Notices

Well done to our fabulous team supporting ‘Jeans for Genes’ on Tuesday 19 September 2023.
We raised £60.00 for this wonderful charity #JeansForGenes #TeamDenim

Additional Staff Roles in your Practice you may not be aware of:

Our practice has been working collaboratively with other local practices to develop our team by introducing a variety of new roles, tailored to the needs of our patients, for our locality. You can expect to be seen by a specialist practitioner, quickly and closer to home.

• Social Prescribing Link Worker – Adult and Young Person’s
• Care Coordinator
• First Contact Mental Health Practitioner
• Pharmacist
• Pharmacy Technician
• First Contact Physiotherapist
• Trainee Nurse Associate
• Health & Wellbeing Coach

Download this Leaflet for more information

Hundreds of thousands of women experiencing menopause symptoms to get cheaper HRT

Around 400,000 women across England will get better access to menopause support – saving hundreds of pounds and making treatment more accessible.

• Women in England will be able to access cheaper hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause through a new prescription prepayment certificate (PPC)
• To be rolled out from 1 April 2023, the certificate will help around 400,000 women save hundreds of pounds a year, reducing their HRT costs to less than £20 a year
• Better access to HRT will improve the lives of millions of women in England who suffer from negative symptoms of the menopause

From 1 April 2023, women prescribed HRT – the main treatment for menopause symptoms – will have access to a new scheme enabling access to a year’s worth of menopause prescription items for the cost of 2 single prescription charges (currently £18.70).

Date of Meeting: Friday 3rd February 2023

Attendees:
Dr Brown | Christine Cain | GH | CC | MS | AS

Dr Brown discussed the changes within the Practice. Dr Burton, who was on rotation as a GP registrar has now left, and we have a new year 3 trainee called Dr Uwa. We have a new Physio called Paul Miller who works for the PCN and will be with us on a Monday and Tuesday each week. Thea Debonnaire is a new career nurse and Jade Hizzett is our new Young Persons Social Prescribing Link Worker.

If annual covid vaccinations are brought in it is likely we will continue to perform these in house like we do with the flu vaccinations, we had quite a poor uptake for flu and covid this year so we will try to improve on this. The pandemic is still ongoing, but we are operating in a Pre-pandemic manner. Patients are not required to wear a mask when attending the surgery unless they are coming into the surgery with coughs and colds.

Dr Brown mentioned a recent study by the Daily Mail on how well GP practices are performing in regard to face-to-face appointments and our practice had performed the highest of local practices at 83.48%, compared to a practice in London who scored 14%. We do still offer some telephone appointments as some patients prefer these.

Challenges we had such as increase in patient demand, staff shortages and illness are now improving. There are more on the day appointments available and covid infections rates are less frequent. We do however have issues with premises as we have more staff and not enough rooms. As Dr Brown is now a partner and Karen Neary is the Practice Manager, we are expecting a visit from CQC (Care Quality Commission) because of the changes.

The group asked why the wearing of masks had been dropped and it was explained that it was a government decision but that it was also patient preference.

The role of the physio is to be treated like a GP appointment he will examine, diagnose, and refer to physio at Peterlee.

MS, AS and CC all go private for their physio and wondered why physio isn’t offered in house. GH mentioned the increase in mental health problems, Dr Brown explained that there was an increase in things like personality disorders, ADHD and autism and there was up to a two year wait to be seen.

CC mentioned Andy’s man Club which is held every Monday at Horden Welfare Centre for men who need to talk about their problems, MS mentioned a group that meets at Blackhall and Dr Brown explained the role of the mental health service called Talking Changes.

The Group agreed that the Practice offer a very good service and the only complaint they had was the privacy issue at Peterlee reception and being able to hear conversations from the Nurses room in the waiting room although playing a radio in the waiting room has been introduced to try and remedy this problem.

All of the group at the meeting signed an attendance sheet and were happy for patient identifiable details to be added to the website in the meeting minutes.

Date of next meeting to be arranged.

For Christmas Jumper Day this year, Marie Curie was our chosen charity. They very kindly sent us some hats to wear along with a lovely card thanking us for fund raising.

We raised £53.70 for Marie Curie with donations and a raffle. Well done team 👏🏻🥰

From 01 October 2022 Extended access to primary care appointments at your registered practice and in our central hub at Peterlee Health Centre.

You can download a copy of this poster: Primary Care Enhanced Access

We are taking part in a new approach to improve access for patients to GP appointments. The aim is to direct patients to the most appropriate healthcare professional, which may be a GP or a pharmacist.

From 1.12.2021 if your symptoms could be resolved by a booked consultation with the community pharmacist instead of the GP, you will be given a same-day referral to a pharmacy of your choice. This will also help you see a highly trained Healthcare professional in a suitable time frame and help us to free up GP appointments for people with more complex health needs. Ensuring everyone gets treated at the right time, by the right healthcare professional. The service is being operated across all GP practices and pharmacies across County Durham.

Please click the link below for answers to some Frequently Asked Questions:

NHS Community Pharmacy Consultation Services