Welcome To The First Edition Of Our Newsletter March 2014

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1 Winterton Medical Practice Patient News Here at the Practice we are always looking at new ways to keep our patient s informed of the services that are available to them. We have responded to feedback from the Patient Participation Group following this year s patient survey requesting a practice newsletter. The patient group felt this was a great way for patients to learn more about the services we offer and provide feedback to the partners on the care the Practice provides. We hope you find our newsletter of interest and please let any of the team know if there is anything you would like to see featured in future issues. Happy reading! NEWSFLASH LATEST TECNNOLOGY WORKING FOR OUR PATIENTS 24 Hour Access To Appointments Via Automated Telephone System We have recently implemented the latest communications technology to extend our automated telephone appointment booking system for patients. We are now able to offer access to a wider range of appointments via the service, including nurse and telephone appointments, since upgrading the system. Known as Patient Partner, the service enables patients to call the surgery at any time of the night or day to make, check, amend or cancel appointments. Prior to the upgrade, the system could only be used to book appointments with the GP at the practice. However, patients can now book appointments with the nurses for a range of clinics and services such as blood tests, Immunisation and nurse practitioner sessions. The new technology that we have installed means that patients will be able to use our automated system to book more appointments, comments Practice Manager Gail Holland Continued overleaf.

2 The automated appointments service has been specially designed to ease the problems that patients can face when trying to contact the practice on the telephone. Callers use the surgery s usual phone number and select the automated telephone booking option. The patient enters their date of birth and phone number for validation purposes and the system is then able to detect spaces in the surgery s appointment schedule. The patient chooses the time which best suits them by pressing a button on their touch tone phone. The following appointments can now be booked using this system; GP Appointments, including GP Telephone Appointments Nurse Practitioner Appointments Appointments with Nurse or Healthcare Assistant for the following: Smear Vitamin B12 Injection Depo Contraceptive Injection Pneumoccol Injection Ear Syringe Blood Pressure Blood Test Asthma Review Please ask at Reception if you would like more information about this service ************* Inside this issue.. Practice Patient Participation Group Latest news The Nurse Practitioner Service How it can help you Patient Information Records Walking The Way To Health Follow Up Appointments For Dressings Patient Care Updates Non Attendance At Appointments News In Brief PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUPS (PPG) We have a face to face group which meets on a quarterly basis, and plays an active part in the workings of the Practice and also a virtual group which provides feedback and comments via . If you would like more details about either group please speak to Jackie Smith, Assistant Practice Manager. Each year the National Association of PPG s run an awareness week in June; this provides an opportunity to speak to more patients about the work undertaken.. watch this space for the activities our group will be running in 2014! The Nurse Practitioner Service

3 NURSE PRACTITIONERS We have two Nurse Practitioners working at the practice. Nurse Practitioners are able to prescribe certain medications for you. Our Nurse Practitioners (Marie Fewster and Sue Colvin) are available Monday - Friday at Winterton Surgery and they are able to deal with the following conditions: Coughs Colds Earaches Skin Problems Sore Throats Chest Infections Urine Infections Diarrhoea and Sickness Vaginal Discharge/Irritation Eye Infections & Foreign Bodies in the Eye Insect Bites/Stings Hay Fever Emergency Contraception Marie Fewster can also deal with these additional conditions: Gout Contraception Children and Babies Feeling Tired all the Time Depression / Low Mood Headaches Dizziness / Light Headedness Abdominal Pain / Back Pain Women's Health / HRT / Menopause Nail Problems Breast Pain / Breast Lumps Indigestion / Dyspepsia Cyst / Boils / Lumps & Bumps Joint Pain / Arthralgia.. and other Minor Illnesses Please contact Winterton Surgery and book an appointment with the Nurse Practitioner if you are suffering with any of these conditions. You can also book an appointment with the Nurse Practitioner using our 24 hour automated telephone system. Dial as normal and press "1" from the menu when prompted to access the system and follow the simple instructions Patient Information

