Patient Group Newsletter - uppergordonroadsurgery.co.uk

1 THE GOSSIP Upper Gordon Road Surgery Patient Group Newsletter With Christmas just a few weeks away, here is a quick update on the practice happenings over the last few months and for events going forward. Asking the reason why you want to visit the doctor The GPs require the receptionists to ask for the reason for your visit to the GP or Nurse this is so that patients are sign posted to the most appropriate person to deal with their concern, helping the practice use all its resources effectively. This is particularly important for Urgent Appointments on the Day. Some patients are reluctant to give this information, but our reasoning is, if you needed the 111 Service or 999, you would need to explain the reason for your call to those services and in reality we are no different to them.

2 So, we would ask that you please treat our receptionists respectfully when they make this request. We do understand that it is sometimes difficult at the front reception desk to give this information so a suggestion made at a colleague practice was to have a courtesy form so that the Patient can simply write this down, without speaking out loud. These will be available at reception. Texting/SMS Just as a follow up to the recent articles about this and how we are now using it in the practice, it has become increasingly evident that patients are either ignoring the reminders that are being sent or are changing their mobile numbers and not updating the practice with the new number. This is becoming more obvious because of the increasing number of patients not attending their appointments even when they have been sent a reminder by the practice 24hrs in advance (your medical records are amended to show this each time a reminder is sent to you).

3 If you are unable to attend the appointment, please text back to the practice as it instructs in the text message because that will automatically cancel your appointment and free it up for someone else. This is particularly helpful when we are struggling to manage capacity at this time of year. Thank you for your help and cooperation. New Appointment System - update Since 1st June when we started our new appointment system we have had a number of patients grumbling that they cannot get a routine appointment when they want one and that they are having to wait at least 2 weeks to see a doctor. Many of the patients who have commented have been longstanding patients of the practice and say they are disappointed in the changes. Issue 16: December 2016 R U G We are of course sorry if some patients find the changes we have made less than acceptable, but the changes have been made for a number of reasons which have been explained in previous newsletters but we are happy to reiterate some of the reasons again here: 1.

4 The average wait nationally for a routine appointment is 14 days and so we are very much in line with the normal booking time for routine appointments. 2. The urgent appointments available on the day are now only for patients who have urgent medical problems that could not wait until the next available routine problem 3. Telephone call requests for things such as xray results, pathology test results, repeat medications should NOT routinely be going to the doctors but directed to the appropriate option on the telephone system, so we politely request please that patients select more carefully. If the staff are not available a voicemail can be left and you will normally be contacted within 48 hours 4. The advance booking availability should allow patients to be able to book routine appointments well in advance to ensure that they are seen by a GP prior to running out of their repeat medication.

5 We would ask patients on regular medication to please try and organise your prescriptions & appointments ahead of time as many of the Urgent appointments & doctors phone calls are taken up with these types of last minute issues. 5. For those patients who have access to a computer, please consider signing up for Patient Access to book appointments and repeat medication on line. Forms are available at reception and on line on our website Flu Clinics 2016 Flu Clinics started on 24th September for patients who are eligible either through their age or because of their vulnerability to infection due to a medical condition. Text messages, e-mails and letters have been sent out to all eligible patients.

6 Uptake this year has been relatively low and we are guessing that apart from the cold snap in the last week or two, the weather has been unseasonably mild. However, patients should remember that this is often the ideal atmosphere for germs to spread, especially in the next few weeks when family will be in large numbers and close contact with each other so if you have not already had your flu jab, now would probably be a good time to ring and make an appointment to have it! This is not a good look for Christmas Day!!! Patient Evening Education Event Our First Patient Education Event took place on Monday 3rd October here at the surgery and we were staggered and delighted at the number of patients who attended the event. We had set up the room for about 35 anticipating (based on previous requests for participation) that we may get between 10 and 20 ended up putting extra seating in the room and eventually having to turn patients away because of lack of space and H&S.

7 To those of you who attended, thank you so much for your support and kind comments, and to those who could not attend or were unable to fit in the room on the night (!), we will be setting a date for a re-run of the evening in the next month or so. We will contact those who we know who could not get in as Marian took names on the night but a general invitation will go out again to everyone, so if you have already attended you can ignore that one. As mentioned on the night, we are hoping that we will be running these events 2 - 3 times a year so please keep an eye open for advance information in the newsletters and posted in the surgery. We may have to review where we hold the next one if attendance is likely to be as good for the next one! Changes to Staff Since the last Newsletter we have had a few changes to the staff in the practice so here is a quick update for you all.

8 We welcome back to the staff team Sue who worked for many years as a receptionist but is now working as part of the practice admin team. Denise who has worked as a receptionist and more recently as one of the reception team leaders has now moved to an administrative post as Practice Manager Assistant a role she now shares with Lesley. Helen has joined the practice and taken over Denise s role as Team Leader on reception alongside Marian. We welcome Aine (pronounced Onya) who has joined us a Practice Nurse and she will working full time. We said goodbye to Dr Kang who has now left us to take up a Partnership post in Richmond and to Dr Oshiga who left us at the end of October to take up a training role. However, we say welcome Dr Jeremy Heath who has joined us initially for 4 to 5 months up to Christmas but we are hoping to persuade him to stay a little longer if we can and also to Dr Nick Healey who is our new GP Registrar and will be with us until August 2017.

9 We also have another GP Registrar Dr Esther Blenke joining us from mid December for 5 months. We are still advertising and actively seeking another Salaried GP to join the team, but we are now also looking at alternatives to more doctors to manage the ever increasing workload. We are thinking of moving towards options such as Paramedic Practitioners and Nurse Practitioners who are autonomous clinicians and can manage much of the day to day acute one the day needs of patients, freeing up the doctors to manage patients with chronic health needs, long-term complaints and Palliative patients. We will keep you all updated Patient Participation Group Many years ago we had a very active Patient Group who participated in many fundraising and other events for the practice, but over the years this dwindled until about 5 or 6 years ago there were just 2 members!

10 We attempted to revive the Group with the option now of having a virtual Group because more and more patients are using electronic devices such as phones and computers to manage their lives and access information. Unfortunately, with the building extension work a few years ago and subsequent changes within the practice this has also dwindled mostly due to the additional workload we are now required to manage. We are therefore striving to resurrect the Patient Participation Group and would encourage anyone who feels they would be interested in joining to complete the form which is available on line or pick one up from reception. We are sticking with the virtual Group although I think it would be useful to meet once a year to review what has gone on in the previous 12 months and set some goals for coming year.