Appointment Reminder

In June the Practice offered 9000 Appointments with clinicians.

However a whopping 409 were wasted due to patients that did not turn up to their booked appointments. This translate to around 3 weeks worth of wasted GP hours, or 1 GP sat all day each day waiting for patients, for 3 weeks! We appreciate unforeseen events can alter plans, but you need to cancel the appointment via your reminder text message. This helps us to fully utilise precious resources and continue to provide our patients with timely care. 

last month our patient coordinators handled 7000 total calls. If your enquiry is routine, you may finding calling late afternoon is quicker, or using our e-consult service on the website.
We offered a total of 1015 urgent appointments across the month. These are appointments that are released on the day. This is an average of 203 urgent appointments a week! Remember, the patient coordinators are trained  to signpost your request to the most appropriate clinician—this will not always be a GP.

Health

I for one am happy for the warmer weather and longer days! Walks without wellies, pub gardens after work, Saturdays pottering in the garden. Although we are happy for the sun, we need to make sure we are staying safe whilst outside. Here are a number of ways to stay safe:

• Cover as much of your skin as possible—especially shoulders as they burn easy!
• Wear a hat to keep your face out of the sun.
• Sunglasses with good UV filters are essential!
• Sunscreen!! SPF30+ applied generously 30 minutes before going outside and at least every two hours—don’t forget the SPF30 lip balm.
• Shade! We all like the sun, but keeping in the shade between 11am and 3pm will protect you from the sun—just 10 minutes of strong sunlight can burn pale skin.

If you do get burnt, get out of the sun straight away, cool your skin in a cool shower, apply after-sun and drink plenty of waters! 

Patient Participation

We are looking for new recruits to join our PPG. 

If you are interested in joining the practice in having an active role in improving the practice for patients—this involves regular virtual or in person meetings, practice activities and anything else agreed during the meetings, get in touch! 

Visit our website HERE

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 22nd August at 6pm. 

A day in the life of: A Practice Nurse

As a Practice Nurse, I start my day at 8:30am with a cup of tea and a diary check before my first patient at 8:40am. 

Here at the practice we have a lot of variety in the appointments during the day, rather than  having specific clinics, which keeps the day very interesting. This also help patients book times that suit them better. This morning I had 15 patients to see in 4 hours, mostly short appointments, but some such as cervical screening, taking longer. 

My first appointment was a wound check that I had to clean and dress, then speak to the duty doctor about prescribing antibiotics as it was infected. Next, was a smear test, then a hypertension review and then a 16 week old baby who was in for immunisations—they greeted me by vomiting on the floor! Because of this extra clean up, I was then running late for my upcoming patients. 

I have a spare 5 minutes before more patients so send emails to specialist nurses asking for advice about a previous patient, then carry on with my appointments. 

Sometimes patients come in for one thing, but we notice something else in the appointment so this can add to the length of time taken, but it means we may be able to sort out other issues for the patient rather than them making another appointment!  I have a few telephone appointments, send a quick referral to the diabetes education programme, restock my room and then it is time for lunch—before I go again in the afternoon!

Local Community

We took recent of a Oximeter device last month which was completely funded and donated by the local community. This is much appreciated.

Ebenezer Church has various activities throughout the summer months with food bank outlets on a Thursday between 1pm-3pm. Call 0117 472 5172 for support. For regular updates and any new events, go to www.ebe.org.uk

Voices of Aphasia Online: Interested in a fun singing group? Join online Aphasia singing group, run by music therapists for people with aphasia and their family members. They meet on a Monday morning via Zoom. Contact voicesofaphasiaonline@outlook.com for information.

Winter Immunusations

Flu vaccinations will be coming to the practice again this Autumn! 

As well as protecting yourself against winter illness, getting your free flu vaccination at the practice helps us to gain extra funding for these vital clinics. We are grateful to everyone who supports us by accepting our invitation when the time comes. 

If you’re happy to be invited  via text this year, now is a great time to make sure your contact details are up-to-date.

Published: Jul 16, 2023