. She carefully examined my 'spectacular bite', as she called it, and concluded that it probably wasn't a tick, but that I certainly needed an antibiotic. She checked my temperature to make sure I didn't have a fever and carefully drew a circle round the affected parts on my leg, explaining that I should immediately contact the surgery if there is any sign of the infection spreading beyond those lines. She checked that I don't have an allergic reaction to penicillin and gave me a prescription. All this had taken less than an hour from my phone call and I said how grateful and impressed I was. It was a model of how things should be conducted.