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Welcome to Fenny Compton & Shenington Surgery

**Urgent Update on Reception Services at Shenington**

We have sadly had a number of staffing issues at the practice recently, which means that we cannot offer our usual reception service every day at Shenington surgery from 23^rd January 2023. We do not want to be in this position and always want to do as much as we can for our patients. However, the reality is that we have lost a number of receptionists and as such, we cannot offer full services at both of our locations.

The effected days are Mondays and Wednesdays and on these days’ we would ask patients with booked appointments at Shenington to take a seat and the clinician you are seeing will book you in and collect you from the waiting room in the usual way.

If you need to make a follow up appointment, you will need to call our Fenny Compton site on 01295 770855 to make an appointment. If you need to speak to a receptionist face to face, we will have cover on Tuesdays, Thursdays all day and Fridays.

It is vital that patients do not ask the dispensary team for support with reception/appointment queries. They are not trained on reception and are unable to help you.

We are actively recruiting and hope to return to a full reception service at Shenington in the very near future.

Please be patient with us as we deal with this unprecedented situation. We very much hope to restore our services as soon as we can.

Thank you

We would like to say a huge thank you for all of the cards, emails and gifts we received leading up to Christmas. It was a very busy & difficult time and the messages of support we received were a real boost. Thank you and may we take this opportunity to wish you & your family a very happy 2023.

**Notice for patients**

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

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Open letter to all patients regarding workload at the practices

We hope that this letter finds all of our patients and their families well. It’s been an unbelievable last 18 months and I’m sure that like us, you are waiting for the day when life can return to some sort of normality. Thank you to all those patients who have sent messages of support to us during this challenging time, it has meant a lot to us as a team.

We are writing this letter to outline what’s happening at the surgery at the moment – which will be very different from the view portrayed in some parts of the media. We feel that unless we are transparent and honest with our patients, nothing will change, and we need things to change. This letter is a plea for your help to make those changes.

To be clear, this isn’t about preventing you from accessing our services. We are here to help you when you need us but the reality is, there’s only so much we can do in a day.

The team is drowning and we don’t say that lightly. The entire team is worried about the toll the pandemic is taking on the practice and are highly concerned about the associated backlog that the pandemic has caused.

The clinical team are dealing with almost twice the number of patients in a day than they did before the pandemic. This also means an increase in calls, emails, hospital letters, test results and everything associated with providing care for our patients. In addition to the usual day to day work, we are also being inundated with requests from patients for online access and COVID vaccination queries. We understand this but again, there are only so many hours in a day to get all of this work done. We fear that if we don’t try and make changes in a controlled way, the team will get burnt out and our waiting times to receive help will steadily get worse.

We have always prided ourselves on the level of access we provide for our patients. In many parts of the country, waiting times are 2 weeks and more for a routine consultation with a GP. As we write this letter, our next routine available appointment is less than a week away. The problem is that before the pandemic, it was less than 48 hours. We know our patients have high expectations of us quite rightly, but we simply cannot maintain that at the moment.

Likewise, our new telephone system provides us with an average waiting time for your call to be answered. In May, the average was just 1 minute 53 seconds. We really are all working as hard as we possibly can for you.

So, what can you do to help us? Actually, quite a lot. If we can make a few controlled changes, it will make the world of difference to the day to day running of the surgery and the wellbeing of the staff.

1. Please be kind not matter how frustrated you are

Our team are being abused on an almost daily basis and over time, this has a terrible impact on them. The team are trying to help you even if you’re not happy with what is being offered. We cannot accept abuse and we have a duty of care to our team to protect our employees from abuse when they are at work. All calls are recorded and we will officially warn those patients who are particularly abusive. Equally, if you are unhappy with the way you have been dealt with, please call the surgery and ask to speak to the practice manager.

2. Can I just have a chat with the Dr, it won’t take long

If you ask to speak to a Doctor, they need to have a slot available for that to happen. Once they are fully booked, they cannot accept more patients, unless it’s an emergency.

3. Non-urgent enquiries over the phone

Please don’t call the surgery at 9am if you need to make a general enquiry. This could be anything from a query about a report to a question about opening times. Try our website first as it has recently been updated and may contain the information you are looking for. If you do have a non-urgent query, it would really help us if you could call in the afternoon after 1pm. This will ensure that the patients who need an appointment that day can get through to us.

4. Select the correct option when you call

When you call, please select the correct option to help direct your call. If you cannot reach the team you need, for example, the secretaries, please don’t try another team as they don’t have the knowledge to help you. We know there have been a few teething problems with the new system but we’re working to resolve these glitches.

5. A 10 minute slot is for 1 problem

We do understand that patients may have multiple issues to discuss with the Doctor, but they can only deal with so many issues at once. Please don’t keep a list of issues and expect them all to be dealt with at once. We would ask you to prioritise your list if you have one and discuss the most urgent issue only. Please don’t be surprised if you are asked to make another appointment if you have multiple issues to discuss.

6. Queries about hospital referrals

We have noticed a marked increase in calls to us asking about hospital appointments. We have no access to your hospital care and would ask that if you have a question about waiting times or appointments, you contact the hospital yourself in the first instance.

7. Giving a reason for your appointment

The receptionist will ask you for a reason for the appointment. This isn’t because they want to prevent you making an appointment. It is to ensure you are booked in with the correct healthcare professional. A lot of patients demand to see a Doctor even when someone else could potentially help sooner. Giving a few brief details also allows the reception team to spot when something may be more serious and this is flagged up to a Doctor.

8. Emails requesting appointments

Please don’t try to bypass the appointment system by emailing us for an appointment. Though emails are monitored frequently, they are for non-urgent queries. If you request an appointment, my reception team have been instructed to reply and advise that you need to call the surgery to make an appointment.

9. Cancelling your appointment if you no longer need it

If you no longer need your appointment, please contact us to cancel. This will free up vital slots for other patients.

10. Be available for the Doctor when they call

We understand this is difficult when we cannot confirm a definite time for your call. It really helps the Doctors if you can take the call the first time they try. The Doctors don’t have the time to make multiple attempts to reach you due to the level of demand. It helps if you can tell the receptionist which number is the most suitable for the Doctor to call you on.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Making a few small changes will make a huge difference to us. We know the effects of the pandemic will be around for a long time to come and we continue to work hard for our community and offer the best possible service under these challenging circumstances.

Best Wishes to you all

From Dr Janet Marshall, Dr Tom Sharples and Lisa Yates (Practice Manager)