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.