Your Voice
February 2014
The Newsletter of the Patient Participation Group
Cranleigh Gardens Medical Centre & Westonzoyland Surgery
Non Attendance at Appointments
The PPG have become increasingly
concerned at the growing trend for patients
to fail to cancel appointments they no
longer need.
In some weeks the non attendances can
exceed 60 in number and many of these
will be for 20 or 30 minute appointments.
As an example, in the third week of January
the total of non-attendances amounted to
12 hours across the week. The equivalent
of 4 full surgeries. If each of those patients
had called the surgery to cancel their
appointment the practice could have seen
an additional 72 patients during that week.
The PPG are of course aware that some of
these are cases where the patient has either
genuinely forgotten their appointment or
where something has arisen at the last
minute which has prevented their
attendance.
However it does appear that a considerable
number are where the patient has booked
an appointment some time in advance and
then decided they no longer need the
appointment because their condition has
improved, and it is this group who we
would urge to contact the surgery to let
them know that their appointment is no
longer required.
On busy mornings the surgery may have as
many as 35-40 people requesting a same
day appointment and it is therefore really
essential that any pre-booked appointments
that are no longer required can be freed up
to meet this demand.
Triage for Same Day Appointments
To cater for the increasing number of
patients requesting same day appointments,
the surgery has been trialling a system of
telephone triage.
Many patients will already be aware that the
surgery offers telephone consultations as
well as same day appointments, and that
the Doctors have requested that reception
staff ask patients to provide some indication
of the problem so that they can be booked
in appropriately. More recently the Doctors
have decided that at busy times a GP will
ring every patient to discuss their problem
before deciding what type of appointment is
required or indeed if they can treated over
the phone.
During February the surgery will be
extending the trial to cover most duty
surgeries. Booking of routine appointments
in advice will remain unchanged.
Staff Changes
The PPG would like to welcome Richard
Reed who has joined the surgery as Practice
Manager. Richard takes over from Alison
Lee, who came to the practice in 2007, and
has now moved on to take up the position
of Practice Business Manager at the Green
Practice in Clevedon.
If you require medical attention during
outside of those hours there are a number
of options.
For minor injuries, cuts and sprains and
minor illnesses the MIU at Bridgwater
hospital is available.
Open Viewing of the New Hospital
We understand that there is to be an
opportunity for the general public to view
the new hospital on the 5th of April. The
details have yet to be confirmed but we
expect this to be agreed fairly shortly.
There are still on-going meetings and
negotiations as to the exact services that are
to be offered from the new hospital, but
hopefully all will be completed in time for
the move from the old building in the
spring.
For advice and guidance and for non urgent
problems, or if you need a home visit, you
can ring 111.
For all urgent matters, chest pain,
collapses, severe asthma attacks etc then
you should ring 999.
Both the MIU and A&E are often under
severe strain, so please do not use them
inappropriately and for routine matters
your GP surgery should always be your first
port of call.
Winter Coughs and Colds
Most people are aware that there are no
quick cures for the regular winter coughs
and colds. This winter the prevalent strain
seems to be hanging on for 5 or 6 weeks,
considerably longer than normal, but
unfortunately the advice is still the same,
and antibiotics would not be of any help.
There is evidence that there is also influenza
strain of cold/flu doing the rounds in some
areas for which medication may be suitable.
Please request a telephone call to discuss
your symptoms with the GP if you feel your
cough/cold may be more than just the
normal winter cold.
What to do when the Surgery is
Closed.
The surgery is always open between
8.00am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday.
Sharing of Details from Patient
Records
Leaflets from the NHS concerning the
sharing of some aspects of a patient’s record
will soon be dropping through letterboxes.
If you would prefer not to allow your
anonymised records to be shared in this
way, please ask at Reception for an opt out
form.
Even if you have already opted out of the
Summary Care Record, you will still need
to opt out of this new initiative, as
unfortunately they are not linked.