You can't have everything... where would you put it?

We are sad to report that our fantastic Practice Manager, Sue Robinson has decided to move on to bigger things. After a successful interview in April she has been appointed as Practice Manager to a much larger surgery in Orpington and will move at the end of June. We are very sorry to see her go and cannot thank her enough for all the enthusiasm and effort she has put into keeping us performing at the highest level over the years. We wish her well in her new job.

June our Nurse Practitioner has been away on holiday and will hopefully be back very shortly to regale us with tales of her travels and adventures. We hear that she has been having a great time.

I am off this Friday morning to visit a practice in Blackfriars who are already up and running with the new electronic prescribing system that will enable you to nominate any pharmacy of your choice and have your prescriptions sent there electronically. This will include Pharmacy2U and all our local pharmacies as well as those near your workplace or relative's address, if you chose. I hope to be able to come back and share the information with other members of staff so that we can switch the system on by the end of the month. Our planned "go-live" is May 21st barring hiccups.

Another new innovation which we hope will make communication with the practice easier is the facility for us to text you to remind you of appointments and to let you know if your results have come in. In order to make this work we will need written permission from you to use your mobile number. Once permission is logged we will be able to send messages direct from our system to your mobile phone. Messages will not give the test or result details but will say something like "your result is back and is satisfactory" or "your result is back, please contact the surgery". If this sounds as if it might help you, please ask at reception for a permission slip to confirm we have your correct number.

Our final change for May is the arrival of a "huge" machine now parked in the hall between the consulting rooms. (Everything looks huge in a building this small). Our latest addition is a height, weight and blood pressure measuring machine. Collect a token from reception (no charge) stand on the platform and listen to the instructions. I promise it does not speak your weight even though it looks as if it will! Once you have been weighed and measured it will print out two identical slips. We ask you to put your name and date of birth on one and return it to reception for later entry onto the computer, the second is for your own records. Most of the staff can talk you through it if you are not sure about using it as we have almost all tried it out.

No other major innovations this month except elbow taps for the nurses room to improve infection control. Who knows what next month may bring! Watch this space.