Practice Newsletter: August 2024

GP Patient Survey 

We are grateful to those of you who responded to the national GP Patient Survey. People registered at GP surgeries across England were asked about their opinion of the services that they receive.
This survey was carried out by Ipsos on behalf of NHS England. Of the 437 surveys sent out 107 (representing 24%) results were received.

Details of the results can be found by following this link. We have started to address some of the issues highlighted in the survey.

Wasted Appointments

If you were not able to get the appointment you wanted in July, that is probably because, of the 9664 face to face appointments we offered, 338 (3.49%) people who booked, did not show up, and failed to cancel. To cancel, please follow the link provided in the text message. It could be you needing the appointment next time.

Flu Season 2024/2025

We have ordered our vaccines this year taking into account the number of patients on our register. Please support us this year by having your flu vaccination at the Practice. By going elsewhere for your flu vaccination, we will have excess vaccines resulting in wastage. In order to gain maximum benefit, you are advised to have the jab as early as possible. For this year’s programme we will offer the vaccines as per the following cohorts:

From 1 September 2024:

• Pregnant women
• All children aged 2 or 3years on 31 August 2024
• All children in clinical risk groups aged from 6 months to less than 18 years

From October 2024, we will offer the following to:

• Those aged 65 and over
• Those aged 18 years to under 65 years in clinical risk groups
• Those in long stay residential care homes
• Carers in receipt of Carer’s allowance, or main Carer of an elderly or disabled person
• Close contacts of immunocompromised individuals

We are expecting our deliveries around 2 September 2024. We will shortly be advertising details of our clinics and sending reminder texts. It is essential that you respond and attend when invited. Additionally, to those who have not previously had the vaccination, we will be offering pneumococcal and/or shingles to reduce the chance of getting these conditions. 

When You Arrive Late

We appreciate that sometimes it is difficult to be on time for your appointment due to various reasons. Please let us know in advance, if at all possible. Please do not expect to be seen if you just arrive late – the doctor or nurse will make the decision whether you can be seen. You may be asked to rebook your appointment. 

Staff Changes

We said goodbye to our rotation GP Registrars/FY2 doctors, Dr David Breen, Dr Robin Walsh, Dr Aone Sethibe, Dr Mariama Marfo, and Dr Daniel Jenkins, We wish them well on their next rotation. A warm welcome to Dr Kolawole Tytler, Dr Chiron Velho, Dr Georgina Ali, Dr Fabbiha Ashad, Dr Georgina Knapman, and Dr Mia Davies. We also said goodbye to two members of the care navigating team, Ruby Brown and Sapphire McFarlane, and a warm welcome to Semea Khan who joined the care navigating team.

Cyber Attack - NonUrgent Blood Tests

We are pleased to inform you that our services are gradually resuming to normal following the recent cyber attack. A significant amount of test orders and results can now be received electronically. We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging period, and we apologise once again for any inconvenience caused. If you have any concerns or need to contact someone regarding the incident, please call the helpline number on 03458 778967 or visit NHS England » Synnovis cyber incident.

We are working hard to clear the backlog that resulted from this attack, and appointments are being arranged. If you receive an invitation from us to book an appointment for a blood test, we ask that you do this promptly to ensure your care is managed safely and efficiently. We thank you for your continued support.

Global IT Outage

On Friday 19 July, Microsoft systems suffered from a global IT outage. We are pleased to inform you that our existing systems and procedures were put to the test during this outage. Our staff did exceptionally well in quickly activating our established systems, and we are proud of how these were handled. We are thankful to our team of doctors, nurses, care navigators and admin staff who worked very hard to ensure our systems ran smoothly. We will continue to review our systems with a view to making ongoing improvements to ensure we maintain high standards of service 

Practice Closure

We will close for bank holiday on Monday 26 August and reopen on Tuesday 27 August. In an emergency, such as chest pain or collapse please call 999 to speak to the emergency services. To see a doctor when we are closed, please call 111 for advice.

Regards, Antonia

Published: Aug 5, 2024