News & Views

Thank you
I was very sorry not to be able to take part in our annual relocation to West Wickham and Shirley Baptist Church for the flu clinic this year. I really missed the opportunity to meet with you all outside of the surgery. Unfortunately commitments to the medical students and the absence of other doctors on leave meant I had to stay put behind my desk.

I would like to say a massive thank you to all of you who bought Christmas cards or contributed money towards my chosen charity " Freedom from Torture”. You raised the huge sum of £230 over the two days which has been paid on to the charity this weekend. It is an organisation I feel very strongly about and the money you have contributed will help it to continue its valuable work rebuilding the lives of those physically and psychologically damaged by torture. Freedom from Torture remains the only organisation in the UK dedicated solely to the treatment and rehabilitation of survivors of torture.

Friends and Family Test.From 1 December 2014 it is a contractual requirement that all GP practices undertake the NHS Friends and Family test. NHS England say this test is a feedback tool supporting "the principle that people who use NHS services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience that can be used to improve services."

The Friends and Family question asks if people would recommend the service they have used and offers a range of responses. It will be combined with a secondary question. The idea is that practices will use the generated feedback to "celebrate successes and support staff to make improvements to services."

The Friends and Family Test is a continuous feedback tool; patients responses must be anonymous; feedback can be given after each experience of the service if patients wish; the results should be transparently available to the public and to patients. Information on the responses collected is to be submitted to NHS England on a monthly basis and these results will be published.

Please look out for paper feedback forms within the surgery or use the link on the practice website. The question will be phrased as follows:

"We would like you to think about your recent experiences of our service. How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?"
The responses are extremely likely; likely; neither likely nor unlikely; extremely unlikely or don't know.

Dementia Screening Payment.This practice will not be signing up to the government’s proposed scheme to pay £55 per patient for each additional dementia diagnosis we make over the next six months. Like many GPs we believe this scheme is best boycotted as it lacks a sound ethical basis. We will continue to assess, investigate and refer patients based on their individual clinical needs.