Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

Glucosamine is a dietery supplement that has been used to help people with joint pain. It has been in the news this week because a review article in the British Medical Journal found no evidence that it was effective. For the full story on this click here for the story on the BBC website health pages. The practice has in the past prescribed glucosamine but earlier this year we made the deicison to stop prescribing glucosamine as although it is safe there is very little evidence that it is an effective treatment for joint pain. We have been writing to patients telling them that we have stopped prescribing it. Of course the main motivation for doing this is to save money - our prescribing budget is forecast to be about £200,000 over budget and a no-brainer is to stop treatments that do no good - like gluocosamine. So, once gain we are ahead of the curve!

We are pleased to welcome back Dr Mamta Prabhu after maternity leave. Her baby is now 9 months old and she has come back to work part time. Since we have moved to Kings Medical Centre the practice has more room for GP trainees - Dr Prabhu is now our fifth trainee! Dr Prabhu is in her last year of GP training. She has passed the MCQ exam and only needs now to complete her Consulting Skills Assessment to get her MRCGP and be certified as a fully trained GP. She will be working half time, which equals two and a half days a week. She is well prepared to start back - she has a new doctors bag and has even arranged for her mother to stay with her for two months whilst her baby settles in nursery! Welcome back!

We are having flu vaccination session on two Saturdays - 25th September and 2nd October. We start at 8 am and finish at 4 pm. If you ring appointments they will give you an hour slot in which to come and have your flu vaccintion. Click here to download an information leaflet and consent sheet. Click here to download an information leaflet and consent sheet for the under 16's. So if you are due a flu vacc ring up now and book an appointment!