All Change, All Change. It’s Spring and we have lots of news of innovations and changes from the Surgery. Some of our very exciting news will have to wait until the next instalment as it’s not quite finalised. Please watch this space.
Hopefully everyone is through the worst of the winter infections, and we can start thinking about some of our general health and longer term condition prevention and management. See Tried and tested for dietary options. There is a push for the ongoing RSV vaccination programme to be completed. The PCN and local pharmacies will be starting the Covid spring boosters shortly. These can be booked via the NHS website:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/vaccination-and-booking-services/book-covid-19-vaccination/
At the practice, there are many Fond Farewells and Warm Welcomes amongst staff, both clinical and administrative colleagues to update you with since our Issue 2.
Meet the team is the PCN paramedics that visit our elderly housebound patients.
We were hoping to share the results of the initial AccuRx online and total triage results, unfortunately when we looked at the figures we realised we had not asked the questions in a way you found an entirely logical way, as the number of responses exceeded the number of users by a considerable margin. We will try it again with better phrased questions.
We have links to the ICB news letters for what is happening in the area.
Practice News:
Staff – Warm Welcomes and Fond Farewells
Since our last update on our practice staff we have had several new members join our team.
Dr Melissa Hobbs is our GP registrar, who is with us for a year to complete her GP training.
Denise Koppschall is an experienced nurse who has also trained to be a physician’s associate, who can see all age groups.
Chris Powell is our new Advanced Nurse Practitioner, he is extremely experienced in both primary and secondary care and a very valuable addition to our team.
Diana Hurlui is a very experienced nurse with emergency care and community experience who has moved into General Practice Nursing.
Our Care co-ordinators and GP assistants have completed training to do Health Care assistant procedures and you may see Kylie, Jade or Stacy for blood tests, ECG’s or NHS health checks.
We have Foundation year 2 Doctors who are with us for a short time. These Doctors are in their 2nd year after qualifying, Dr Dannielle Ching is currently with us on her General practice rotation.
Miranda is a very experienced Hospital Biochemist who is helping out with our blood test results.
Dr Chris Udenzi and Nurse Jane Collins are also helping out over the spring.
We have more new faces starting in the near future and will keep you up to date as time goes on.
We wish a fond farewell to Dr Chandni Radia and Dr Emmanuel Obiabo who are taking up posts closer to home.
Retirement season has been busy this year, we hope Paula (HCA), Helen (phlebotomist) and Cath (senior administrator) and Sally (reception) enjoy their chance for some free time.
Our Practice manager Mrs Jackie Horton has also retired, but we will be welcoming her back part time as our complaints investigator and information requests.
The management roles are being re organised and Mrs Julie Holloway will take on the role of overall Practice Manager. Ms Samantha Godden will be Deputy Practice Manager with Quality and Logistic Management responsibilities.
Quality and Outcome Framework:
Good News, end of year figures show we achieved 91% maximum points, this is a very high score (no practice can achieve 100% due to the way the points are calculated).
Practice innovations:
AI has arrived. It is truly revolutionary. We have been trialling several artificial intelligence modules. We have adopted the Tandem module that types up consultation notes. This integrates directly with our clinical system and produces an independent summary of the consultation, saving our clinicians significant time, to be able to concentrate on discussions with their patients and their problems, without trying to type up comprehensive notes while listening. This truly is a way of returning to the best of the old days (but with legible writing and without typo’s and spelling mistakes!)
We have more AI solutions in the pipe line, for the telephone system, watch this space. This will increase phone capacity and reduce waiting times.
We are attempting our AccuRx total Triage survey again. We have had positive informal feedback from this online request system with some commenting they were called to offer an appointment less than 5 minutes after sending in the online request. This has freed up capacity for our telephone, call numbers are now under 300 on most days, down from over 800 in October 2023. See end of this newsletter.
The GPsurgery.net web link has analysed our website usage over the last 30 days, it makes interesting reading, showing access to different services and information pages. Nearly 3,000 people accessed “do it on line” and “Appointment” section.
GPsurgery.net Practice Report – V1.1
Travel Vaccines:
We are all thinking of our summer holidays, some exotic destinations have equally exotic diseases and require vaccinations, the following vaccinations are available free on the NHS and are available at the surgery:
- Polio
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Cholera
All other travel vaccines will have to be paid for privately.
Stress Awareness Month:
April is stress awareness month, although since the change of faces in the Oval Office, every month seems to be making us more aware of our stress. If you have noticed that you are feeling more stressed than usual, please look at the following links and see if you could benefit from some of the self-help material, or contact the practice for further help.
https://www.stress.org.uk/stress-awareness-month-2025/
https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself
Meet the Team:
The Primary Care Network PCN Paramedic visiting team are visiting our Housebound Patients, and have helped to increase our capacity for our most vulnerable patients. They will be doing some routine annual health checks this year for some patients with long term conditions, such as heart failure and diabetes, as well as the usual urgent problems.
Tried and Tested:
Increased intake of processed carbohydrate (mainly flour and sugar) since 1980 is the driver for obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Lower carbs for better blood sugar control is very sensible. Our clinicians have been advising lowering sugar and processed Carbohydrates for years, especially for patients who have diabetes or pre diabetes, Freshwell Low carb are offering a programme with the Fellowship of St Nicholas to help patients with type 2 diabetes get control of their blood sugars.
If you cannot attend this, Diabetes UK has a sensible diet and plenty of advice for stabilising blood sugars:
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/living-with-diabetes/eating/meal-plans/low-carb
Patient with type 2 diabetes can access a freestyle libre2 monitor from the manufacturers Abbott. These are not usually prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes by the NHS, but they can be a helpful short term educational tool to look at what in your diet is affecting your blood sugars adversely:
https://www.freestyle.abbott/uk-en/getting-started/sampling.html
Dexacom are also offering a similar product for free trial.
https://www.dexcom.com/en-GB/one-plus-campaign-sample
These samples are not for altering medication without training, they are for dietary information and interest only.
We particularly liked some of the BBC low carbohydrate recipes:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/low-carbohydrate-recipes
ICB News:
Nationally ICB’s have been instructed to reduce costs by 50%, by quarter 3 of the new financial year, this is on top of the 30% reduction last year (Sussex ICB achieved 20% reduction) We are unclear at this stage if this will have a direct effect on our front line general practice services, that will be noticed. Update in later issues.
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-7-february-2025/
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-14-february-2025/
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-21-february-2025/
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-28-february-2025
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-7-march-2025/
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-14-march-2025/
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-21-march-2025/
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-28-march-2025/
https://www.sussex.ics.nhs.uk/nhs-sussex-news-4-april-2025/
Initial AccuRx Total triage survey results:
Survey of Appointments and AccuRx Total Triage:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NRS8HBS
