CORONA VIRUS.

If you have travelled from Wuhan or Hubei Province, China to the UK in the last 14 days you should immediately, even if you do not have symptoms of the virus:

• stay indoors and avoid contact with other people as you would with the flu
• call NHS 111 to inform them of your recent travel to the area

If you have returned to the UK from China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and develop symptoms of cough or fever or shortness of breath, you should immediately:

• stay indoors and avoid contact with other people as you would with the flu

• call NHS 111 to inform them of your recent travel to the country

DO NOT COME TO THE SURGERY, IF YOU DO, YOU WILL BE ASKED TO LEAVE, RETURN HOME AND TO TELEPHONE NHS 111

PLEASE REFER TO UP TO DATE INFOhttps://www.gov.uk/government/news/novel-coronavirus-and-avian-flu-advice-for-travel-to-china

Patient Information

Appointment System changes

The Practice along with Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group and South Warrington Network Practices have listened to patient feedback about the difficulties in arranging appointments.

To help balance access to both urgent and routine appointments the Practice has made changes to how emergency care will be provided.

From 2^nd December 2019:

We  will have a “Duty team” working together each day consisting of GP’s, Nurse Practitioner (NP) and Assistant Practitioners (AP).

Patients requiring “emergency” care will be given a slot to attend the surgery; ie 10am. They will be advised that we cannot guarantee they will be seen immediately on arrival. Attendees will be seen by the most appropriate clinician for their need. Those patients who are acutely unwell will be prioritised to be seen first. The Duty GP will be managing the duty team.

The new “Duty team” has helped us to provide more GP requests review slots which will help those patients who need continuity.

From 9^th December 2019:

With support from Warrington CCG and South Warrington Network, we  launched eConsult; a 24/7 online consultation system. You can get help or advice from the practice online at any time & get a response back by the end of next working day. You can get information about your condition, pharmacy advice, request administrative support or GP advice; if clinically necessary an appointment will be arranged for you. As eConsult is 24/7 there will be no need to telephone the Practice as soon as you can after 8am.

Our admin team have been provided with up to date guidance to help them signpost patients to the most appropriate care and will be actively working with eConsult. We advise patients to view the video on our website to them understand how it works.

The sender ID will be SHMC

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Getting your medicines if there's a 'no-deal' Brexit

The government is working closely with the NHS and suppliers to help to ensure medicines and medical products continue to be available for patients if there is a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

Get prescriptions as normal

Please keep ordering your repeat prescriptions and taking your medicines as normal. It is unnecessary to change how you order and take your medicines.

It's important you don't ask for more medicines than you normally need, doing so risks pressure on availability of medicines for other people.

What the government is doing

The government has put in place contingency measures to help ensure medicines continue to be available. These include:

Buffer stocks in the UK

The government has recommended that suppliers of medicines build up at least 6 weeks' extra stocks above their usual buffer stock levels in preparation for Brexit on 31 October 2019. It has secured additional warehouse capacity for the stockpiled medicines. These stocks will continue to be replenished when used.

It is not helpful or appropriate for anyone to create their own personal supply of medicines at home as this risks pressure on availability of medicines.

Transport priority for medicines

The government is buying extra space on ferries on which all medicines and medical products will be prioritised for import to the UK. It is buying an express freight service to deliver medical products where there is an urgent need.

Preparing medicines suppliers

The government is working with medicine suppliers to improve readiness for new border arrangements and has encouraged re-routing how medicines enter the country.

Regulatory Flexibility

The government is also making sure that medicines, devices and clinical trials licensed or tested in the EU can continue to be used in the UK in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, by amending regulations.

Working to ensure you receive medicines and medical products

Occasionally, the NHS does experience temporary disruption to supply of some medicines. The NHS has tried-and-tested ways of making sure you get your medicines and medical products, even under difficult circumstances.

