Summer 2017 Welcome Welcome to the summer edition of our patient newsletter. We hope you will find it interesting and informative. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by the cyber attack on the NHS in May. Although our computers were not affected on the Friday when the attack happened, we could not use them for the following Monday and Tuesday while our IT services conducted an upgrade. We had to revert to using pen and paper and had no access to any patient data including past consultations and test results. Once the systems were restored staff worked extra to catch up and within 2 says we were working as normal again. We thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. New Staff Members We have recruited 3 new Reception staff members since our last newsletter. They are all based at the Tibshelf site. We also have a new pharmacist (also based at Tibshelf) who will be conducting medication reviews. Please give any of our new staff a warm welcome when you see them. Chelsie Nussey Grace Kirkwood Linda Rowe Dan Graham (Pharmacist) Why do Receptionists ask questions when you book an appointment? Many patients ask why reception staff want to know what is wrong with them when they want to book an appointment . This is not a case of the receptionist being nosey! Our receptionists are members of the practice team and the doctors have asked them to ask patients why they need to be seen. This helps them to direct you to the correct clinician for your needs and helps the clinician prepare for your appointment. Receptionists are trained to ask certain questions in order to ensure you receive the most appropriate medical care, from the appropriate medical professional at the most appropriate time. Our receptionists, like all members of the team, are bound by confidentiality rules. Any information given by you will be treated with the strictest confidence. The practice takes any breach of confidentiality very seriously and deals with it accordingly. If you are booking an appointment at the front desk and do not wish to disclose the reason for your visit in the waiting area, you can ask to speak to a member of the reception team in private away from the reception area and waiting room. If you feel that the issue is personal, only minimal information is needed for the receptionist to assess the most appropriate person to help you, as well as the urgency of the problem. Receptionists are experienced and trained to deal with Your local GP Services covering, Tibshelf, Holmewood, Pilsley and Stonebroom Areas sensitive requests. www.staffahealth.co.uk 1 Patient Information Screens The installation of our new patient information / calling boards is now complete at our Tibshelf, Stonebroom and Pilsley sites. Holmewood will get theirs up and running shortly, as soon as we have resolved an IT issue there. We hope you will find the new screens interesting and informative to watch whilst you are waiting for your appointment. Travel Vaccination Information If you’re planning to travel outside the UK, you may need to be vaccinated against some of the serious diseases found in other parts of the world. Vaccinations are available to protect you against infections such as yellow fever, typhoid and hepatitis A. Travel immunisations are available by prior arrangement. Please ask for a Travel Health Questionnaire from Reception which you will need to complete before making any appointment. It is important to complete this form as early as possible. We require the form at least 2 months before you travel to allow us to organise your vaccinations and ensure you are fully protected by the time you leave the UK. Please note that charges may apply for certain travel vaccinations as they are not covered by NHS. You will be advised of any costs involved appointment and asked to bring payment with you prior to your appointment. Stay safe in the sun! We know that hot and sunny weather can be a rarity in this country but when we do get a few days of warm sunshine it is still really important to look after your skin and your health. Remember that you can still burn in the UK and you should use a sunscreen appropriate for your skin type. Stay out of the sun when it is at it’s hottest; usually between 11am and 3pm. Keep hydrated by drinking lots of water and make sure you cover up with a hat, t-shirt and sunglasses to protect yourself. This is easily remembered by the 5 S’s of sun safety as shown below. It is especially important to make sure that children are covered up and have a strong sunscreen of at least factor 30 on as their skin is especially sensitive to the harmful rays of the sun. Remember to reapply sunscreen if your child has been playing in water. For more information please visit www.skcin.org www.staffahealth.co.uk 2 Updating personal information Please can we ask that all our patients keep us informed about any changes to your personal information. This includes address, telephone number (land line or mobile), name changes and next of kin details. It is very important that you keep us up to date with all of this information to ensure that we can contact you or your next of kin should the need arise. Keeping us up to date with these changes will also minimise any problems, confusion and delay when you want to book an appointment and we check who you are by asking you to confirm your personal data. If what you are telling us differs from what we have on screen then we cannot verify that you are who you say you are. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. New Look Staffa Health Website We have recently updated our Practice website and this will shortly be going live for patients to view. The new website will be located at the usual address: www.staffahealth.co.uk On the website you will find general information about the practice and the services we offer as well as health and wellbeing information, links to NHS Choices and other organisations and charities that can offer medical advice and support. Please keep an eye out for the new site which we hope will replace from the old one by the end of June. If you have any ideas, comments or suggestions about the new website please feel free to get in touch. DNA - non-attendance at appointments At Staffa Health there is always a tremendous demand for appointments so it is disappointing when patients fail to turn up. As a practice we monitor this closely. Where we find a pattern developing we will contact patients to discuss the situation and to inform them that it is something which cannot continue. Wherever possible we will work with the patient to try to overcome whatever is causing the difficulty, but if the pattern continues we may consider removal of the patient concerned from our list. Patients who ‘Did Not Attend’ (DNA), are defined as patients who fail to attend appointments without contacting the practice to cancel the appointment so that it can be released for others or telephone so late as to make it impossible to allocate to another patient. The effects of DNAs are: An increase in the waiting time for appointments Frustration for both staff and patients A waste of resources Whilst we are primarily concerned with our own appointment observance, consideration may also be given to any hospital appointments where we have been notified that a patient has failed to attend. If you find you cannot attend an appointment please call the surgery as soon as possible to cancel or rearrange. This will ensure that the appointment can be made available for other patients to book. www.staffahealth.co.uk 3 Staff Fundraising Update Our Staffa Health team of runners completed the Dronfield 10K on a windy Sunday back in March. Dr Paul Gadsden ran with nurses Emma Lester and Lindsey Rogers (pictured). They were fundraising for Ashgate Hospice and the grand total raised was nearly £100. Well done to the team on completing the event and thanks to everyone who sponsored them to support such a valuable local charity. Our Training Administrator, Sharon Ingram, is 3 rides into her Super 7 for Motor Neurone Disease Association. So far she has completed the 70 mile No Excuses Sportive from Southwell (in pouring rain and driving wind!), the 50 miles very hilly Igloo Sportive from Ashover and the 53 miles (also hilly) Peaks Tour from Bakewell. Her next event is the 100 miles Great Notts Bike Ride on 25th June. So far she has raised over £500 for MNDA and you can still sponsor Sharon either via sponsor forms at any of our Reception desks or online at: www.justgiving.com/sharonssuper7. Thank you to all who have donated so far. Sharon is pictured here with some of her supporters. Have you registered for Online Access yet? The Patient Access system has been up and running for a few years now but there are still thousands of patients that have not registered for it! The benefits of using the Patient Access system include: You can book appointments online at any time of the day with a choice of clinicians, no more queuing on the phone You can request repeat prescriptions when it suits you and collect them at your convenience (48 hours notice required) You can view basic details on your health records - if you find yourself admitted to hospital out of normal surgery hours or need to see a doctor whilst on holiday you can share this information with them also.