Electronic appointments and prescriptions

Patient Access

Some of you will already be aware that it is possible to book and cancel your own appointments online using a unique pin number and password provided to you by reception. You can do this wherever you can connect to the Internet and it is available 24 hours a day. This facility was previously called emis access but has now changed its name to Patient Access. Patient Access is available to any patient who is registered with this practice.

We are now expanding the Patient Access service as online booking has proved so popular. It is now possible for patients who have registered with the service to order their own repeat prescriptions and use a secure messaging facility to communicate with the GPs. You can also notify us of changes of address and in a few months time we will be able to preregister new patients wishing to join the practice using this electronic portal.

The longer term plan is that eventually all patients will be able to access their NHS general practice medical record securely and online wherever they are in the world. This last objective will take us a little longer to realise but we are working towards it.

You can read more about this or register for the service using on of the links below:

http://www.patient.co.uk/patient-access.asp

http://cdn.patient.co.uk/resources/IF3091.pdf

Summary Care Records

After a much longer pause than I had intended, I'm writing today's blog with a very specific purpose in mind. Some of you may remember that back in 2010 you received the letter about something called the Summary Care Record (SCR). This letter gave you information about what the summary care record was and allowed you the choice of registering your dissent with your general practitioner if you did not wish your medical information to be shared.

This practice along with others in Bromley, will be working towards introducing SCR in the next couple of months. My reason for writing is that you will not receive any further information about this other than what is displayed in the surgery. The powers that be feel that everyone had the opportunity in 2010 to register dissent and for most patients no further letters will be sent. Anyone who has turned 18 in the intervening three years will receive a letter and an opt out form. Any patients registering for the first time at the surgery will receive information and an opt out form.

Just to recap the SCR is intended to support patient care in urgent and emergency care settings. The SCR will store a defined set of key patient data for every patient in England (except those who elect not to have one). This data will make a summary record created from information held on GP clinical systems. A patient's SCR will contain key health information including details of allergies, current prescriptions and bad reactions to medicines. Your Summary Care Record will also include your name, address, date of birth and your unique NHS Number to help identify you correctly. It will not contain any information beyond this. This summary record will help in ensuring continuity of care across a variety of care settings such as the out of hours service and accident and emergency.

Staff with access to the SCR will ask patients if they can look at their SCR every time they need to. Not everyone involved in the patient's care will be able to see all of their records. The amount of information staff can see will depend on their job. NHS staff who do not need to see information about the patient's treatment will not be able to view it – for example, non clinical staff will not have access to clinical information unless it is necessary for them to do their job.

It is your choice whether you have an SCR. If you choose to have a Summary Care Record, you do not need to do anything, this will happen automatically.
If you don't want an SCR, you need to let us know at the practice by filling in and returning an opt out form. These will be available in reception for you to collect and complete. Opt-out forms are also available at www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/options  and you can ask to be sent one by phoning the Summary Care Record Information Line on 0300 123 3020.

For more information about Summary Care Records and your choices:
• phone the Summary Care Record Information Line on 0300 123 3020;
• visit www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk.

Please remember, which ever way you decide you are always able to change your mind and let us know so that your current decision can be recorded and your choice honoured.

Having used this blog with a very specific message to communicate I hope in the forthcoming weeks to share some thoughts on the recent changes within the organisation of the NHS and what that means for us as a practice and you as our patients. A wise patient advised me to give it a little while before trying to write coherently about it and I am following their advice.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." Charles Darwin

A big thank you to all who responded to our request for views on a possible surgery relocation.

The results of all your letters, comments and e-mails have been analysed and placed in a report which will go to the PCT and be posted on the practice website.

Summary of evidence from the practice survey:

The 384 members of the Patient Participation Group were asked by email and through the blog to respond to a qualitative survey regarding the possible practice relocation to the Eden Park area. We received 54 responses by email and 11 written responses. (17.6% response rate). The overwhelming majority (49 respondents) were positive about the move and only 6 opposed it.

