Welcome to the Patient Participation Group (PPG) newsletter for December and January. See the back page for information about the PPG and how you can become involved.

Fleetwood Surgery Christmas and New Year Opening Times

Monday 21st Dec 8.30 – 6.00pm Monday 28th Dec CLOSED Tuesday 22nd Dec 8.30 – 6.00pm Tuesday 29th Dec 8.30–6.00pm Wednesday 23rd Dec 8.30 – 6.00pm Wednesday 30th Dec 8.30-6.00pm Thursday 24th Dec 8.30 – 1.00pm Thursday 31st Dec 8.30-6.00pm Friday 25th Dec CLOSED Friday 1st January CLOSED

Apart from the dates listed above, normal opening times, 8.30am to 6pm apply. Weekend appointments can be booked via Reception. Out of these hours please call 111 which is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week and is a free call from landlines AND mobiles. In the event of a serious, life- threatening illness, such as chest pain or shortness of breath, phone 999.

Please ensure that you have ordered enough medication to see you over the Christmas and New Year period. Repeat prescriptions can be requested on line or by phoning our dedicated phone line 01253 957551 between 10am and 12 noon daily. Please ensure that you phone between these times.

Does the Surgery have your correct contact details? Please make sure your address and phone numbers are kept up to date – if you have a mobile phone, please ensure that we have the number so we can text you appointment reminders and important messages, such as Flu jabs and Surgery closures and so on. It is not too late to have a Flu Jab! If you missed the open clinics, don’t worry, just make an appointment in the normal way.

Practice Staff News

Our Mental Health Nurse, Alison Halliwell is already making a difference and she working towards self-referral. News of when this is available will be contained in the next newsletter. There have been a number of changes in the administrative and managerial staff which are shown in detail on the organization chart below:

What goes on ‘behind the scenes’……

Joy Blundell has been kind enough to tell us about the work she does to control all the written clinical information received in the surgery.

My daily responsibility is to process all the clinical data in written form that is received by the surgery. This includes Out of Hours sheets; Accident & Emergency Attendance Case Sheets; Hospital Discharge letters and Clinical letters from several hospitals. This involves “attaching” each letter to the medical records of the patient and adding all relevant data. We use an electronic system called Docman which enables me to direct the newly attached data to the relevant GP or Nurse without having to send bits of papers round in a tray!

We receive documentation from many external sources either electronically or in via paper letters/forms. Usually the highest number of case sheets arrive on a Monday when many of our patients have been seen over the weekend.

I open all the mail daily and sort out which documents the GP/Nurse need to see. All paper documents are scanned so that they can be viewed electronically at any time. All documents require a “read code” and this is a vital part of the patient record – I have undertaken training and this, together with my experience, means that I can use the correct code at all times. The codes can also be used to ‘interrogate’ the system to obtain facts and figures when required - such as how many patients have had hip replacements, or how many patients have asthma or diabetes etc.,

I process around 730 Out of Hours, A&E and Discharge documents and around 700 clinic/other letters each month.

As promised – a little about one of the medical staff:

Dr Adam Janjua graduated in 2003 and undertook his foundation year to GP Training at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. After working in St Anne’s as a GP he joined Waverley Surgery in 2011, and joined Fleetwood Surgery with the merger in 2014. His clinical interests include child health, women’s health, diabetes and care of the elderly. He serves as Elected Clinical Lead and Vice Chair of Fylde & Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). He is a family man and lives locally.

Patient Participation Group

The focus of the group is to promote the wellbeing of our patients and provide high-quality care and service at all times – the group can act as a critical friend to the Surgery and represent the views and needs of all patients. We meet every couple of months and talk about patient reviews received (see below), staff changes and future plans and targets. The group ensures that everyone’s opinion is taken into account. It is a relaxed and friendly meeting chaired by Liz Thompson, Practice Manager. The newsletter was the idea of one of the group and has been turned into reality by other members of the group.

Would you like to get involved? Everyone is welcome – contact Liz for more details or if you would like to receive copies of the meeting minutes, send an e-mail to FWCCG.fleetwoodsurgery.nhs.uk Our next meeting is on Thursday 14th January 2016 at 4.30pm.

Friends and Family Test You may already have been asked to give feedback on your experience with the Surgery. Your responses are sent (anonymously) to the surgery and considered by the staff and PPG too. There were 14 responses last month of which 12 were extremely likely to recommend the Surgery to friends and family and 2 extremely unlikely.

If you ever feel that things have not gone well, please do contact the Practice Manager, Liz Thompson who would welcome an opportunity to talk to you in confidence about any problems you have experienced – any such meeting would not have a negative effect on future consultations.

The newsletter will promote a local support group each edition:

Fleetwood Cancer Support Group meets at the North Euston Hotel on the first Wednesday in each month at 6.30pm. It is a friendly group which is open to anyone affected by cancer – contact Rita Hewitt 01253 873279 for information.

This newsletter has been produced by the Fleetwood Surgery PPG in the interest of promoting excellence in communication.