The Lambert Medical Centre
Autumn 2016 Newsletter
Staffing News
We have welcomed a few new members to the team: Gillian, Amy and Barbara to the Admin Team and Sarah to the Nursing team.
Gillian is working in the Reception team and Amy and Barbara are responsible for Typing, summarising of Patient notes and coding of hospital letters.
Sarah is a Healthcare Assistant and is with us covering maternity leave.
Dr Woodcock is currently on maternity leave having recently given birth to a little girl. We have Dr Beth Lowe and Dr Heidi Schwarze covering her sessions.
Vaccinations and Immunisations
FLU – we have our Saturday Flu Clinics on 24th September and 8th October. If you are aged 65 and over, or have a medical condition which puts you at risk or are pregnant you should come along to one of our Saturday sessions to receive your vaccination. The clinics start from 9am and run until 12 noon – there is no need to book. If you are unable to attend one of these clinics, we will be offering weekday clinics – just contact the surgery.
PNEUMONIA - If you are in an ‘at risk’ group you should be having a pneumonia vaccination, please contact the surgery to make an appointment with a nurse.
Also, if you are 65 or over and have not previously had pneumonia vaccination, please contact the surgery to make an appointment with a nurse.
SHINGLES - From September12016 the shingles vaccine isroutinelyavailable to people aged 70 and 78.You become eligible for the vaccine on the first day of September 2016afteryou've turned 70 or 78 and remain so until the last day of August 2017. In addition,anyone who was eligible for immunisation in thepreviousthree years of the programme butmissed out on their shingles vaccinationremains eligible until their 80th birthday. This includes:
· people aged 71, 72 and 73 on 1 September 2016
· people aged 79 on 1 September 2016
The shingles vaccine is not available on the NHS if you are aged 80 or over.
Clinical Pharmacist
The Medicines Management Team from the CCG are allocating pharmacists to work in surgery’s to support GP’s and to action medication swaps. The CCG issue a list of priorities and guidelines for the pharmacists to work to, they review patients on certain drugs and where it is perfectly safe to do so, they may initiate a swap from a branded drug to a generic medication, or a swap from one branded drug to another. It is hoped that this will generate significant savings for the CCG
Minor Ailments Scheme
As part of the 21st Century Primary Care programme, Heartbeat Alliance and Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby CCG have been working with Community Pharmacy North Yorkshire and NHS England to develop a local pilot scheme for a minor ailment service. This scheme is one of a range of services and ideas being tested through an allocation of NHS England funding to improve access within primary care and in this case, potentially to reduce demand on General Practice.
If you have any of the following conditions:
Acne, Athletes Foot, Cold sores, severe dandruff, hayfever, head lice, insect bites, nappy rash, oral thrush, threadworms, vaginal thrush, warts or verrucas you could see one of the pharmacists based in either Boots in the town centre or Tesco’s. The Pharmacist will be able to give advice and to prescribe and this may be a quicker option than getting a GP appointment. If you do not currently pay for your prescriptions then you won’t if the pharmacist prescribes to you.
Transforming Community Services
You will probably be aware that the CCG are currently going through a consultation period during which time they are consulting with the public on the options for Community Services in the future.
The CCG have been and continue to, have a presence in towns, villages and at public events so look out for them and let them know what you think. The consultation documentation can be found on the CCG website. www.hambletonrichmondshireandwhitbyccg.nhs.uk
Restriction on the prescribing of Gluten Free products.
There will be no prescribing of gluten free products from 1st September 2016 except for those in very exceptional circumstances. Please refer to the CCG website for further details
Online Access
Please remember, you can book GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions and view your summary care record online now through our website. This is a convenient and safe way to access these services and we encourage all patients to use this facility. All you need is your unique pin number which can be obtained from the surgery. Please be prepared to bring some form of ID with you when collecting your pin number.www.lambertmedicalcentre.co.uk
Appointments
We lose a lot of appointments each week through DNA’s – (Did Not Attends) Please remember that any appointment not kept has an impact on the number of appointments we have to offer. If you can’t keep an appointment please either ring the surgery or go online and cancel, this way we will have more appointments for everyone.
In August we had the equivalent of 148 ten minute appointments lost to DNAs – that’s a potential 148 additional patients that could have been seen.
If you haven’t already done so, please confirm your contact details at the surgery so we can text you an appointment reminder.
Prescriptions
These charges apply in England only. In Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales prescriptions are free of charge.
Prescription prepayment certificates (PPC)are available in England and they can save you money.
NHS prescription costs
· The current prescription charge is £8.40 per item(£16.80 per pair of elastic hosiery).
· A three monthly PPC is £29.10and could save you money if you need more than three prescribed items in three months.
· A 12-month certificate is £104.00 andcould save you money if you need more than 12 prescribed items in a year.
PPCs are available by 10 monthly direct debit instalment payments. The prescription prepayment certificates allow anyone to obtain all the prescriptions they need for £2 per week.
· Telephone advice and order line 0845 850 0030
· www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk
· Or ask at our Dispensary
There are a number of groups of people who may have exemption status from prescription charges due to age, low income or specified medical conditions – please refer to NHS CHOICES for further details.
Dishonestly claiming that you are exempt from charges is unlawful and unfair to the NHS. The NHS carries out checks to make sure people do not claim dishonestly.
Patients found to have wrongly claimed to be exempt from charges may be prosecuted for an offence that can lead to a criminal record. They would have to pay the charge due, plus a penalty charge of up to £100.
Don’t forget we have a Patient Participation Group:
PPGs are groups of active volunteer patients that work in partnership with practice staff and GPs – this unique partnership between patients and their practices is essential to achieving high quality and responsive care.
The group can help the practice by enabling us to be more proactive in providing the services that truly reflect what patients want and need.
We tend to communicate via email and meet up face to face just a couple of times a year so the commitment isn’t too onerous. We aim to have an inclusive and representative membership so…..
Please see our website for details on how to join.
www.lambertmedicalcentre.co.uk