Responses were very affirming of the style of practice that the surgery delivers “we would want the surgery to keep the professional but friendly family practice atmosphere with a personal touch that exists today” four of the responses expressed concern that moving the practice would change the “style of the practice”

Thirteen respondents were explicit in staying that moving practice would allow an improvement in facilities including reception and staff facilities. Nine respondents suggested that the move would also improve parking facilities. It was also recognised by two respondents that moving would improve disabled access.

There were specific concerns raised that the move may be detrimental, thirteen respondents suggested that bus access would be more difficult and this would affect those who did not drive. Three respondents were concerned that there would be no pharmacy close to the proposed new location while a further three were concerned that the practice catchment are might change and exclude them.

Respondents offered practical suggestions about re-routing existing bus routes to facilitate access to the new site. This builds on a longstanding campaign to improve bus access to the Princess Royal University Hospital from West Wickham.

Four respondents were concerned that moving to a new larger practice may change the personal approach and ease of access to the doctors currently experienced. 

As a result of the findings we have begun to formulate an action plan:

• It has been suggested that we engage with the local Residents Association to support their existing campaign to re-route a local bus route. This would improve access to the local district general hospital for residents of West Wickham as well as serving the possible new practice premises.
• The possibility of developing a contract with a local taxi company to provide subsidised access to the surgery for elderly and infirm patients will be explored
• It is hoped that further developing the uptake of electronic prescribing will reduce the concerns around the lack of a local pharmacy near the proposed new premises.
• We wish to reassure all our patients that have no plans to change our boundary or to exclude any existing patient should the move happen.

 Further discussions with our patients will allow these plans to be developed further.

Thank you again for your help and views.

Happy New Year

We wish all our patients a very happy and healthy New Year.

In the spirit of a positive approach and fresh start to the year we are once again investigating the opportunity of new premises and are keen to hear your views of the proposed new site which we must stress is not confirmed in any way.

Langley Court is a new housing development on the old Glaxo SmithKline (Wellcome) site on South Eden Park Road. It is planned that the development will include 180 new homes, a cricket academy, a nursing home and a purpose built GP surgery located at the Bucknall Way roundabout.

The surgery will be a two-storey building with dedicated car parking and will have direct access from the main entrance road. We would very much like ours to be the practice chosen to utilise this new premises. Planning permission for the site development was granted in August 2012.

The Langley Court site falls within our current practice area and will have dedicated parking at the surgery itself with additional parking very close to it at the cricket academy. It will be accessible by one bus from Shirley and two buses from West Wickham High Street. It will allow us the space to expand the services that we can offer patients and offer state of the art premises in which to see and treat patients. The new premises would be compliant with all *CQC and Disability Discrimination legislation.

We appreciate that this is not the ideal location for many of our patients who rely on public transport for access but many other more centrally placed options have proved unworkable over the years and with the pressure of the new CQC regulations the prospect of being forced to amalgamate with a larger practice and lose our identity and our premises is a very real threat.

More information about the overall site development, including the proposed location of the surgery is available at www.langley-court.co.uk

We would very much like to hear your views on this proposal either by email to:

bro-pct.WPKSupportGroup@nhs.net  or in writing to the practice.

Drs Mustapha and Young.

* The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates all health and adult social care services in England, including those provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies or voluntary organisation. It also protects the interests of people detained under the Mental Health Act.  The CQC makes sure that essential standards of quality and safety are being met where care is provided

The last couple of months seem to have shot past, but what a couple of months they have been. I am just about getting my bearings again after being a GP at the Paralympics from the end of August for two and a half weeks. I started my stint at Greenwich before the games proper opened and was privileged to see many of the Paralympians practising in the equestrian arena.

I met some wonderful people from a variety of disciplines and learnt a lot from all of them. Some of the new things I learnt from the physiotherapists I will be glad to bring back to the practice to improve patient care. Some of the things I learnt from the vets and farriers will be less useful in day-to-day general practice but might help me out on quiz nights.

My second ten days were based at the Spectator medical centre of the basketball arena whilst the Paralympians played wheelchair basketball and later wheelchair rugby, our role as the medical team was to provide support and assistance to spectators staff and occasionally competitors. I had a fantastic time working with an amazing team of people from all over the country who had given their time and skills to help the games happen. It was an honour and a privilege to be included in the team. Fortunately we did not have to deal with much serious illness and were happy to be providing plasters, splinter removal, headache relief, rehydration, support for sprained ankles and other such minor interventions for the bulk of the time. I did have to swot up on some more unusual conditions, rarely seen in general practice, but fortunately did not have to exercise my revised knowledge.

