NEWSLETTER – SUMMER 2016
The Highlands Practice
WWW.THEHIGHLANDSPRACTICE.CO.UK
Welcome to the summer newsletter for The Highlands Practice. Along with our latest surgery news, in this issue
we will be looking at our new online service at Highlands, talking about blood pressure monitoring and access to
your records, together with an insight into a day in the life of a prescription clerk.
STAFF NEWS
NEW ARRIVAL
We are delighted to announce the new arrival of a gorgeous baby boy for Dr Rattray.
CELEBRATION
We are all extremely proud, here at the Highlands Surgery, to announce Dr Donal
Collins has been recognised by the NHS Leadership Recognition Awards 2015 for his
work outside of the surgery and has been awarded Regional Winner in the category of
NHS Development Champion of the year.
STAFF TRAINING
DAY
Please note the surgery
will be closed for staff
training from 1.00 pm on
Thursday 16th June.
NEW ONLINE SERVICE – LAUNCHING 8TH JUNE
We are aware this it is becoming increasingly difficult to get face-to-face appointments with GPs and to
speak to Reception on the telephone, so we have been looking at new ways of improving patient access.
We are pleased to tell you about a new online service called E Consult that we are launching on Wednesday
8th June, which can be accessed via the homepage of our updated website www.thehighlandspractice.co.uk
.
Features:
 Self-help – Information about lots of medical conditions, including signposting to services e.g. local
pharmacists who can offer help.
 Administrative help – Use the online form to request test results, sick notes, referral letters and
medical reports.
 Consult GP Online (over 18’s) – Use the online form to get help regarding your condition or
symptoms – the GP will either issue you a prescription without needing to see you, telephone you
for more information or arrange for you to be seen in the surgery – you will receive a response by
the end of the next working day.
Blood Pressure Monitoring
High blood pressure (hypertension) is a common problem, and there is overwhelming evidence to support the benefit of
lowering high blood pressure to reducing your risk of stroke, heart disease and death.
Blood pressure is often a bit higher in the doctor’s surgery than at home and therefore home recordings tend to be a
more realistic representation of your blood pressure.
We are aware that many patients have blood pressure monitors at home, we have therefore created a home blood
pressure monitoring form which can be found on the Hypertension section of our website or picked up from reception.
Patients can therefore monitor their blood pressure at home and drop in the readings for a GP to review.
A REPEAT PRESCRIPTION’S JOURNEY
Requests for repeat prescriptions are received by the surgery in various ways: Via the wooden drop off box on the reception desk
 From local pharmacies
 By post
 Online
 Via hospitals
 Through Nursing and Care homes
Unfortunately, we cannot accept them via phone, email or fax.
The prescriptions are then collected from reception at 11am, 2pm and 6pm, by our prescription
administrator, and placed in an envelope relating to that day and time. This way we know when they
arrived into the surgery. Urgents are placed in a separate folder and dealt with accordingly.
If for any reason you feel you need your medications earlier than 3 working days, then please discuss this
with reception.
The easiest way to put in a repeat request is to use our online service, use a local pharmacy or tick
appropriate boxes on the reverse side of your green prescription. If you do happen to use one of our forms
on reception then please try and add as much information as possible. Asking for “my stomach pills” or “my
face cream” can slow down proceedings quite dramatically.
Our prescription administrator then checks the medication is due, checks any changes in recent medication
regime and asks the doctor to address any issues. If requests are okay then they will be issued in either of
the following ways:
1. Green paper printed prescription
2. Electronically
Electronic Prescriptions get sent directly from the prescription clerk to the doctor during working hours.
The doctor signs electronic scripts with an electronic signature and they reject any items they are not happy
with. Once they have been signed they are sent to the NHS Spine, then onto your local chosen pharmacy.
There is no paper trail for any of this but it is obviously recorded on our system. Issuing this way is not
always fool proof and a few do go astray but we can trace them and reprint if needed.
Electronic issuing is brilliant if you happen to go away in this country and you forget your medications. We
can get details of a local pharmacy and send your prescription electronically, so there is no need to bother a
local surgery.
Green Paper Prescriptions are sent down to the doctors for signing in the old fashioned way. They are
brought down at 11am and 2pm so the doctors can sign after morning surgery and before their afternoon
one. The doctors will check for any issues, sign and send them out to reception who will file them according
to destination. The vast majority of them are sent to local pharmacies who come in daily to the surgery to
collect completed scripts and put in new ones to be processed.
We feel that our system works very well but recognise that it is not fool proof and there is occasionally the
odd glitch or hiccup in processing such a vast amount of requests. Some days we can receive over 200
separate requests.
We never want any patient to be without vital medication so our prescription clerk is available to help you
with any problems regarding your medication from 9.15am – 3.15pm daily.
So there you have it! This is what happens to every request we receive from our 16,000 patients, so please
allow us the 3 full working days before you return for your prescription and allow 10 days if you request via
a pharmacy.
When you register to use GP online
services, you will be given a
username and password, which you
will use to log in. You should not
share your login details with
others. To protect your information
from other people:
You should keep your password a
secret and it is best not to write it
down. If you must write it down, keep
a reminder of the password, not the
password itself. This should be kept in
a secure place.
If you think someone has seen your
password, you should change it as
soon as possible. You may want to call
your surgery if you are not able to
change it right away, for example,
when you do not have access to the
internet.
You should not share your
username or password. No one
should force you to show them your
login details; you have the right to say
no. If someone forces you, tell your
surgery as soon as possible.
ACCESS TO YOUR DETAILED CODED RECORD
From 31st March, 2016 you will be able to apply to have
access to your detailed coded record Patient Access.
This is the same system you can use to book
appointments online and order your repeat
prescriptions. There are a number of important
features of this service which we would like to point
out:
You must complete a form, sign it and hand it in at
reception in order to apply for this access.
Your application must be considered by a member of
clinical staff before being approved, as there are some
patients that access is not appropriate for.
This will not give you access to your full medical record.
If you wish to have access to your full, detailed medical
record, you must still apply using our Access to Medical
Records Policy, which is outlined on our website or
available from reception.
If you wish to apply for access to this service, please ask
at reception and they will pass your request to an
administrator.
If you have any comments or suggestions for the next newsletter, please put in writing and address it to:
Louise English, The Highlands Practice.
FUN FACTS
The largest muscle in your body is located in your rear end.
The human neck has the same number of vertebrae as a giraffe’s neck.
There are 22 bones in the human skull.
The human skull is 80% water.
The average human head weighs about 8 pounds
AND FINALLY: Why don’t ants get sick? ………..because they have little antibodies!
The Highlands Practice -Telephone Number: 01329 845777 Fax Number: 01329 847794