4 The Practice aims to provide the best levels of health care at all times and would like to bring to the attention of our patients how their health care records can be used to assist in both their own care and shaping the future of the NHS in England. There are three different ways patient data can be used, and all are for different purposes. A brief overview is provided below for patient information. Please speak to our receptionists regarding your own healthcare records. 1)The Summary Care Record (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. This summary record will help in ensuring continuity of care across a variety of care settings. A patient's SCR will contain key health information including details of allergies, current prescriptions and bad reactions to medicines. The availability of SCRs is designed to assist in improving the safety and quality of patient care, by providing authorised healthcare staff with, easier access to reliable information about the patient to help with treatment. As the patient is treated they will be asked by staff if they can look at their SCR every time they need to. If you would prefer not to have an SCR please ask reception for an opt out form or obtain the form from our website: 2) Enhanced Data Sharing Model (edsm) edsm uses a secure computer system that allows the sharing of full electronic records across different NHS Care Services. It works on a patient-by-patient basis allowing each organisation to record whether the patient wants to share information out of an organisation, and to control their ability to view information made available from other organisations. The sharing controls can be set and changed at any time, giving complete control to the organisation in consultation with their patients' wishes. You will be asked to either consent or object to this sharing. 3) Care.data is a forthcoming extract of patient data commissioned by NHS England. The intention of the scheme is to make increased use of the information in medical records in order to improve the quality of care for patients. The service is one of the first initiatives to use the powers of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (HSCA), which allows the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), in certain circumstances, to extract confidential information from GP practices without seeking patient consent. Please ask for a leaflet which will provide you with more information. All households will be receiving more information from the government early in 2014 regarding this matter. Please ask at reception for an opt out form or obtain the form from the website: if you do not wish your information to be shared in this way. More information can be found at WALKING THE WAY TO HEALTH WALKS FROM GP SURGERIES The "Walking the Way to Health" scheme is to provide shorter walks from GP Surgeries. These walks will be geared towards patients who cannot walk longer distances and will last approx. 30 minutes. All walks are led by fully trained volunteer walk leaders. The surgeries at Winterton and Burton will be provided as a base to meet and a starting point for the walks. The walks will take place every Tuesday at 1pm commencing on 4th March at Burton and will run alternate weeks at each surgery. Full details are shown on the posters displayed in each surgery. Please ask for further details at Reception or visit ourwebsite: Please contact Christine Johnson on or her at Christine.johnson@nothlincs.gov.uk if you are interested in volunteering to be a walk leader. Follow Up Appointments For Patient Dressings

5 If you are a patient who has been treated at an Accident & Emergency Department and require any routine follow up appointments to have your dressings changed you should visit The Ironstone Centre, West Street, Scunthorpe where Wound Management Clinics are held. The Clinic times are as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 2pm until 3.30pm Thursday 9am until am Please ring to make an appointment **************** PATIENT CARE UPDATES Urgent Appointments In accordance with the Patient s Charter, the surgery offers on the day appointments for urgent medical problems. Broadly speaking urgent problems are serious, sudden and severe conditions that have arisen recently, which will not wait until the next available routine appointment with a doctor. These appointments are 5 minutes in duration and patients must be prepared to wait to be seen by the Doctor. If the Doctor needs more time to review a patient s condition they may ask the patient to re-book for a routine appointment. Online Service We now have an online service to allow you to book, check or cancel GP appointments and order your repeat prescriptions 24/7. If you wish to use this service, please ask at reception for a personal username and password. You will need to bring one form of Photo ID and one form of ID confirming your name and address, or two forms of ID confirming your name and address when requesting your username and password. SystmOnline is now available as a FREE app for Apple Devices. Search for SystmOnLine in the App Store. An Android app will follow shortly. GP Out Of Hours Service To access medical services when the surgery is closed please telephone 111 for medical advice. Alternatively visit Market Hill 8 to 8 Centre Please note that with effect from 1 st April 2014, the 8 to 8 Centre will no longer be offering its services to unregistered patients. The Centre is not closing down and will continue to see patients registered with them ************ Patient Non Attendance At Appointments

6 **In January % of patients attended their appointment with a GP** Please advise the Practice if you are unable to keep your appointment, as the 2.9% of patients who did not cancel their appointment meant 14 hours of lost GP consultation time. We are working hard to offer patients a variety of ways to advise us if they are unable to keep an appointment. Appointments can be cancelled or changed via the following methods: Via the telephone with a receptionist (increased phone lines now available) Automated telephone system available 24/7 Face to face at the Reception desk Systmonline Please ask at Reception if you need further information on any of the above services TEXT MESSAGE SERVICE Please ensure we have your current mobile number as this enables us to send a text message confirming, or reminding you of, any appointments booked or we may contact you with other useful information. If, however we have your number and you would prefer not to receive these texts please advise the Receptionist and they will arrange for your records to be updated. And Finally We now have a suggestion box held in the waiting rooms at both Winterton and Burton Surgeries. If you would like to leave us some constructive feedback about the services we offer then please do so using the suggestion box slips provided. The suggestions will be taken on board and may be taken to our PPG meetings for further discussion and could initiate change in the practice. You can also leave us your suggestions via the feedback page on our website We d love to hear your feedback on our newsletter Also what would you like to see featured next time? Please leave your feedback with the receptionist or complete one of the suggestion slips! For more information about the Practice and the services we provide please visit our website at