In the unlikely event your medicine is temporarily unavailable, the NHS will work with you to prescribe the best alternative. This could typically be a different brand of medicine or perhaps lower strength medicines to make up the same dose.

On rare occasions it may mean a different medicine to do the same thing, but you will make the decision with your prescriber who will be provided with all the necessary information on how best to do this. This will ensure your treatment continues as normal. The NHS, through your local GP surgery, pharmacy and/or hospital, will help you to stay informed if there are any changes.

If you are concerned, please speak to your doctor or pharmacist.

Clinical trials

The NHS and the government are also working with organisations running clinical trials to ensure research continues as normal in the coming months. If you are taking part in a clinical trial, please speak with the NHS organisation that is hosting the trial if you have any concerns.

For further information, you can also read NHS England's advice for healthcare staff - Frequently asked questions about patients’ access to medicines after Brexit.

Get more information on preparing for Brexit and what it could mean for you

Last updated: 17 September 2019

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM

From July 2019

We moved to a cloud based telephony system provided by Surgery Connect.

The new system has a feature to record all calls.

We can also monitor queues and can add more staff to answer calls at busy periods.

In accordance with GP contract 2019, we have now stopped using our fax machines.

We will send correspondence by secure nhs.net mail.

We will send and receive documents via a secure NHS mail;

For General enquiries:

 warccg.StocktonHeathMC@nhs.net

For prescription queries/orders please use

warccg.prescriptionsteam@nhs.net

******************************************************************************************************************************************************

Chronic Disease Reviews

Annual Review

• Hypertension (raised blood pressure)
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Stroke or TIA (mini stroke)

• Asthma
• COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)

The Practice is currently changing the recall system it uses to manage annual review reminders for patients. To do this we have looked at what systems have worked well in other Practices in helping to remind patients when they should book an appointment for their annual review. This review has shown that having an annual review in the month of your birthday has worked well with this in mind has decided to transition to this recall system in the next 12 months.

We have traditionally used letters to remind patients that their annual reviews are due. We are now encouraging our staff to use a texting system called Accurx Chain SMS or email. Both these methods are environmentally friendly and data secure. For the patients who do not have access to either text messaging or email we will try to communicate via telephone or revert to mailing out a letter.

We therefore ask that all patients inform us when their contact details change, so that we can update their records and contact preferences.

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************

Referal to secondary care or community care

NHS England, BMA and N.A.P.P have provided a new patient information leaflet to explain what happens when a patient is referred to a specialist/consultant and what the process is with regards medication and fit to work notes when under the care of the  specialist/consultant. See the link below:

Click here to learn about what happens when you are referred

Click below to read patient information about what we prescribe in Warrington.......

Self Care Patient Information

My Life Warrington website gives information about what is available in Warrington for the following topics. Health and Wellbeing, Support for Carers and Child Care. Our Patient Advisors will use this site to help navigate you to services to give you extra support.

https://www.mylifewarrington.co.uk/kb5/warrington/directory/home.page

General Data Protection Regulation Changes

Patient Privacy Notice

Prescription Collection

On 25^th May 2018 General Data Protection Regulations are changing and Stockton Heath Medical Centre will be breaching these regulations if we give your prescription to someone without your permission.

If you want to delegate responsibility to another person (including a pharmacy) to pick up your prescription speak to your local pharmacy to arrange this service.

Important points of note:

1. You can withdraw permission at any time by informing the Surgery and the Pharmacy.
2. Some pharmacies no longer pick up paper prescriptions for patients.
3. Your prescription can be automatically sent to a pharmacy so no one has to pick it up from the GP surgery (dependent on medications).

Collecting letters/Fit to Work notes/copies of blood forms/results:

We will ask you to provide proof of your ID when you collect the paperwork and we log this on your medical record. If you are asking someone else to collect on your behalf, you will need to let us know the name of the person and ask them to bring proof of ID with them.

CQC Focused Inspection July 2018

 CQC Follow up Inspection March 2017

CQC report February 2016