About Us...
History
The Forrest Medical Centre can trace its history back beyond the beginning of the NHS when Dr Elford practiced in Regent Street. He was joined by Drs Ballentine, Coghill and eventually by Dr George Forrest. At this stage the surgery was in “the old house” at 63 Allesley Old Road. This was inappropriate for modern practice and was replaced by the current Mount Street surgery in about 1975.
The branch surgery was attached to Dr Forrest’s house in Canley until 1990 when the current Prior Deram Walk surgery was built. At this time we became the Forrest Medical Centre in honour of our, by then retired, senior partner.
Our Canley site now also houses district nurses, health visitors, midwives, a counsellor, a dietician and various other health professionals.
Our Practice Philosophy
All the staff working in our practice are committed to enabling you to enjoy the best possible health. This involves us making ourselves as available to you, offering flexible surgery times, providing the best care and medicines within the resources available to us, and keeping you involved and informed at all stages of your care.
To help meet the full range of your needs we will sometimes have to work closely with other agencies, for example: hospital and community NHS trusts, local authority services (e.g. social services & housing departments) and voluntary agencies. We aim to play our part to the full in providing co-ordinated care varied to meet your unique requirements.
To help us achieve these objectives, we ask that you play your own role in this partnership. This involves you taking responsibility for your own health in relation to diet, exercise, smoking and other basic steps towards maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We will very happily provide any information or advice to help you with this. We would also ask that you take account of our needs in respecting doctors' advice, taking any prescribed medicine as directed and accessing services appropriately. This last point involves, for example:
- Requesting home visits only when really necessary.
- Trying to book appointments as far in advance as possible.
- Arriving on time or a few minutes early for your appointments.
- Informing us if you cannot attend a booked appointment.
- Notifying us of any changes to your name, address or telephone number.
- Giving us as much information as possible about previous illnesses.
