The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. Robert Brault

Premises:

As you will recall our plans to relocate to more patient friendly premises have been dragging on for some time (more than 12 years!) but with the change in organisational structure to the NHS new people and departments are responsible for making these decisions. There are new priorities and targets for them. This is an extract of an e-mail received from NHS England updating us on their view of our current application for a new surgery premises.

“The vision for future Primary Care provision is that it must be available from:

·         modern fit for purpose buildings under current regulations and guidelines

·         wherever possible practices should co-locate to reduce operating costs and overheads, benefiting from economies of scale

·         multiple providers should operate from single locations to provide a variety of patient services

·         building should support the out of hospital agenda, offering an increased range of services within the Primary Care setting such as diagnostics etc

Additionally, there is very limited funding available for capital projects, and only those classified as high priority, are likely to reach the approval stage of the stringent process. Non-recurring costs will now be considered in line with the new NHS England premises discretionary funding policy rather than the previous Cluster policy.

The business case you are presenting is an anomaly to what I have previously described. If it is to be recommended for approval, it must be the most cost effective option, provide significant added value, and stack up in all areas. This is not currently the case.”

We sought a meeting with representatives of the new primary care commissioners and received the following response:

“I am fully aware of the history which dates back to around 2002 and ****** and I reviewed the Business Case (BC) together. In fact, I still have the historic audit trail! With the greatest of respect to all parties, because of the financial situation and strategic drivers that now impact upon premises development BC decisions across London, and the fact that each BC must compete against a set of London priorities (e.g. New GP premises within the former Olympic Park to serve the significant new population), as ****** says, only BCs that can tick as many boxes as possible will be accepted. As much as it pains me to say it, the historic facts will not make a difference in themselves, BUT, coupled with a BC that responds to as many strategic deliverables as possible, will be something we (senior commissioners) are able to support. I therefore suggest that before any meeting is convened, you consider our comments and seek to amend the BC.”

This week we are meeting again with the Development Executive of GPI who has been supporting our application and a representative of the Bromley CCG. We hope we can revise the business case to "tick as many boxes as possible".

You wait all this time for a blog and then two come along at once!

So much time has elapsed since I last wrote that I hardly know where to begin to bring you up to date with everything.
It is not through lack of intention but rather through lack of time that this has been such an intermittent blog.

Staff:

Many of you will know that Dr Mandy Selby moved on to practice at the Addington Road Surgery towards the end of last year. Mandy had been with Wickham Park Surgery for the

last 10 years and had brought all her skills and experience to her work with this greatly benefiting both patients, doctors and staff. She is one of the clinical leads for the new Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and this role unfortunately clashed with the days that she worked for us. We wish her well both in this role and in her new practice.

We have been joined by a number of part-time salaried doctors who enhance the services that we are able to provide for you by bringing their wide ranging skills and experience to the surgery. Dr ChiChi Ekhator works a full day on Fridays. She is keen on working in a small practice where she can provide continuity and holistic care. Dr Deen Habeeb some of you will know from his previous locums in the practice. He is sharing his time between working in Wales and working at Wickham Park and will mainly be with us on Mondays and Wednesdays. Dr Matthew Young shares his time between South London & Maudsley NHS trust where he works in substance misuse and working at Wickham Park on Tuesday and Thursday.

We hope that the wider range of available appointments sessions will help to ease the pressure when you are trying to book to see us.

Pathology:

There have been a number of quality issues with the transfer of pathology services from the Princess Royal University Hospital to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Woolwich. There have been strong representations made on your behalf and with the support of Kings College Hospital who are now responsible for the Princess Royal, the service is improving and will continue to be monitored closely.

Pathology Results:

We are aware that accessing your results has been difficult for many of you. To try and remedy this we have changed the system for the giving of results. 

• Where you have given us your mobile telephone number you will receive a text asking you to contact the surgery if there are any issues on your results that need discussion. 
• If we do not have a mobile number for you and the issue is significant we will ask reception to contact you directly.
• From 1 February when you contact the surgery for a result you will be asked to leave the number you wish to be contacted on and one of the doctors will phone you back between 1pm and 2pm (on your preferred number) to discuss your results.

We hope that this makes getting your results less of a frustrating experience for you with less need to call back several times for the results.

I will post separately about the ongoing premises issues.

In the meantime I hope that this has filled in some gaps and answered some questions.

A belated happy New Year to all of our patients.