Practice Newsletter: March 2025

 

Building Works

We are excited to share an update on our ongoing renovations!

Our brand new reception desk is now in place, offering a fresh and welcoming look to start your visit to the Practice.

We hope you are as joyful as we are with these improvements.

Thank you for your continued patience and understanding during this time. 

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Patient Survey

We would like to remind you that the National Patient Survey is running until the end of March. The GP Patient Survey is an independent survey run by IPSOS MORI on behalf of NHS England. The survey is sent out to over a million people across the UK. The results show how people feel about their GP practice.

If invited to complete this survey, we ask that you please complete your questionnaires and send them off promptly. If you need any help completing the survey, we are able to provide any support you may require.

We remain grateful for your support and continual constructive feedback.

 
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How to Book an Appointment

  • Visit our website
  • Complete a request form. 
  • The completed form will be processed by our trained navigation team and you will be contacted with the outcome.
  • This could be a link sent to your phone to book an appointment, a direct telephone call, self-care advice, or navigation to a service that is more appropriate to help and support you.

If your request is deemed clinically appropriate for a GP appointment, this will be categorised under three levels of urgency:

  1. Same day
  2. Within 3 working days
  3. Within 10 working days

If you do not have a phone or you are less able to use the online form, please contact the Practice and inform staff who will be willing to support you in completing the online form.

  • If you require an appointment outside the surgery’s opening hours please contact 111 or visit NHS 111 online
  • Please do not queue outside the surgery before 8am to gain an appointment as one will not be offered.
  • Please do not attend the surgery to book an appointment, request a prescription or for routine enquiries. Instead, please send your request through here.
 

Requesting a Repeat Prescription

  • You can request your repeat prescriptions online. It is quick, easy and secure. In order to do this, go to our website. Repeat prescriptions take 48 hours to process. This is two working days not including the weekend or bank holidays.
  • Requests that are not on repeat i.e. past medications, hospital letters or hospital prescriptions which are ticked non-urgent etc.
  • will take longer to process (possibly up to 3-4 working days) as the doctor needs to look at these and may need to refer to your medical history.
  • Hospital prescriptions which are ticked as urgent or for collection at the hospital should be taken to the hospital pharmacy for dispensing.
  • If requesting past medication (which will take longer than 2 working days to process) please state clearly on the request why you are asking for it. We deal with over 100 requests daily so please help us to make this process run as smoothly as possible.
  • You are required to have regular blood tests for some medications. Your prescription might be delayed if your blood tests are not up to date
  • If you have regular repeat prescriptions which do not change, please ask for repeat dispensing.
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Telephones

  • Our telephone system offers an option to request a call back which saves your place in the queue, and as you approach the top of the queue we call you back so you will not need to hang on the phone the whole time
  • We proactively telephone some of our vulnerable patients to check in with them
  • Your requested GP will return your call within a given time frame if appropriate to do so
 

Facts and Figures

Here are some facts and figures about our activities in February:

  • 4558 incoming calls
  • 3816 calls answered (83.7%)
  • 1038 telephone appointments
  • 8554 appointments offered
  • 515 Blood tests
  • 3001 prescriptions issued
  • 36 Home Visits
  • Friends and Family Test: 98.2% of patients surveyed rated our services as very good or good.
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Wasted Appointments 

If you were not able to get the appointment you wanted in February, that could be that of the 8554 appointments we offered, 315 (3.68%) people who booked, did not show up and failed to cancel. 

 

Zero tolerance

We are here to help you and our aim is to be polite and helpful at all times. However, shouting at, and being aggressive towards Practice staff and other patients will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

We will report any case of verbal or physical abuse to the police and offenders will be removed from our practice list. 

 
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Practice Closure

We will close for staff training on Wednesday 12 March 2025 at 12pm and reopen at 8am on Thursday 13 March.

If you need urgent medical assistance which cannot wait until the surgery reopens, please contact SELDOC who will be providing GP cover on
07515 922 725. For chest pain or collapse please dial 999.

Regards,

Antonia

Published: Mar 7, 2025