Some of the team outside the basketball arena on the last day

I was fortunate on days when we were fully staffed to be able to pop my head into the arena and catch a glimpse of some of the amazing matches. Even when you were not in the stadium you could hear the music from the medical centre and know that someone had scored or had been sent to the sin bin. The roar of the crowd when the clock was counting down and a goal or touchdown was on the cards was just amazing. I had to wear a radio headset whilst on duty and the control centre kept us in touch with scores. It took me a while to work out that the basketball arena lit up with the colours of the winning teams in the evenings.

What else did it teach me? Well I learnt that I'm not keen on commuting and am grateful to be back to a 15 min journey in each direction. I hold in awe people who take in their stride 90 minute journeys to work.
Personally I became rather addicted to collecting pins commemorating various aspects of the Paralympic games. I understand that this was started in America and has grown along with the Olympic and Paralympic games. My most prized pin was given to me by a member of the Paralympics GB equestrian team. I never really got into trading or swapping my pins, as I was far too keen on keeping the ones I had collected. It is probably just as well the games ended when they did as I had ran out of space on my lanyard.
The experience also taught me that the Brits are not as dour and negative as they are portrayed to be. It was as if we had been transported to a parallel universe, everyone was happy, keen to talk, co-operative and friendly. Long may it last.

And now I'm back at work, proper work. It's good to be back in the practice seems to have survived all our summer absences relatively unscathed, thanks in no small part to the sterling efforts of the practice staff. Letters have been filed, prescriptions issued, appointments made, documents scanned, reports typed, telephone calls made and all the nitty-gritty of day-to-day practice life has run smoothly. Without the support of the practice team I would not have been able to allow myself such treats as the Paralympics. I cannot thank them enough for allowing me this experience.

There is no news as yet on the possible premises move but we will let you know as soon as we hear.
We are expecting our influenza vaccinations to arrive in the next few weeks, and will be taking bookings for vaccinations very shortly. We will be running our usual clinics in West Wickham and Shirley Baptist Church Hall on October 23 and November 6. We will be providing the usual tea and biscuits and selling some cards to raise money for the charity "Freedom from Torture". Letters inviting patients eligible for vaccination should be going out in early October.

This has been another longer than intended post. The next one will be more practice focused and I hope I will not leave such a long gap.

Running to catch up

I can hardly believe that so much time has passed since I last wrote on the blog. So  many things have happened within the surgery that I rather took my eye off the ball. It has been a busy couple of months, with our new practice manager starting in early July, two new receptionists starting around the same time and the loss of our wonderful healthcare assistant, Mary, to a larger practice who could afford to employ her full-time. (boo, hiss!)

Our new practice manager Chrissie, comes to us from a practice in Lambeth and brings with her a wealth of experience. She has had a bit of an induction of fire as Sue our outgoing practice manager was unwell in the run-up to leaving, so Chrissie had to leap straight in, without a handover and unscramble a host of hefty documents which I had been studiously avoiding as they piled up on the manager’s desk. I had paid the bills and other essentials but not dealt with the complexity of the premises survey,  CQC findings, infection control, fire safety, refuse collection audits and all sorts of other baffling things that make up modern day practice. All credit to her she has waded through it and sorted it all.

We have interviewed and appointed a new healthcare assistant.Polly who will be joining us from mid-September. Polly has a great deal of experience having trained initially as a physician's assistant and worked in a number of countries abroad (and Wales). It will take her a little time to familiarise herself with our system but she will be mentored by June, our splendid nurse practitioner.

Manisha who joined  as a receptionist earlier this year has slipped effortlessly into her role and helped us enormously both on the desk and administratively. We are grateful to her for helping things run so smoothly during the staff transitions. Some of the changes that we have had to face are because some of our reception staff have chosen to retire (and Chris, plans to retire in October, though she has promised to cover in times of need).

Janet and Sophie, are our remaining two appointments to reception posts and are currently working through their induction and probationary periods.

