WALKLEY HOUSE AND STANNINGTON
MEDICAL CENTRES
NEWSLETTER SPRING 2015
TRAVEL VACCINATIONS
It’s that time of year again when lots of people are
planning their summer holidays. Please be aware that
vaccinations are recommended and sometimes
compulsory for some countries.
Most travel vaccines need to be given 6-8 weeks
before travel in order for them to be effective. If you
think you may need vaccines for your foreign holiday
please telephone
our reception
team and make an
ONLINE
SERVICES
st
Nurse.
From the 1appointment
of April patientswith
will bethe
ablePractice
to access their
Summary care
record online. This includes information like Medication, allergies and
adverse reactions. This may increase in the near future to include things
such as vaccination history and test results. Access to online services
requires a consistent and robust approach to ensure patient
confidentiality therefore to be issued a username and password you
would need to provide us with 2 forms of identification, one including a
photograph. These could include passport, driving licence and bank
statement/utility bill. If a patient cannot provide these then a patient
could be vouched for by a member of staff who knows them well enough
to verify they are who they say or vouching with confirmation of
information held in a patients records so if nobody can vouch for the
patient their identity mayNEW
still beSTAFF
verified by obtaining responses to
questions from information held in their medical record.
We would like to say a big hello and welcome to our
two new Healthcare assistants Hayley and Lucy
who started with us mid-March. They will be
working between both our Walkley and
Stannington sites and we hope they will be very
happy working as part of our team.
PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP
We would like to say a big thank you to one of the members of our Patient
participation group, Mr Neville Wright for sharing the following piece with us. We
hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did.
Hello everyone, my name is Neville Wright and I have been tasked with penning a brief
profile together with introducing the Patient Participation Group.
I was first registered at Greenhow Street in the spring of 1950 in the days when the
names Ridgewick; Lahiff and Bryson were the keepers of the castle. The National Health
Service was in her infancy as was I. As I prospered I learnt that the doctors were to be
both revered and respected.
The surgery waiting list would sit in an atmosphere of silent whispers and we children
must remain in sight while never being heard. No appointment systems then and
Doctors on duty would work through the demanding queue long into the evening until
everyone had been seen.
I had a congenital deformity and my many appointments throughout the Health Service
ran me head to head with Polio 50's and the Thalidomide tragedy 60's. I think the sixties
more than any other period marked a turning point in many ways for the masses;
Questions started being asked, but more importantly answers started being found. A
political (small p) and Technological revolution was progressing from the embryo that
was the NHS into a different kind of society.
The most effective measure of progress in terms of wellbeing is that life expectancy in
my life time has soared from a little under 68 to 83 and yes much of this is attributable to
the technological and scientific advances. Yet improved communication and feedback of
information has been so important in the story. The stigma regarding health, mental
health in particular, is being eroded.
Walkley and Stannington Medical centres have wasted no time in enhancing
communication with patients following the installation of the computer system. First we
had the Patient survey which fed back to the management team... 'what was being done
well and what could be improved upon'. But in general terms the 'On Line Service' was a
god send to many. It must have seemed then, to the management team, a natural step
to progress to a 'Patient Participation Group'
I attended my first PPG Thursday 19/3/15 with Dr Stephenson in the chair. The agenda
was relatively informal. We looked at the role of the CQC (Care Quality Commission) and
where it sits in terms of the NHS at both Primary and Secondary care, Palliative care and
Social Service and the private sector. Feedback was encouraged on the functioning
of both surgeries and honest appraisals were proffered by all participants. The most
highlighted problem was appointments and though this has to be viewed in the light
of an infinite demand for finite resources, the situation is under constant review.
Anyone who has an interest in how the Health Service functions ( come on Teaching
Hospital Students of Sheffield), I would encourage to join the PPG for an insight into the
administration at PCT level.
RUNNING4CHARITY
Dr Stephenson will be
running Half Marathon in
May, and if you would like to
sponsor her, please notify
Reception