Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

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 to 1.

We went live with Electronic Prescribing on Wednesday. After a few false starts it is now up and running so when you ring up and request a repeat prescription if you have chosen (or nominated a pharmacist) your prescription will  go electronically straight to them and you won't have to come to the surgery to pick the prescription up. We can do this with almost all drugs - we currently can't do it with Controlled Drugs - these are drugs such as morphine and some sleeping tablets. Quite a few repeat prescription items need altering so that we can prescribe them electronically. Generally we have to change from pack numbers to actual numbers of tablets. The software does this automatically some of the time but quite a lot of the time the doctor needs to alter them. So if you see us fiddling about with the computer, more than normal, this is probably why! We had a few problems on Wednesday - having to shutdown the clinical system and then restart several times, but the PCT staff

A new system of electronic prescribing goes live in Normanton next week. We have been enthusiastic advocates of this new system and we will be the first practice to 'go-live' in Yorkshire and the fifth in England! Under the new system if you have chosen a practice to dispense your medication (called nominating in the new jargon of the system) when you ring for a repeat prescription the prescription will be sent electronically to the pharmacy you have chosen to dispense your medication. The pharmacy can be anywhere - near work, home or even where you shop, and you won't have to come to the surgery to collect a paper prescription. I think this is a really great advance for patients - will make getting repeat prescriptions much easier and it is also good for the practice as well. It will reduce the number of patients coming to the surgery to collect their repeats and reduce pressure on reception. The new system has all the features of how we manage repeat prescriptions at

Patients know that I am interested in the finances of our local health system and this week a patient, who works for Mid Yorks NHS Trust, gave me a copy of a paper detailing workforce reform measures to reduce the Trusts costs. Mid Yorks NHS Trust runs Pontefract, Pinderfields and Dewsbury hospitals and they have had financial problems for a number of years. The paper states that they have an underlying financial deficit of £37 million. Over 70% of the Trusts costs are on staff and it is inconceivable that the Trust will be able to tackle the deficit without reviewing the cost of the pay bill. In the paper it identifies up to 200 possible jobs that may be a risk. The paper has bench marked the Trusts performance against other similar hospitals financial performance. Some of the information makes for very interesting reading. It has identified that theatre utilisation in the Trust is in the lower quartile of similar Trusts but makes the point that the average earnings for doctors em

Dr Aziz is now a fully qualified GP and finished training with us last week. She has finished a little bit out of synch with other training doctors because just as she started GP training scheme she was seriously ill and had quite a bit of sick leave before she was fully recuperated and started her scheme. She is doing a maternity leave locum in Castleford that starts in June and although she finished at the end of April our staff liked her so much that they had booked her up in May - so she has been doing some sessions with us till she starts in Castleford! We have all enjoyed working with Dr Aziz and we wish her all the best for her career in the future.