Easter Greetings

Easter is a wonderful time of year all about love, forgiveness, redemption and new beginnings. We wish all our patients a very Happy Easter.

The surgery has come through a difficult year and survived the challenges and disappointments. We have weathered what has felt like a fierce storm, submitted the end of year returns (more onerous than ever before), coped with a new computer system and have achieved better ratings in the quality of care targets than last year. Although we are all tired we are girding our loins to start all over again this year.

We want to thank all of you for being so patient with us when things have not gone so well - we know our electronic prescribing (Pharmacy 2 U) has not been working well since the new computer system was installed. It should be back on track by May and in the meantime we are working hard to shorten the turnaround time. We also hope to pilot an electronic prescription service with local pharmacies from May so that your paper prescriptions for repeats will no longer have to be collected but can be sent securely electronically to your chosen pharmacy where the dispensed medication can then be collected.

 We recognise as well that the new system has made us slower in responding to queries and that there are problems for those of you who book your appointments on line. Please keep telling us about the problems and we will try to fix things.

Thank you also to all those who agreed to be members of our virtual patient participation group and those who responded to our questionnaire seeking your opinions and suggestions. The results are available on the practice website. If you would like to join this group please drop in and pick up a form or email us on:
 bro-pct.wickhamparksurgery@nhs.net and we will send you a sign up form & add you to the group.

We have had our premises inspection and are waiting to hear what the CQC expects of us. We are not expecting good news and with that in mind have started to explore the possibility of relocating the surgery to a new build site within the practice area. This is at a very, very early stage of discussion and would be a long term plan with no move envisaged before 2014 or 2015. We will keep you posted with news as conversations progress.

On a personal note I completed the first part of my training to be a GP at the Paralympics and had a wonderful day meeting new colleagues from all areas of healthcare who will be involved in this very special event. I have to admit I was slightly relieved to hear that the dentists are usually busier than the doctors! I am waiting to be called for my uniform fitting (so its back to the diet) and then further training (medical not exercise).

Finally some publicity for the Diamond Jubilee Manor Road Street Party which a flyer tells us is to be on Monday 4th June from 2-6pm (with the road being closed from 8am to 9pm). We look forward to more details from Candy and Doreen who are organising the event.