WINTER NEWS – 2014/2015 STAFF UPDATE AND CHANGES Dr Helen Osborn regrets she is unable to offer as many surgeries as usual for the time being, due to unforeseen family circumstances; however, she will of course see any messages specifically addressed to her in the meantime. Dr Hussein Alibhai is coming back! He is due to start in mid-January, and will be with us on 2 days per week. Dr Linda Parr continues to do 2 days per week, too. Dr Naomi Vernon, our current Registrar will be returning from maternity leave in the new year, working on Monday mornings. Dr Natalie Harding, our next GP Registrar, is due to start in August 2015, and will visit us occasionally before then. We have also now got some regular Locums in Dr Ethel Johnson, Dr Anne Lashford and Dr Peter Phillips, Dr Joanna Pullen, Dr Daz Harding, Dr Kathryn Hogg, and Dr Lisa Kramer. We are very grateful to them for their help. OUT OF HOURS PROBLEMS We hope you won’t need to phone Out Of Hours, but… 111 – DO USE IT! We have had a few patients who have been unwell over the weekend and have waited until the Surgery opens on Monday morning to call for advice. If you need advice out of hours, please use the 111 service. This provides advice and access to GP services. The surgery is notified when the service is used. We must also remind patients that we do not run a Minor Injuries service as we do not have the facilities. The nearest ones are at Chippenham and Trowbridge Community Hospitals. ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTIONS The surgery is now set up to send prescriptions electronically to chemists, as nominated by patients. These take up to 12 hours to go through as routine. Nothing changes from your point of view– Please leave enough time to ask for prescriptions, especially when it comes to holiday times! We need your requests in writing, either by using the “right-hand side” (i.e. the sheet with the tick boxes for your regular medications), or a note through the letter box, or electronically by email to [email protected] or online via our website for those of you who have a log-on and password to use this facility (please ask Reception for more details if you are interested). We cannot routinely get prescriptions to the chemists on the same day; both we, and the chemists, need a couple of days to turn things round, so please help us by planning ahead. We would also like to recommend that you check the bag before leaving the chemist with your medications! Prescriptions go through generally with 3 or 4 items on one page – if you have any more than that, or may have had adjustments to your prescription, the pharmacist may have got your various pages separately, so there could be more than one package on the shelf. FLU AND SHINGLES INOCULATIONS The annual flu vaccination is recommended for all patients over 65 or with certain medical conditions (asthma, diabetes, COPD). Patients who were 70, 78 or 79 on 1st Sept 2014 are eligible for a shingles inoculation. If we haven’t caught you so far, please let us know and we’ll book you in! Children of 2,3 and 4 are being offered Fluenz, which they sniff, rather than having an injection. LOCAL DEFIBRILLATORS There are four new defibrillators in our community which have gone live 1 = Near the front entrance to the Village Hall in Sandfield 2 = on the Littleton Panell High Street Bus Stop 3 = at Lavington School 4 = opposite the Butcher in Market Lavington and in Worton there is one on the side of the Rose and Crown pub Friends and Fundraising Thank you for supporting the Christmas Raffle, and also for continuing to buy our books, jigsaws, cd’s and dvd’s. The money raised goes to the Friends of Courtyard Surgery and is used to buy additional equipment which benefits patients, for example home blood pressure machines, cautery and cryotherapy sets and spirometry machine. We are actively recruiting Friends! They meet several times a year, generally at 6pm on a Monday evening. Some of the Friends are on the Patient Participation Group, others are not. Please contact the current Chairman, Richard Matters on 01380 816133 to make further enquiries or to join the group. NHS ENGLAND SURVEYS NHS England has asked all surgeries to carry out a “Friends and Family” test – i.e. would you recommend your surgery to your nearest and dearest. We have forms in Reception, and would be grateful if you could take the time to put one tick in a box for us. There is also a website, www.nhs.uk where you can give us ratings, which we hope will be favourable! CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR OPENING Normal opening up to Christmas Eve (24th December) then closed until Monday 29th December. On New Year’s Eve, 31st December, we are closing at lunchtime, but Market Lavington Surgery will offer advice to our patients on 01380 812500 if you have urgent need of a doctor that afternoon. We then re-open on Friday 2nd January. CHEMISTS Day Lewis (Market Lavington) Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day Boots (Devizes) Closed on Christmas Day; open Boxing Day 10am – 4pm; New Year’s Day 10am – 4pm Rowlands Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Year’s Day Morrisons Christmas Eve closing 5pm; Closed on Christmas Day & Boxing Day; New Year’s Eve closing 5pm; New Year’s Day closed.