National Electronic Records (The ‘Spine')

The Government has introduced a national programme for Information Technology within the NHS.  As part of this programme a National Database – the ‘spine' has been developed.  For  anyone registered with a GP practice the ‘spine' will hold at least their name, date of birth and NHS number. Eventually it will also contain the electronic medical records of every patient in the country.  The system is extremely secure, with access limited to staff issued with a ‘smart card' (an identity, micro-chipped card, which is programmed for users to have differing levels of security clearance and access).

One of the benefits of the spine will be to enable other clinicians based elsewhere to gain immediate access to the records of the patient to give them up to date clinical information in order that they can treat them appropriately  e.g. within hospitals, in A&E departments or when being treated as a Temporary Resident somewhere else in the country.

Patient consent for the transferring of records onto the ‘spine' will NOT be required, however patients do, of course, have the right to decide to opt out. Therefore if you do not want your  medical records to be included on this system you will need to write to the surgery to this effect.  On receipt of your letter a code will be put on your records which will show “refused consent for upload to national shared electronic record”.

 Dr Helen Smith – Congratulations on new baby

We are delighted to announce the birth of Dr Smith's second child. Phoebe Charlotte was born on 3rd June 2008, weighing 7lbs 7oz. Mother and baby are both doing very well.

 We are pleased to advise you that Dr Freeman and Dr Edwina will be covering for Dr Smith during her maternity leave as both are well known to the surgery and our patients.

 Appointments system

 As I'm sure you are aware we made some changes to our appointments system in February of this year, whereby we now offer a higher percentage of pre-bookable appointments up to four weeks in advance and limited book on the day appointments which are primarily designed for on the day emergencies.

 We are very pleased that the feedback we have received from patients regarding the new system has generally been very positive.  As ever please be assured we are constantly reviewing our   services to ensure we can offer the best possible service to our patients.

 Telephone System

 Following the installation of the new system in August 2007 we have made various changes to it's  programming over the months to ensure that all calls are dealt with as swiftly and effectively as      possible.

 We carried out a Patient Telephone Audit last month and I am delighted to report that the results showed the following:

 95% of those surveyed felt that their call was handled satisfactorily.

67% of those that made specific comments on the questionnaire gave positive feedback about the new system and 56% stated a preference to the new system

 Opening hours

Just as a reminder to help you contact us as effectively as possible our opening hours are as follows:

Telephone Lines

08.00—08.45— Medical emergency calls only, with a message directing you to call our duty doctor on their mobile number.

08.45—09.00— Appointments and medical emergencies only.

09.00– 13.00—Surgery fully open for appointments, enquiries, house-calls and emergencies. NOTE: we do request that in normal circumstances you do not phone in for test results in the morning as    although results are received into the surgery in the morning it usually takes until the afternoon for the doctors to see the results and report on them accordingly. There is a message to this effect on the telephone system.

Dispensary lines are open for frail, housebound and elderly patients between 09.30 and 10.30 only.

13.00-14.00- Medical emergency calls only. Surgery closed for routine calls.

14.00—18.00— Surgery fully open for appointments, enquiries, house-calls, test results (until 17.30) and emergencies.

Dispensary lines are open for frail, housebound and elderly patients between 14.30 and 16.00 only.

18.00—18.30— Medical emergency calls only, with a message directing you to call our duty doctor on their mobile number.

18.30 –08.00—Surgery closed— Medical emergency calls only, which are taken by Care UK, our out of hours provider.

Surgery opening

The surgery doors open at 08.45 for those wishing to come to the surgery to make their appointment in person (but please note as most of our appointments are now pre-bookable there will only be a very small number of routine appointments available on the day).  As always we will have an emergency doctor available and also book on the day Nurse Practitioner appointments.

 The surgery is fully open from 09.00—18.00, but we do close for routine calls and enquiries between 13.00 and 14.00, at which time a receptionist is available to deal with any medical emergencies.

 Nurse Practitioner

 We would like to remind you that we have ‘book on the day' appointments with our Nurse Practitioners.  The NP's are able to deal with many minor illnesses and can also prescribe.  Please find below a list of the types of conditions they can treat.

 Backache                                                                                            Migraine

Chest infections                                                                                  Mouth problems

Earache                                                                                               Nappy rash                                                        

Emergency contraception                                                                 Rash/Eczema/Impetigo

Eye problems                                                                                      Sore eyes

Gynaecological problems including Thrush                                     Sore throat

Hay fever                                                                                             Sprains

Head lice                                                                                            Stings/Bites

High Temperature                                                                              Stomach and Bowel problems

 Urine Infections

 The Nurse Practitioner can also issue sickness certificates.