Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

We are a GP Training practice and regularly have doctors attached to us who are training to become GP's. In the practice there are three approved GP Trainers - Dr Brown, Dr Walsh and Dr Harding. Trainees are attached to the practice for either six or twelve months and change around at the start of August and February. Change over day this time is Wednesday, 1st August. We are saying goodbye to Dr Mirza (she is now fully qualified and going to do sessions at the Olympics), Dr Hilton (Kings Medical Practice was her first post on a three year GP training post and she is going to do Emergency Medicine at Leeds), Dr Towers (she will be entering her second year of training and is going to Pinderfields to do Paediatrics) and Dr Rafique (who is going to College Lane Surgery at Ackworth to complete his training). The doctors who are replacing them are; Dr Mo Sinha, Dr Prab Matharu, Dr Emma Barker and Dr Amina Vandu-Chikolo. We have more training doctors attached to us and just to comple...

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals have this week announced a public consultation on changes to hospital services for people with eye problems, having orthopaedic surgery and needing neuro rehabilitation. The first set of proposals are to move services for patients with some eye conditions (glaucoma, medical retina problems and cataract services) from Pinderfields to Pontefract. Along with this the orthopaedic service would develop Pontefract hospital as the major centre for planned orthopaedic operations for patients in Wakefield, but patients would still be able to attend out patients at their local hospitals. A second set of proposals is to move a 12 bedded in patient neuro rehabilitation unit from Pinderfields to Dewsbury. The neuro rehabilitation services helps people who have had complex disabilities from diseases like stroke, brain injury or multiple sclerosis. You can find more details about the proposal and make comments during the consultation period by clicking here and following ...

We are just about to write to patients who are taking doxazosin to tell them that we are swapping the formulation of their medication. Doxazosin is a drug that is prescribed for mainly for controlling blood pressure and also sometimes for patients with prostate problems. It is used as a fourth line blood pressure lowering drug - that is after we have tried three others to control patients blood pressure. We are swapping the form of the drug from a modified release form to the immediate release form. Patients should notice no difference in the swap. According to our colleagues in medicines management the half life of the active drug in both the immediate release and modified release form is 22 hours, so both drugs are suitable to take once a day. The only difference patients might noticed is that the dose of the immediate release variety is half that of the modified release form. If you are taking 8mg modified release doxazosin the new dose of the immediate release form is 4mg. The ...

This is my first blog for nearly three weeks because I have been away on holiday. I have been to Sicily - we had a great time and we had blue skies and hot weather and of course I followed the 'Slip, Slop, Slap' message - 'slip on a shirt', 'slop on some sunscreen', and 'slap on a hat'. The practice provides a full travel advice service to our patients including travel vaccinations, travel health advice (Slip, Slop, Slap), advice about malaria prophylaxis and Yellow Fever vaccinations. Most travel vaccinations are free - the exceptions are generally if you are going to unusual places or doing something unusual e.g. back packing trips in the wilds or staying somewhere for longer than three months. The commonest vaccinations patients have to pay for are Yellow Fever, Hepatitis B and Rabies vaccinations. You will also have to pay for malaria tablets but the practice does not charge if you need a private prescription for malaria prophylaxis tablets. Th...

Thursday is the British Medical Associations 'day of action' where the BMA, the doctors union, has called upon doctors to take industrial action in support of a disagreement with the government about doctors pensions. The BMA is asking doctors in hospitals and general practices to just undertake emergency work and not do any routine work. In general practice this would mean no routine appointments, not issuing routine repeat prescription requests and not giving out any results. They have suggested that general practices should be open for emergency consultations, visits and requests but do nothing else. The disagreement about pensions is that the government has changed doctors pension arrangements so that we will have to work longer and make larger contributions for a small pension.But a typical NHS doctor who retires at 60 will still receive a pension of more than £48,000 a year for life, plus a tax-free lump sum of around £143,300. New NHS figures also show that 104 d...

The short answer is no! With headlines in the national press suggesting that GPs are going on strike because a £53,000 a year pension deal is not enough ( click here to read the full story in The Independent) going on strike and any other industrial action is going to be a PR disaster and the BMA is just shooting itself in the foot. GPs are well paid, we have secure jobs, we have good pensions and there is a recession - stupid! The governments proposals for pension changes mean that GPs will pay more, for less good pensions and will have to work longer. However GPs are very angry at the unfairness of what the government is doing for two  reasons. Firstly pensions were renegotiated in 2008 to ensure that they were sustainable; pension age was raised by five years, contributions were significantly raised form 6% to 8.5% and the tax payers contributions were capped against future increases. Secondly, the NHS pension scheme is very sustainable - as a direct result of the 2008 ch...

The surgery is closed for the Jubilee Bank Holiday on Monday 4th June and Tuesday 5th June. If you need a doctor when we are closed ring our normal number - 0844 815 1340 - and your call will automatically be transferred to the out of hours service. Our opening times over the Jubilee Weekend are: Friday 1st June - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm Saturday 2nd June - extended access surgery 8.00 am - 11.00 am. Sunday 3rd June - closed Monday 4th June - closed Tuesday 5th June - closed Wednesday 6th June - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm Thursday 7th June - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm (and extended access surgery 7.00 am -8.00 am and 6.30 pm - 8.00 pm) Friday 8th June - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm If you ring our normal telephone number (0844 815 1340) when we are closed you will be automatically transferred to our Out of Hours provider. But there are other services available when we are closed that might be able to help you. LLoyds  Pharmacy at Kings Medical Centre is open on Saturday 2nd June from 8.00 am t...