There has not been a lot of news from the Surgery as it is the Holiday season, however we will try to keep things seasonal and light hearted as the prospect of winter approaches.
Thank you if you voted in the flu clinic format vote and we have arranged the clinics as was voted most popular.
A little later in the year we will be doing RSV vaccination clinics and will offer you the chance to vote again. We will explain about this programme in the news section.
Thank you to everyone who showed interest in the enhanced access check field trip, unfortunately a lot of people did not leave their details, the surveys are anonymous, so we can’t identify you, if you would like to leave your name and contact details, we will get back to you.
News:
GP news in the media:
As you are aware we have a new government and we would like General practice to be a priority to this government so that we can improve patient care into the future.
If you would like to support General practice to rebuild please consider writing to your MP.
Get Involved | Rebuild General Practice (rebuildgp.co.uk)
Lung News:
After the exciting news of the new targeted lung screening programme in the last issue, our patients will start being called shortly for assessment. Remember lung cancer is only curable when caught early, usually before there are symptoms, with cancer “the earlier the better” is the only rule that matters. Please take up the offer of the screening if it is offered to you.
RSV
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) causes a nasty bronchiolitis infection in children under 1, but also a severe lung infection and hospitalisation in the older adult. The new RSV vaccine programme is being extended to pregnant mothers (to protect their babies with a boost to antibodies in the same way whooping cough vaccination has been successfully offered for about 15 years now). In the 75-79 year olds, selected in the first season, it should provide at least 2 years of cover.
We will be offering this to the eligible group of patients after we have completed an early flu campaign this year. There are other vaccines you may be offered to protect you from lung infections, as well as the annual flu, Covid-19 is 6 monthly for the over 65’s and risk groups, Pneumococcal vaccine is usually a one off at 65, unless you have specific immunity issues such as a splenectomy, when it may be 5 yearly.
The RSV vaccine is not being used in the infant vaccination programmes, even though they are a risk group, it is hoped the maternal antibodies will provide sufficient protection. There are 2 monoclonal antibody vaccines developed for infants at very high risk, nirsevimib and palivizumab. These are not part of the routine programme.
Your guide to the RSV vaccine for older adults (PDF)
Flu Clinics
Clinics will be available by pre-booking an appointment, those so far arranged are:
Harold Road
Tues 1st October – Extended Access 6.30-8pm
Thurs 3rd October – Extended Access 6.30-8pm
Friday 4th October – Extended Access 6.30-8pm
Tuesday 8th October – Extended Access 6.30-8pm
Thursday 10th October – Extended Access 6.30-8pm
Friday 11th October – Extended Access 6.30-8pm
Saturday 12th October – Extended Access 9am to 4pm
Fairlight Village Hall
Monday 7th October – Morning only
Results of the Survey vote, thank you to the 616 patients who expressed a preference
Meet the Team:
This issue we are introducing you to the Call Desk, as you will never meet them face to face, unless you venture north for a tour of Manchester music venues.
Our Mancunian Team are so excited to be featured in the newsletter. They offer “Service with a Smile”, from their “Hot Desk” in Manchester.
Unfortunately we have had some negative comments in social media about the fact they are from Manchester. The Call Team have extensive training in being a call handler and using the computer phone systems before they become part of our team, then they have further intensive training to use our computer system, triage templates and to spot potentially poorly patients that need immediate attention. All their calls are recorded and monitored for training and if we get complaints about the calls, we do listen to them.
We have had isolated requests for appointments with “English Speaking Doctors”. All consultations at the Surgery are conducted in English unless we are informed in advance where we will try to accommodate the services of a translator.
Supply and demand management
We are currently losing the equivalent of a whole clinician to unattended appointments/ did not attend/ the infamous DNA. This is an expensive waste of time for everyone. If you forget to come to a booked appointment we will be contacting you, politely at first. If the issue is persistent without a good reason we will be less understanding, and after 3 no shows we will require you to register with another GP practice. Having said that, we appreciate that there have been problems with the priority cancellation line, the phone engineers assure us that it is sorted, if you experience issues trying to cancel an appointment, please let us know.
We are implementing a High frequency attenders scheme in order to better meet the needs of all our patients. For patients who attend frequently we are offering a proactive approach where, in regular planned appointments with the same clinician we can look more widely at the important issues for that person. We have had some positive engagement so far and we will keep you informed of progress.
Innovations
Lab-bot is out of the dog house, on a short leash, if you get any slightly odd blood test messages, please let us know, we think the algorithms are behaving themselves. To help Lab-bot out we have been making use of doctors in training, these highly motivated senior students have been cracking through the normal results, and applying the risk assessment calculations for the cholesterol results, to keep them away from Lab-bot.
The list for new patient registrations is opening has been scheduled for the 1 October, and we are reassured that Reg-bot will be up and running without a glitch, we will be keeping a close eye it does not wander off.
Apologies
The Healthy Hastings walking football initiative through the primary care network has not landed well with all of our patients. In an effort not to be ageist or discriminatory you may have received a text about this which you felt does not apply to you. Please ignore if its of no interest, this was basically offered to most of our male population, I am sure if there is interest from your wives and partners we could ask them to extend it to everyone.
Patient Experience
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Survey results:
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