Well that seems to have brought the staff information up-to-date. What else has been happening?

Once again I have spent Saturday at the surgery while we replaced the front door for the second time. Having discovered that such a thing as "public access doorways" exist, which allows us to have an entrance without a lip, this should be much safer for all concerned. This time it was fitted by Roberts Windows of Elmers End who seem to have made an excellent job of it. Hopefully this present version will last us for a good long time. Long enough to see us into new premises!

This leads me to the best news which I have kept until last. It finally looks as if the practice has secured a new and purpose-built surgery premises for the future. The planning application was approved at the end of July and now we can begin working on the nitty-gritty. This is only the beginning and after our previous disappointments we are trying to keep the excitement in check. Our hope is that by 2014 you will have access to the best possible facilities.

Haven't the Olympics been a wonderful two weeks? I believe that the forthcoming Paralympic games will be just as uplifting and inspiring and am confident that our teams will surpass the efforts of the Team GB Olympians.

I will be absent from the practice for the two weeks of the Paralympics having been fortunate enough to be selected to work as a general practitioner in the medical centre on the Greenwich site. I am certainly not keeping my excitement in check about this as I can hardly wait for it to start. What a pleasure and a privilege to be involved in such a positive and exciting time for our country. I plan to leave the flags up in the surgery and the bunting up outside until it least the end of the Paralympic games! 

See you after the games! 

Change always comes bearing gifts.

It was good to see Manor Road decked out today for the Jubilee. I hope all of you have enjoyed the extended weekend's celebrations in one way or another.

My Friday surgeries sandwiched interviews for the new practice manager. We had also held some interviews earlier in the week and are happy to report that we saw a good range of high quality candidates with a mulitude of different strengths and experiences. We think we have found an excellent replacement for Sue and will share the details once we know they have accepted the challenge.

Saturday started with a return visit to the surgery for a new front door to be fitted, while Wickham Windows were doing the hard physical work, I had the chance to catch up on a backlog of my own work so started the weekend feeling virtuous. There are still a few teething problems to be sorted out with the ramp to the door (which will require some adjustment)  but we hope that it will make the waiting room lighter all year round and warmer in winter.

My Saturday afternoon involved a stroll along the Thames to enjoy the decorations and boats in advance of Sunday's pageant. Fortunately we had a drier time of it than those who braved the crowds on Sunday. Saturday evening was spent at the Emirates Stadium watching Coldplay (a fantastic spectacle in spite of the incessant rain) and following a splendid piece of advice from Chris Martin, to put all your worries and cares aside for the evening and have a good time. I suspect my husband and son attended largely in order to say they have stood on the pitch and imagined following in the footsteps of their favourite players but for me the concert was enough to make a splendid evening.

I am off to enjoy a street party tomorrow and have spent my afternoon creating some rather experimental red, white and blue muffins. The taste OK but do look rather odd!

Wednesday will bring us all back down to earth and normality. The surgery is set to activate electronic prescribing on Wednesday and if you wish you can nominate the pharmacy of your choice to receive your prescriptions in this way. Pharmacies notify us if you have signed up with them and the rest should all happen easily, speedily and smoothly (watch this space...).

Those of you who book your appointments online will very soon be able to request your repeat prescriptions through the same portal.

We are now able to send you a text to remind you of your appointments at the surgery. Let us know your current mobile number and you will receive a text confirming booking and a reminder a day before. Texts are only sent between 9am and 5pm so should never disturb you at antisocial times. If you would prefer not to be texted but are happy for us to have your mobile number please let reception know and they will opt you out of the service.

Our premises negotiations are progressing with Essential Land and the General Practice Investment Corporation Ltd and we have confirmed our interest in moving the practice to their new build premises in due course.  This is likely to be a few years away yet but with the new CQC regulations for General Practice coming into force and a current building inadequate to the task we have to plan ahead. We want to involve patients in the planning and discussions and as soon as it looks as if this plan may become a reality we will be asking for your input. We have been stung so many times it is difficult to allow yourself to believe this plan may deliver.

That is probably all the news for this month but heralds quite a lot of change. I am confident that these will bear gifts.