Patient News

Information about a software issue that prevented documents from being visible to patients.  

We understand that some of our patients may have been unable to view certain documents (e.g. letters from the hospital) when using online services due to a software problem. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. We are pleased to inform you that this issue has been resolved; any new documents added to your electronic GP health records will be visible and it may take up to a month for older, affected documents to become visible.  

Your GP team will have been able to access the letters, so your care will not have been affected during this time. 

15/03/2024

The Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) has been available to patients for the past 12 months via the surgery.  Many will have used the service for:

1. urgent repeat prescription supply;
2. NHS referrals via the GP practice for minor illnesses

The new Pharmacy First Service builds on this by now enabling community pharmacies to manage patients for seven common conditions:

1. Acute otitis media (1 - 17 years old)
2. Impetigo (1 year and over)
3. Infected insect bites (1 year and over)
4. Shingles (18 years and over)
5. Sinusitis (12 years and over)
6. Sore throat (5 years and over)
7. Uncomplicated UTI (Women 16 - 64 years)

Patients can access this new clinical pathway by walking into the pharmacy directly or where appropriate, by contacting them by video consultation. In addition, patients can access the service via referrals from:

• NHS 111 (online, telephone and NHS App)
• integrated urgent care clinical assessment services
• urgent treatment centres
• emergency departments
• 999
• general practice (for the 7 new pathways in addition to the existing minor illnesses)

While you are waiting for your hospital appointment or treatment, you can now use the NHS App to get the information you need while you wait to be seen.

A new NHS App feature has been launched for patients to view an estimated waiting time for your hospital treatment. You will know you are on waiting list and how long you may have to wait for treatment.

This is the same information that would be obtained by calling the surgery, so it would greatly assist us if you would use the NHS App in the first instance.

On 27th September 2023 the surgery changed to Klinik from eConsult

What does this mean for our patients:

1. For patients who access the tool via our web site it will be visible different. Please take a little time to familiarise yourself with the options as this will speed you access to the support you need.
2. The team answering your calls do not have access to your clinical records and therefore will not be able to make any bookings or provide information to you.
3. For patients that are unable to use the web site and therefore call us, our operators will take you through the Klinik templates as if you were accessing the online system, in effect in a similar way as when you call 111. This is to ensure our GPs have the information they need to triage your clinical concerns. This will mean some calls will take longer than at present.
4. The team answering your calls will collect your requests for matters such as Fit Notes, blood appointments, dressing changes, insurance letter requests, hospital transport, test results and enter the details into Klinik. These will be forwarded to the appropriate back office team, who will either confirm your request has been actioned by text, email or phone, or they will contact you to make specific arrangements.
5. The triage doctors will as now work through all clinical online consultations and will contact you with the outcome of their triage either by text, email or phone.
6. Our objective is to have the online consultation system available to patients between 8am and 1pm and from 2pm to 4:30pm. Dependent upon demand we may need to close the system earlier or “snooze” the system until we have caught up with the workload.