Thank you

Thank you to all the patients who attended the flu clinics at the church hall and generously bought charity Christmas cards and made donations.

You raised a staggering £181.43 for Freedom From Torture and I cannot thank you enough for your generosity.


If you would like to know more about the work of the charity their website can be found by clicking on this link: Freedom from torture

A problem with texting you

Please be advised that the surgery has been experiencing some problems with texts following an imposed transfer to a new service provider.

Notification of appointments seems to be working well and you have the new option to reply by text to cancel appointments.

Unfortunately the use of texts to notify investigation results is not working and we would ask that if you are expecting an investigation result that has been requested by the surgery you contact us to confirm the result has been received. This is particularly important for results that may have been received on 30th Sept and 1st & 2nd October (as at this time we thought the system was working).

We are expecting visitors from the provider company and the local IT team to visit on Monday morning to try to resolve the issue.

We will let you know when normal service has been resumed as soon as we are  confident the issue has been resolved.

Thank you for your patience.
Dr Young & Dr Mustapha

 

NHS 111 survey - Have your say!

Date: 26 August 2015 to 11 September 2015

NHS 111 survey - have your say!
Have you, or someone you know, used the NHS 111 or GP out of hours service? If so, NHS Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group needs your help.


Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) across south east London are planning to re-procure NHS 111 services as the contracts are coming to an end soon.


The CCG is keen to improve the NHS 111 service and has been working with patients in Bromley to discover what works well, and what could work better. Patient feedback will help the CCG to improve the service and patient feedback could directly influence the details in the NHS 111 contract.


Earlier this year, the CCG held a workshop for patient representatives from across south east London who told commissioners what they thought of the service and how it could improve. Now the CCG is promoting a survey for patients via its website, social media and the media, as well as via patient focus groups.

The deadline for this survey is 11 September 2015 and we’re keen to get responses from as many people as possible.
You can find the survey online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/111SELondon

Alternatively, if you’d like to request a printed copy, please contact Gillian Ashton on 020 3049 4163 or Gillian.Ashton1@nhs.net.


The CCG is also holding a workshop for patients from across south east London to work out details of the contract – it’s being held at NHS offices in Lower Marsh, Waterloo on Monday 14 September from 11am to 3pm. If you’re interested in attending, please contact Gillian as above for further details.
Please tell your friends, family and neighbours about this survey and workshop as we’d like as many people as possible to give their views.

Freedom from torture

Freedom from torture

Those of you who are regular visitors to the surgery will know that this is a charity dear to my heart. Many of you will have contributed to fundraising through the purchase of cards at the flu clinics and other activities.

For my first few years in practice perhaps naively, I didn’t really think about torture as a problem for a suburban GP but it is and increasingly in the last twenty years it has become part of our everyday work.

Wickham Park Surgery has patients suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) dating from WW2 and not acknowledged or treated for years, as well as those suffering PTSD from more recent conflicts. We have patients who have been tortured for no other reason than because of their faith, ethnicity, race gender, sexuality or political beliefs.

In this small suburban general practice we see refugees, asylum seekers, the displaced and the damaged and all living locally and trying to survive immense physical and emotional trauma.
Here are the voices of a few:


‘l feel I am dirty. I feel I have their fingerprints on me’.   Survivor from Zimbabwe

 ‘I thought about suicide. I felt so bad I asked to be executed. I thought I could try to electrocute myself with the ceiling light. I wished for death, what more could they do to me?’  Araz, Iran

 ‘I was so poorly when I first came to Freedom from Torture. I was so depressed and I was feeling I should just stop my life and kill myself. But counselling gave me hope. It helped me see that even if I had a terrible past, it was in the past and I could start to see life positively.’ Camille, survivor from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

 A friend and fellow supporter of Freedom from Torture has undertaken to cycle the 969 miles from Land's End to John O'Groats in 9 days during September. This also involves 56,000ft of climbing.

