After a very long cold and snowy winter spring is on its way at last and I’m sure you won’t be sorry if we’ve seen the last of snow!.
The Department of Health recommends all those patients on the at risk groups list and for children aged 6 months up to five years to have the Swine Flu vaccination. Please telephone the surgery for an appointment.
We also have a few important announcements to make, so please take the time to read this letter.
TELEPHONE CONSULTATIONS
On occasion, we offer telephone consultations, or a patient may request a telephone consultation which are taken for the doctor to do at the end of their surgery. We respectfully request that if you accept or request a telephone consultation, please make sure you will be at home when the doctor is due to call and that you have given a telephone number that the doctor will be able to contact you on.
Some patients have a telephone number which does not take incoming calls, if the number is unrecognised, in which case the doctor will be unable to contact you. If this applies to you, please do not give us this number as we will be unable to get through. Thank you
PROCEDURE FOR BOOKING APPOINTMENTS
We would like to take this opportunity to explain to you the procedure for booking appointments which was discussed and approved at a meeting last year by the doctors and conveyed to the receptionists as follows:-
- The appointments are put on the computer up to three weeks in advance of which there is a mixed bag of “prebookable” and “book on the day” appointments both in the morning and in the afternoon across the board.
- If you require an appointment where you wish to be seen the same day, the receptionist will book you the next available appointment with any doctor.
- If you require an afternoon appointment or wish to see a specific doctor, these are not considered acute so you do not need to ring when the appointments line opens at 8 o’clock as this is the time we will be booking appointments for the morning. You can ring later in the morning when we will either prebook you an appointment for another afternoon or book you an afternoon for the same day if available. We do not open the afternoon appointments for booking the same day until the morning surgeries are full. Please do not ask the receptionist what time you should ring back as this is impossible to foresee and varies from day to day depending on how many doctors are available.
- If you wish to see a specific doctor, we can prebook appointments up to three weeks in advance, depending on the doctor’s availability. If there are no appointments available to book in advance with the doctor you request, then you can ring “on the day” though there are no guarantees you will be successful in securing an appointment. We consider that if you require an urgent appointment, and the doctor you wish to see is unavailable, you can see one of the other partners.
We have extended surgeries on a Monday morning at North Thoresby between 7.00 and 8.00 am and on a Monday evening at Holton-le-clay between 6.30 and 8.00 pm. We are also open on a Saturday morning at Holton-le-Clay between 8.00 and 10.30 am. These are designed mainly to try and accommodate patients who say they cannot access an appointment during normal surgery opening hours. These are available by advanced appointment only and works along side the Out of Hours Co-operative.
We hope you have found this information useful. We do try and accommodate all of our patients as best we can but obviously also requires some co-operation from you.
ASTHMA PATIENTS
Beclometasone Inhalers
This product is no longer available and has been removed from your medication. It has been replaced with an equivalent dose product called Clenil which you will notice on your next prescription.
If you have any queries regarding this, please contact the asthma nurse, Ailsa Lewis.
PATIENT SURVEY
The Government is carrying out a national survey regarding patients’ experience of access to their GP ie an appointment with a doctor within two working days and the ability to book an appointment with a doctor more than two days in advance.
If you receive one of these questionnaires, please take the time to complete it. Thank you.
NURSES APPOINTMENTS
We would like to remind you that ALL nurses appointments are bookable in advance and are not usually available to book “on the day” unless we have some cancellations.
NURSE PRACTITIONER
Jane Macdonald, our nurse practitioner, has appointments available Monday to Thursday and also to book in advance. She can see patients who may need antibiotics and various other complaints which are not already ongoing with a doctor. She can also see patients for medication reviews.
STAFF CHANGES
Recruitment of Practice Nurse
We have also recruited a new nurse, Vivien Sleeman, who will be coming at the end March. Vivien will be taking over some of our clinics and we are very much looking forward to working with her.
On a sadder note, Helen Jefferson, one of our practice nurses will be leaving in March and we would like to take this opportunity to send Helen and her family our very best wishes for the future.
New GP Registrar
We would also like to welcome our new GP Registrar, Dr Abbas. He joined us in February and will be here for 6 months. Dr Abbas will be working along side Dr Harris who is the GP trainer here. Please feel free to make an appointment to see him as he has prebookable appointments available every day.
Resignation
We would like to inform you that Dr Gordon Anderson has resigned from the Practice with effect from the 23 February 2010.
Appointment of New Doctor
However, we are delighted to announce that Dr Fermin Blanco is returning to the Practice and will begin consulting at the end of March 2010. As well as consulting with patients, he will also be leading the in house minor surgery clinics.
DROP-IN BABY CLINIC
From the 14 April 2010, the drop in baby clinic which is held on a Wednesday afternoon at the Holton-le-Clay surgery will be moving to the new Children’s Centre adjacent to the junior school in Picksley Crescent Holton-le-Clay and will run from 2.00 – 3.30pm.
The baby clinic on a Tuesday, which is by prior appointment only, will remain at the Holton-le-Clay surgery.
Thank you for your time.
|
| |
|
|
