Great Western Medical Practice

NEWSLETTER

TELEPHONE NUMBER IS CHANGING

NHS Grampian has taken the decision to change the 0845 number’s they currently use to 0345 numbers. This means as of 1st July 2015 our telephone number will change to 0345 337 0540.

Feedback on complaints about our telephone system.

We do not use a local 01224 number due to the lack of flexibility to adapt to changes. When we previously had a local number we only had 5 telephone lines, which meant if we were dealing with 5 incoming line (1 for house calls, 1 for prescriptions) – no-one could call out, unable to call the hospital or emergency services.

We can handle far more callers more quickly with the current system – we have up to 5 staff answering calls first thing in the morning. With a 01224 system, we could only answer 3 calls at a time – thus taking longer to deal with patients.

In the event of system failures/catastrophic events, emergency messages can be set up very quickly on the phone line – if this was done on the BT line – it takes considerably longer to set up.

We can analyse our call statistics – on average receiving around 300 calls in the first 15 minutes each day…apart from a Monday when it’s usually closer to 600 calls.

We have an “emergency” line option – which is for suspected heart attacks, severe breathing difficulties, severe allergic reactions, heavy blood loss, suspected stroke. This was not an option available to us on the standard 01224 number.

Changes amongst the GP’s

Dr Robert Donald has reduced his time in the practice from 4 days to 3 days from 1st April.

Dr Gary Ritchie is leaving the practice at the end of July to join Skene Medical Practice. We wish him well for the future.

We are delighted to announce that

Dr Yvonne Mulholland and Dr Laura Muirhead will be joining the practice as partners in August and September respectively.

PROTECTED LEARNING TIME

We close from 1.30 pm on the day of the PLT

Wednesday 13th May 2015

Wednesday 24th June 2015

**********************************************

Patient Participation Awareness Week 1-6th June

A representative from the local Scottish Health Council will be in the waiting room on Monday 1st June to promote Patient Participation Groups and to see if there is an interest from our practice. Please feel free to have a chat to them in the first instance.

Booking Appointments

The current demand for appointments leading to complaints has prompted us to remind you of our current system for booking appointments. Many patients still think you can only book on the day.

If you have been advised to see the GP for review in a month or so, try and book it as soon as you leave the doctor’s room – if the reception is busy, call as soon as you can thereafter. Do not wait until the day you were due to be reviewed as you may not get an appointment.

Appointments can be booked up to 5-6 weeks in advance. 50% of all available appointments are bookable in advance.

Advance appointments tend to be first thing in the morning (8.30 am onwards) or early afternoon(2pm) though there are a couple of doctors who offer later afternoon appointments (after 4pm) but these tend to be popular.

We are investigating other types of appointments – including telephone appointments – and we may also start introducing additional questions at the time of requesting an appointment – in order to try and direct you to the correct type of appointment.

The emergency line is a single option for patients to chose when it is an emergency – you will be asked the reason and if it is just to make an appointment, you will be asked to re-dial choosing option 2. This may be frustrating for patients, but you could be holding up a true emergency patient from getting through to the practice and speaking to the GP. Many patients still contact the GP ahead of contacting the emergency services.

With over 10,000 patient’s and ever increasing demands on the GP’s time, we are keen that patient’s make themselves aware of the other services available other than GP Practice.

For minor ailments, try contacting your local pharmacy as they are able to treat many conditions such a coughs, colds, urine infections etc.

Serial Prescriptions for Chronic Medication Service patients.

If you are on longstanding, regular medication you could be suitable to receive serial prescriptions. This is where your routine pharmacy will receive a prescription for 24 weeks possibly increasing to 48 weeks on one prescription. This would mean only one request would come into the practice in 6 or 12 months.

To qualify for this service you must:

a)be signed up to a pharmacy Chronic medication service

b)be on regular medication *

c)both GP and pharmacy feel you would be a suitable recipient.

*Any medication taken irregularly, that require regular GP review, inhalers, creams or newly commenced may mean you wouldn’t be suitable at the moment.

You must stick to one pharmacy – if you change to another pharmacy, then the prescriptions cannot be transferred to the new pharmacy – you will have to sign up to the new pharmacy chronic medication service (CMS).

Check with your pharmacy to see if you would be suitable as they need to have you signed up to the CMS before the GP can authorise the change.

May 2015 ISSUE NUMBER 6