Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

Tomorrow is change over day for doctors in training and we send a warm welcome to Dr Sarah Hilton, Dr Mohammed Rafique and Dr Christine Towers and a fond farewell to Dr Annette Kemshell. The practice is an approved GP Training Practice and we have doctors who are training to become GP's attached to us for 6 - 12 months at a time. Annette is moving to College Lane Surgery at Ackworth to complete her training and we wish her all the best.

There has been a lot of media coverage in this last week that implies that Army doctors might be called into staff Pontefract A&E overnight, but is this correct or is it just Chinese whispers? Pontefract A&E closed overnight at the beginning of November temporarily because of the difficulty Mid Yorks Hospital Trust had in recruiting middle grade doctors to staff all their A&E departments. The Trust has made it clear that it is a temporary closure and that they intend to reopen the department at night as soon as they have enough middle grade doctors to provide safe care for all their patients. Today the practice received an email detailing a review of the Trusts decision to close Pontefract A&E. An independent review was jointly commissioned by the Strategic Health Authority, Primary Care Trust and Mid Yorks Hospital Trust. The review concluded that the Trust had fully considered all reasonable options but suggested that it might be worth talking to the Army to find out

The British Heart Foundation has started promoting 'Hands-only CPR' for people who have not been trained in Basic Life Support. They have been running a TV advert campaign staring Vinnie Jones - the advert is really funny. To watch just the advert on You Tube click here . If someone has suddenly collapsed, is not breathing normally and is unresponsive they are in cardiac arrest. The first thing to do is to call 999 for help and then start pushing hard and fast in the centre of their chest to the beat of Sayin ' Alive by the Bee Gees until an ambulance arrives. This could save a life. For more information about this then click here for the British Heart Foundation website . Remember; Dial 999, then press Hard and Fast to the the beat of Stayin ' Alive!

Have you made any New Year resolutions to be do something positive about being healthy? Read on for help we can offer: Quit Smoking If you are a smoker you know it makes sense to Quit . The NHS Quit website can be found here but if you ask at reception we can direct you to local services for help stopping. We prescribe patches, gum, sprays, tablets and even nicotine inhalers to help you stop. Drink Sensibly After a boozy Christmas and New Year if you want to check if you are drinking too much then click here for the NHS Drinkaware website. The safe drinking limits advised by the NHS are 3-4 units per day for men - that is one and half pints of 4% alcohol beer and 2-3 units per day for women - that is one 175ml glass of wine per day. To find out how many units are in what you are drinking then the NHS Drinkaware website has a really good calculator - click here Lose weight If you want help losing weight you could contact the NHS Health Trainers in the surgery by speaking to reception