If any of you feel able to sponsor him Freedom from Torture would receive all the sponsor monies to assist in their work. There is a sponsor form and a collection tin at reception in the surgery and he can also be sponsored through Just Giving by clicking on this link justgiving.com/Paul-Frankland2

Thank you.



   

So long and thanks for everything.

Goodbye Mary.

This week the practice said goodbye to Mary who has been our Healthcare assistant for the last 7 years. She decided that she was ready to retire and has been gradually adjusting, finding time to travel, garden and spend more time with her family. Before leaving Mary helped to train Vanessa, who has shadowed her for the last three months and will be taking over her clinics.

Named GP

From the 1st of April 2015, all practices are required under the terms of the latest GP contract to allocate patients a named accountable GP.

This is purely an administrative exercise in order that patients can have a named responsible GP should they require them.

For convenience your named accountable GP will be the named doctor you are registered with. 

• Your accountable GP will be the one named on your NHS card.
• If you wish to be told the name of your accountable GP, please ask the receptionists when you are next in the surgery. Please try not to telephone us for this information.
• If you have Patient Access you can see your named GP when you log in. 

Having a named GP does not prevent you seeing any other doctor in the practice. Your named GP will not be available at all times and if your needs are urgent, you may need to discuss them with an alternative doctor. 

New law on driving having taken certain drugs - March 2015

Key messages

A new law on driving after taking certain drugs (including some medicines – see below) is coming into force in March 2015. This law states that it is an offence to drive with certain drugs above specified levels in the body, whether your driving is impaired or not

If your driving is impaired then you are guilty of breaking the law

What is the issue?

The list of drugs includes certain medicines that are sometimes abused, such as medicines used to treat:

• extreme pain (morphine, diamorphine, ketamine)

• anxiety or inability to sleep (diazepam, clonazepam, lorazepam, oxazepam, temazepam)

• drug addiction (methadone)

• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD (amphetamine)

• multiple sclerosis (nabiximols)

If you are found to be driving with any of these medicines above the limits in your body, you could be guilty of breaking the law. But if you are taking the medicines according to the advice of your prescriber or leaflet in the package, and your driving is not impaired, then you are not guilty of breaking this law.

What will happen if I’m stopped by the police?

The police may use a roadside test to see if you have taken any of the drugs. If the test detects any relevant drugs, the type and level of the drugs in your body can be confirmed by a blood test taken at the police station. The law provides you with a “medical defence”. This states that you are not guilty if:

• the medicine was prescribed, supplied, or sold to you to treat a medical or dental problem, and

• you took the medicine according to the instructions given by the prescriber or the information provided with the medicine.

But if your driving is impaired, you are guilty of breaking the law.

What should I do if I need to take any of the specified medicines?

Keep taking your medicine as prescribed. Check the leaflet that comes with your medicine for information on how your medicine may affect your driving ability. Do not drive while taking your medicine until you know how it affects you. Do not drive if you feel drowsy, dizzy, unable to concentrate or make decisions, or if you have blurred or double vision.

For further information on this new law, go to:www.gov.uk/government/collections/drug-driving

Patient Participation Group

The surgery is running its annual survey of your views. We want to know what our patients think of the services we provide. Please take a few minutes to complete our questionnaire. You can also add ideas you may have, big or small, for improving services. We will publish a summary of our plans to address the suggestions made by patients and discuss them further with our patient forum.  

Please click on this link to complete the survey.  Patient Participation Survey

Accessing your medical record

Patient Access

From January 1st 2015 it has been possible for you to register for access to your medical records for medication, immunisations and allergies as well as to request repeat prescriptions and book and cancel appointments.

Patients wishing to have access to their records will need to complete a form and return it in person to reception along with a photo ID such as a driving licence or passport. At present this service is not available to patients under 18 because of computer software issues. As soon as these are rectified the service will be expanded to all patients.

This improved access is the next step towards opening up access to your record and the plan is that over time you will be able to access all areas of your medical file such as results, letter and consultation records. These record will be "read only"