Longrove Surgery Newsletter
Spring 2016
70 Union Street EN5 4HT
www.longrovesurgery.co.uk
Crisis in general practice
Over 90% of patient contacts in the health service take place in general practice.
Within general practice we treat minor conditions and recognise the more serious problems then refer them onto specialists. We also manage complex problems. An efficient well organised healthcare model with care close to the patient is recognised as the ideal healthcare model by the World Health Organisation.
A number of issues have combined to lead to the situation we find ourselves in at present. The
NHS has been chronically underfunded for many years. While funding has increased over the years compared to other developed countries we have fallen further behind. Within general practice the increase in funding has fallen as a percentage of total NHS spending.
Hospital funding has increase by 40% over the last decade in comparison general practice funding has fallen from 11% to less than 8% of total NHS spending.
Over 80% of GPs say they have insufficient funding to provide high quality patient care.
Across general practice we have seen an increase in demand more treatments to offer. Compared to 10 years ago general practice now has 40,000,000 extra consultations each year.
Our GPs now spend a lot more of their day filling in forms and box ticking in order to claim back their funding. Local commissioning now allows GPs to choose what services and from where but this also increases their workload.
We continue to back the put patient’s first campaign to raise GP funding to 11% of the NHS budget
For more details see
www.facebook.com/rcgp.org
Twitter@rcgp #putpatientsfirst
www.rcgp.org.uk
PRESCRIPTIONS
PLEASE HAND IN YOUR PRESCRIPTION REQUESTS AT LEAST 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE IN ORDER TO GIVE US TIME TO PROCESS THEM. YOU CAN EITHER FILL OUT A FORM IN THE SURGERY, BRING IN YOUR REPEAT PRESCRIPTION FORM OR REQUEST THE PRESCRIPTION ONLINE VIA OUR WEBSITE
Community Pharmacists
Our doctors and nurses spend time each week discussing minor conditions. Don’t forget your local pharmacy can give advice and give you medication for the conditions listed below:
· Acne
· Athelete3s foot
· Back Pain
· Cold sores
· Conjunctivitis
· Constipation
· Coughs
· Cystitis
· Diarrhoea
· Earache
· Ear wax
· Fever
· Haemorrhoids
· Hay fever
If we get it wrong!
Our team are human and we can all make mistakes. If you feel we have made an error or could have behaved better please let us know that way we can learn and improve.
We welcome face to face feedback but if you would prefer you can write in to our practice manager. Please see our website for more details.
Dementia
The numbers of people living with dementia are no close to 1 million.
Without a diagnosis they have limited access to support or potential treatment.
If you have concerns about your memory your notice your memory is getting worse or it affects your everyday life then you should seek advice.
If you find yourself getting confused even when in a familiar situation, have problems thinking things through or find it hard to follow conversations then make an appointment to see the GP.
You can also visit www.alzheimers.org.uk.