NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2016
HELLO AND GOODBYE
As many of you will know Dr Katya Vernon-Hunt retired from Park Practice on the 31st December 2015 having completed 14½ years of dedicated service with us. We all wish her well and we know just how much her patients are missing her already.
Dr Jo Martyr left us on the 31st August 2015, having been with us for just over 15 years. We all wish Jo a long and happy retirement and a return to full good health.
We have said goodbye to our Practice Nurse, Bethany Foster and we wish her well with her future nursing career
Dr Ric D’Abbraccio joined us in September 2015 as a direct replacement for Dr Vernon-Hunt. In line with his partner colleagues Dr D’Abbraccio works four days a week at the Practice and will not normally be available on a Tuesday.
Dr Rachel Stevens also joined us during September as a replacement for Dr Jo Martyr. Dr Stevens works with us on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays of each week.
Dr Jemma Romain has returned to work in January following her period of maternity leave during 2015.
In the Reception Team we have been pleased to welcome Natalie Evans and Rachel Uridge as new members of staff, they have both faced an extremely steep learning curve but are now getting to grips with the patients and the way we work!
Alan Packard our Practice Manager for the past fifteen years is retiring at the end of June and will be replaced by Kelly Hartland who is currently the Practice Manager at Grove Road Surgery in Eastbourne and comes to join us with many years experience as a Practice Manager.
APPOINTMENT SYSTEM
We moved to a telephone triage system in January 2015, and with the benefit of twelve months working under this new system, we have recently conducted a review with the Patient Participation Group. We have also monitored regularly the feedback we have received both by way of specific comments and also by way of comments on the Friends and Family proformas, and the overwhelming feedback has been very positvie. We acknowledge that there are still areas which require a degree of improvement and the PPG have highlighted the speed of response by certain Doctors and the problems which people in full-time employment can face in accepting a call back from the GP.
We are now looking at ways in which we can tweak the system to make it even more user friendly whilst at the same time balancing patient demand with available clinician time.
Any changes will be notified via the website in due course.
REQUESTS FOR REPEAT PRESCRIBING
You may be interested to know that we process some 150,000 requests for repeat medication every year and by in large achieve a extremely high degree of accuracy with the prescriptions available within 48 hours.
It is of considerable benefit to us if you can order your repeat medication using the Vision Online / Patient Services. If you cannot use this then our next preferred choice is via the tab on the Website but only in extreme case of need should you resort to using the e-mail address which more often than not dumps your request in the trash bin causing consternation to both yourselves and ourselves when a script is not ready.
It is also of considerable benefit to us if we can send all prescriptions electronically to your chosen Pharmacy rather than have long queues of patients queuing at the Reception desk to pick up paper copies and if you have not tried this method then we would be grateful if you would give it a try. If you experience any problems please speak to one of the Reception Team.
For reasons of patient safety we have recently been reviewing all requests for prescriptions and this has led to delays in a small number of cases. Please always allow plenty of time for the prescription request to be processed.
CAR PARKING
We sometimes receive complaints that all the available car parking spaces are taken and questions are asked about why we don’t provide more parking spaces.
Unfortunately this is completely outside our control and there is little prospect of any additional car parking spaces being made available in the foreseeable future. When you are frustrated by an inability to park right outside the Surgery, please remember that we do have approximately sixty more places than most other Surgeries in the locality!
CQC INSPECTION
Our first CQC Inspection took place on Wednesday 30th March, and we anticipate receiving the full report within ten / twelve weeks of the visit. As soon as the report has been received and digested we will share the outcome with the PPG and a synopsis will appear on our website – www.parkpractice.co.uk
NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM
Our new telephone system went live a few weeks ago, and it is fair to say that there have been more than a few teething issues. We apologise to patients who have experienced long delays in attempting to get through, or who have been cut off after waiting in the queue for a considerable time.
We are working on a daily basis with the system supplier to correct these faults, and hope that patients will notice the improvements quickly.
If you would like to comment on improvements you would like to see incorporated please email us at or write to Kelly Hartland, Practice Manager who is now in charge of this project.
KEEP YOUR RECORDS UPDATED
If you have changed your home address or have a new home or mobile telephone number please ask for a change of address form at Reception or e-mail the changes to
ZERO TOLERANCE
Park Practice supports the Government’s NHS zero tolerance campaign and we ask patients to treat GPs, Nurses and all Practice staff courteously, without a hint of either physical or verbal violence or abuse at all times. Any patients found guilty of such actions will be removed from the Surgery list. Sadly it has been necessary to remove a small number of patients as a result of the zero tolerance policy in the past few months.
Park Practice always seeks to provide a high level of service to all its patients but with the increasing demands on the GPs and fellow Clinicians some delays in waiting to be seen are inevitable and we ask that patients bear this in mind.
HEALTH APP
An innovative new service is available to help you find the right treatment for health problems, especially when you are not sure what to do or who to contact.
Developed by Medway and Kent GPs, Hospital Doctors, Paramedics and other Health Professionals, Health Help Now is a free to use web app which can be used on a computer, tablet or smartphone.
www.healthhelpnow-nhs.net
ABOUT HEALTHWATCH EAST SUSSEX
East Sussex Community Voice (CIC) is commissioned by East Sussex County Council to deliver Healthwatch East Sussex, which is your independent local consumer champion for health and care services.
This means that we:-
· Gather views and understanding the experiences of patients and the public.
· Make peoples’ views known.
· Promote and support the involvement of people in the commissioning and provision of local care services and how they are scrutinized.
· Recommend investigation or special review of services via Healthwatch England or directly to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
· Provide advice and information about services and support for making informed choices; and
· Make the views and experiences of people known to Healthwatch England and providing a steer to help it carry out its role as national champion.
In summary Healthwatch East Sussex will act as the Consumer Voice for health and social care in East Sussex.
For more information call us on 0333 101 4007, text 07826 021 114 (we can call back) or email us at