Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

It is Dr Hardings last day today before she goes on maternity leave. Her baby is due at the end of November and she plans to come back to work in either August or September of next year. We gave Dr Harding a card, handmade by 'receptionist July' with a lovely poem inside - it nearly made Dr Harding cry - but she wouldnot read it out! Anyway, we wish Dr Harding all the best, I promise to post baby pictures on the blog when we get them, and look forwards to seeing her back next summer.

It is now exactly 12 months since we moved into our new premises - wow, doesnot time fly. It seems like a good time to review what its been like. The staff all like working in the new premises - all the doctors now have their own room, the office is much less crowded, we all now have a good working environment. I think our patients like the new building: there is much more room in the waiting room, privacy at reception is much improved and the surgery now feels bright, modern and clean. With more space we have been able to have more training doctors - we now have four full time trainees and one part time trainee and been able to provide more services. We now have onsite physiotherapy, mental health services, Age concern drop in and are just about to start doing carpal tunnel surgery in our dedicated day surgery suite. We knew that parking in the surgery car park would be inadequate for patients but we have had few complaints about this, although we are concerned about the inappropiate

The government has announced today that it wants patients to be in charge of their medical records online under proposals for an "information revolution" in the NHS. It says that in the future, patients will be able to log on to keep track of their treatment and make choices about the care they will receive. It has launched a consultation excercise about "an information revolution in which people have the information they need to stay healthy, to take decisions about and exercise more control of their care, and to make the right choices for themselves and their families. This includes an accurate record of their care, available to them electronically." To read the consultation documents and make any comments on them click here . Of course, we have taken some steps down that road. You can already order repeat prescriptions, make some appointments and register with the practice via our website - and people who use our online services say our online services are

Tom Clark is one of our training doctors and has been with us since April. Tom is a doctor in the Army and is training to become a GP. He is in his last year of training and has been attached to the practice so that he can complete his training. In order to work as a GP training doctors have to pass the MRCGP exam - Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners. The exam consists of three parts; firstly an Applied Knowledge Test (AKT - an MCQ paper), secondly a Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) where our trainees see 13 simulator patients in a mock surgery under exam conditions and thirdly a completed portfolio of learning. Tom has already passed the AKT and in September he sat the CSA. He found out last week that he had passed and he also been promoted. Warm congratulations to Major Tom - Well Done!

We have just completed two whole day flu vaccination Saturdays (remember the anthem - 'roll up, roll up'!) and have vaccinated 1048 people with this years flu vaccination so far. On both Saturdays we vaccinated exactly the same number of people - 452 on each Saturday. We estimate that we have another 700 people to vaccinate. Some of these people will be living in nursing homes or sheltered accomadation housing schemes and we will vaccinate them at home. But we still have a few people to vaccinate at the practice. The people we want to catch are those in the at risk groups - people with diabetes, heart disease, COPD and the over 65's. A new group this year is pregnant women. So, if you are in an at risk and have not had your flu jab yet, then either ring and make an appointment or next time you are in the practice, just ask! Of course we count the number of flu vaccinations given by every clinical team member (nothing like a bit of competition eh!) and I am pleased to annouc