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Welcome to Fenny Compton & Shenington Surgery

**Update on Flu & COVID for 2023**

Thank you to everyone who has made an appointment. We are due to have more COVID vaccines delivered this week but the quantities are sadly unknown. If we can offer COVID to you at the same time as flu, we will. Saturday clinics are now full but we do have midweek clinics at both sites as follows:

Fenny Compton – 11th, 13th & 18th October

Shenington – 12th & 19th October

If you are having flu or COVID with us, you will need to complete a consent form. These are available at both sites to collect or can be printed here:

COVID & Flu vaccination form v3

**GP Survey Results**

The results have been published and we’re very proud of the results. Please visit  https://gp-patient.co.uk/report?w=1&practicecode=M84009 to see the results for our surgery. 

**Appointments not attended – March to June 2023** 

From March to June, there were 61 clinical appointments not attended (DNAs) This is a huge waste of time and precious NHS resources. Please contact us if you cannot keep your appointment so that it can be offered to someone else. Thank you. 

**New Service – First Contact Practitioner (FCP)**

We are pleased to announce a new service for patients that starts from Monday 10th July. Arinze is our new FCP who works across our PCN. He can offer 20 minute face to face appointments for patients with the following conditions:

• New onset joint pain including knees, back, hip, elbow, shoulder & neck
• Sports injuries
• Arthritis symptoms but only if you haven’t seen a GP within 2 months

He will be at Fenny Compton on Mondays and Shenington on Wednesdays. If you meet the criteria and have a problem, please contact the reception team to make an appointment.

**Friends & Family Responses**

We have collated all of the responses we received since July 2022. Please head to the feedback page to review the results. Thank you to everyone who completed a survey. 

**Notice from the GPs re symptoms of heart attacks & strokes**

Over the last 6 months we have had a large increase in the number of patients contacting the surgery with symptoms that could suggest either a heart attack or a stroke. In both of these conditions, if caught and treated early enough, the damage to the heart or brain is potentially reversible and therefore delays in hospital treatment can lead to much poorer health and even a risk to life. Whilst we understand A&E waiting times are lengthy and the current issues with ambulance delays, we must advise anyone presenting with signs or symptoms of a heart attack or stroke to call 999 immediately for advice, without delay.

The most common symptoms of heart attack are sustained, crushing chest pain and difficulty breathing. There might also be associated cold sweats, a racing heart, pain down the left arm, jaw stiffness, or shoulder pain:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/heart-attack/symptoms/

The symptoms of stroke include sudden difficulty seeing, speaking, or walking, and feelings of weakness, numbness, dizziness, and confusion:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stroke/symptoms/

If you or a family member are advised to call an ambulance by our reception team or our clinicians then please do so without delay.

If you or someone you know are experiencing symptoms which you feel may represent either a heart attack or a stroke please do not delay calling 999 as fast action can save lives.

Thank you

**We’d like to share our fantastic results**

Public health have shared the most recent vaccination & immunisation data for our practice and we are thrilled with the results. A link to view our achievement can be found below. The figures are compared to both local and national results. Our nursing team are working really hard to ensure our patients are kept safe and we thank them for their incredible work. 

V&I data 2020-21

**Changes to HRT prescriptions from 1st April 2023**

From 1st April, most patients who currently pay for their HRT treatment can apply for a pre-payment certificate. This will cost approx. £20 and cover the whole year, so is extremely cost effective. To apply for your certificate, please visit the NHSBSA website and look for ‘Buy an NHS prescription pre-payment certificate’. In view of this, and in line with government guidelines, we will also be reducing the amount of HRT prescribed to a monthly amount. 

Change to the appointment system from Monday 1^st August

Due to the ongoing demand for appointments and services at present we feel it is necessary to change our appointments system.

A combination of the pandemic and increasing pressures across the NHS has made it increasingly difficult to maintain short waiting times. With hospitals overwhelmed post-pandemic, our clinical staff are near breaking point. We are finding increasing responsibilities, long hospital waiting times and the associated administrative tasks placing increasing strain on primary care. In addition to this, our receptionists are dealing with increasing abuse on a daily basis. This abuse is not acceptable and whilst we recognise this comes from a minority of our population, we feel we have to take action now to maintain the service we offer. We have always prided ourselves on our ability to help patients quickly whilst maintaining a high level of care and we strive to maintain this going forward.

For this reason we will now be offering a split appointments system across the morning and afternoon. The morning will involve on the day appointments ONLY whereas the afternoon will continue as routine appointments. We know this will lead to some frustration but we are doing this in the best interests of our patients to maintain the most complete service we possibly can.

Therefore, from 1^st August, the following changes will be made:

• If you need to speak to a doctor we ask you call between 9am – 11am to be added for a same-day telephone appointment.
• The Doctor will then be able to manage your needs via the telephone, or arrange to see you face to face if required.
• We would ask for this reason you specify to reception which is your closest surgery (Fenny Compton or Shenington).
• For on the day calls you will be unable to specify which doctor you wish to speak to.
• After 11am (or when the morning appointments are filled) only urgent calls can be accommodated and it will be at the GPs discretion how and when patients are contacted. If the problem is deemed non-urgent by the GP you will be asked to either make a routine afternoon appointment or call back the following morning for an on-the-day appointment.
• Home visits must be requested before 10.30am and will only be provided for those patients who are eligible.
• There will still be routine pre-bookable appointments, both face to face and on the telephone and these can be with the GP of your choice and will be offered in the afternoon on the next available date. You can call to book these after 11am.
• Individual GPs can choose to see patients in the morning following consultation if they choose.

You can help in other ways too:

• Please call after 10.30am if your reason for calling isn’t urgent. This system will increase demand on our receptionists between 9 – 10:30am and therefore we must prioritise on the day appointments during these hours.
• Have your diary to hand to speed up our ability to help you.
• Remember that 1 slot = 1 problem. If you have more than 1 issue, please prioritise the most urgent problem.
• Please don’t abuse the receptionists if they can’t offer what you request – they are doing their best and it’s not their fault if they cannot give you exactly what you need. Our telephone calls are recorded and we will not tolerate any abuse towards our staff.
• To improve our delivery of test results it is very helpful if we have an up to date mobile telephone number. We can then send SMS messages with any important information and any actions that are required with regards these results.

Finally we recognise we are not perfect and that a perfect appointment system does not exist. Some patients in other parts of the country are waiting up to 6 weeks to speak to a GP or only able to submit an electronic request to contact a GP despite their problem being urgent. We do not want to let patient satisfaction slip and the above changes are our attempt to offer a good mixture of urgent and routine care. We will continue to monitor and review any changes that are necessary to optimise our service further.

We care a lot about our patients and are trying to provide the best service we possibly can.

Thank you

Drs Marshall & Sharples