Newsletter Autumn 2026
Welcome to our Autumn Newsletter
We’re pleased to welcome you to our latest newsletter, with helpful updates to support your health & wellbeing over the coming months.
Autumn is a great time to enjoy the outdoors, & keep active in ways you enjoy. As the days get cooler & evenings draw in, remember to stay warm & eat well. It’s also a good time to check that you’re up to date with any vaccinations you may be eligible for, including flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.
- Flu & COVID season
- Liphook News
- GP News
- PPG Event
- Appointments
- Call flows
- Bowel Screening
- Dispensing
- Blood Specimens
Flu & COVID Saturday Clinics
Our Saturday clinics are running on 3rd, 10th & 17th October, 8am–12pm, at Swan Surgery, Liphook Station Road & Riverside Surgery, Liss.
Please check your appointment confirmation & attend the site you have booked. Thank you for helping us keep things running smoothly!
Can’t make a Saturday? We also have weekday appointments available. Please call the practice after 2pm to book.
Click Here for more informaion.
SMG Surgery News
A familiar building in the heart of Liphook is about to begin a new chapter!
We are delighted to share some exciting news with our patients. We have recently purchased the former Lloyds Bank building in the centre of Liphook Village, immediately adjacent to our current Liphook Village Surgery. The building, which also benefits from a large car park, is ideally located and provides us with an exciting opportunity to create a new, modern surgery for the residents of Liphook. We are now beginning the process of planning and renovating the building, with the aim of creating a welcoming, purpose-designed environment that will better meet the needs of our patients and our team.
As part of this project, our intention is to bring together our two existing Liphook surgery premises into this one central location. Consolidating our services into a single building will allow us to make better use of our facilities and resources, while providing a more joined-up experience for patients and staff. There is still a great deal of work to do before the new surgery is ready, and we will keep you updated as the plans develop, including information about the renovation, timescales and what the changes will mean for you. We are very excited about this next chapter and look forward to creating a surgery that will serve the Liphook community for many years to come.
GP News
Dr Smith from our Riverside site is currently on maternity leave and we are delighted to announce that she has welcomed a healthy baby boy. We send our warmest congratulations to Dr Smith and her family and wish them all the very best during this special time.
We’re delighted to welcome Dr Kumar to the Swan Medical Group team. Dr Kumar will be joining us to care for Dr Smith’s patients while she is away. Please join us in giving Dr Kumar a warm welcome and making them feel part of the Swan family!
We would also like to let patients know that Dr Parker will be remaining with the practice but will be changing her role and, going forward, will no longer have her own patient list.
Sadly, we will also be saying goodbye to Dr Papadakos from our Liphook site, who will be leaving the practice in September.
Dr Papadakos has been a valued member of our team for the past 5 years, and we would like to thank her for all her hard work and dedication to our patients during her time with us. We are actively recruiting for GP replacements and are hopeful that we will have some positive news to share with you soon. In the meantime, we would like to reassure all patients that you will continue to be looked after by our large and experienced team of GPs, alongside our established nursing, administrative and wider practice staff with appropriate arrangements in place to ensure continuity of care.
We appreciate that changes to the GP team can sometimes cause uncertainty, but we want to reassure you that we have a strong and established team who will continue to provide care and support throughout this period. We will keep you updated as our recruitment progresses and share further information about any changes to patient lists in due course.
PPG—Prostate Cancer Awareness hour
On Saturday 22nd Aug in collaboration with our Patient Participation Group (PPG), Swan Medical Group ran a Prostate Cancer Awareness hour at Liss Pavilion with guest speaker Dr Steve Allen. We’d like to thank the Petersfield Lions, March for Men with Kev, PCaSO and our PPG for helping make this a success. There are various PSA testing event organised throughout the region—look out for future dates here https://pcaso.org/book-a-psa-test/ by appointment only.
Helping Us Keep Appointments Running Smoothly
Our appointments are carefully timed, so please arrive on time to help us keep clinics running smoothly & avoid delays for other patients.
If you arrive more than 5 minutes late, your clinician will decide whether they can still see you. This will depend on how late you are, the type & length of your appointment, whether seeing you would significantly delay other patients & whether your clinician can complete the necessary assessment safely & appropriately within the remaining time.
If there isn’t enough time to see you safely or meet these commitments, you may be asked to rebook your appointment. We understand that unexpected circumstances happen & will always do our best to help where we can. Thank you for helping us make the most of every appointment.
How Do We Manage Our Telephone Calls?
At Swan Medical Group we provide two dedicated Telephone Hubs, supporting patients across all five of our practice sites.
Our trained Call-Handling teams manage calls for appointments & general enquiries with support from our clinical team when patients need further advice or guidance.
Our Reception Teams also answer calls alongside their face-to-face work, helping us respond to patients as quickly as possible.
By working together across all five sites, our teams help make sure you reach the right person & receive the right support when you need it, providing a consistent, responsive service.
NHS Bowel Cancer Screening – Don’t Miss Your Invitation
We’re encouraging all eligible patients to take part in the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. Around 400 patients who have not yet completed their FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Test) have recently been contacted by text as part of our work to support early detection of bowel cancer.
Who is eligible? Everyone aged 50–74 is offered a FIT home test every two years. If you’re 75 or over, you can request a test by calling the bowel cancer screening helpline.
This is a simple home test that can help detect bowel cancer early, when treatment is more likely to be successful. If you’ve received a screening kit, please take a few minutes to complete & return it.
Need a replacement kit or have a question? Please contact the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme directly on EMAIL: rsc-tr.bcspsouthernhub@nhs.net or TELEPHONE: 0800 707 6060
Please note that we do not stock bowel screening kits at our practice sites. Replacement kits must be requested directly from the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.
Taking part could make a real difference.
If you receive an invitation, please don’t ignore it.
Medication Collection Services (Dispensing)
Our dispensing team provides a convenient medication collection service from Liss Surgery & Liphook Village Surgery, Monday to Friday, between 8am and 6:30pm.
We are able to dispense to patients who live one mile or more from their nearest community pharmacy, measured as the “crow flies”, in line with NHS regulations. If you qualify against this criteria, or would like us to check if you qualify & would like your medications dispensed by us, please contact the surgery after 2pm.
Blood Tests & Specimen collections
We offer blood test appointments across all five of our practice sites. However, please note that the specimen collection times vary between locations. As a result, some sites are unable to offer blood test appointments beyond a certain time of day, as samples must be collected within the courier collection window.
If you require a later appointment, this may be possible at one of our other sites with a later specimen collection time. Alternatively, if you are happy to do so, you may choose to transport your blood sample to one of our other sites for collection, allowing us to offer a later appointment at your preferred location.