Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

The surgery is only closed on the statuary bank holidays (Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day) - we are otherwise open as normal. If you need a doctor when we are closed ring 111 for advice. Our opening times over the Christmas period are: Monday 22/12 - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm Tuesday 23/13 - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm Christmas Eve - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm Christmas Day - closed Boxing Day 26/12 - closed Saturday 27/12 - closed Sunday 28/12 - closed Monday 29/12 - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm Tuesday 30/12 - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm New Years Eve 31/12 - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm New Years Day - closed Friday  2/1 - 8.00 am - 6.30 pm Saturday  3/1 - Extended access surgery  8.00 am - 11.00 am. Sunday 3/1 - closed Monday 4/1 - 8.00 - 6.30 pm In order to ensure that we have sufficient appointments to see people who cannot wait till after the holidays we have organised our appointments so that you cannot make any routine appointments during the Christmas and New Year weeks. This does mean that all ou

This month we have started asking all patients who contact us, have consultations with the doctors and nurses or pick up repeat prescriptions 'How likely are you to recommend our GP Practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment'. The questions we are asking are part of the NHS's Friends and Family Test and is an important feedback took that supports the fundamental principle that people who use NHS services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience. We have consulted with the Practice Patient Participation Group and are also asking other questions: Were you involved enough in decisions made about your care and treatment Was the surgery clean Were the receptionists helpful Is it easy to get an appointment (either by telephone and/or at the surgery) And then there is space to add comments in free text, if you wish, as to why you feel that way. You can pick up a survey leaflet at a table in reception, or it is

The Care Quality Commission is the organisation that regulates healthcare in England and has this week published the intelligent monitoring data it uses to assess its priorities for visiting practices. They have data about 38 indicators that includes information from the Quality and Outcomes Framework, GP Patient Survey, Electronic Prescribing Systems, hospital admissions and other NHS comparators. It has then used this information to rank practices. Level 1 is practices they have most concerns about and supposedly will be on their agenda for an early inspection visit and Level 6 is those they have least concerns about.  It should be stressed that this is data that is available before they visit. They are not grading practices based on this data and they have published it in the spirit of transparency so that practices and patients can see how they are using data to set priorities for inspection visit. We have been graded as Level 6, that is the level where there are lea

Nasal spray flu vaccine is available for children aged two, three and four years old as part of the NHS Childhood vaccination programme. The vaccine is being offered routinely to all children aged two, three, and four on 1st September. That is, children with a date of birth on or after September 2 2009 and on or before September 1 2012. The flu vaccine is given as a single dose of nasal spray squirted up each nostril. Not only is it needle-free, the nasal spray works even better than the injected flu vaccine, with fewer side effects. The surgery has an open session on Wednesday 19th November between 3 pm and 6 pm when any child who is two, three or four can come and have the spray flu vaccine.

The practice handles confidential health information and we have to ensure that it is held securely and shared appropriately. A number of laws, principles and obligations govern how we should handle this information. But they have grown increasingly complicated to understand and this has sometimes made it hard for staff to make clear decisions about when they should and should not share confidential information. I am the practice and also NHS Wakefield CCG Caldicott Guardian. It is one of my jobs to ensure that we handle patient confidential information correctly. I went on an update day yesterday for Caldicott Guardian and came across 'A Guide to Confidentiality in Health and Social Care' produced by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Click here for the link. The guide has a five rules that are very clear and will help staff be clear about how they should protect information and when they can share it. It is also useful for patients because it simply and cl

|Rant on| Access to general practice is top of the agenda again (guess we should expect it with a general election next year). The Labour party is offering to fund 8,000 more GP's and we have since had a counter offer from the Conservatives with David Cameron offering access to seven day a week GP services by 2020. But, and there is a very large but, training practices across Yorkshire are struggling to fill GP training slots. Last year only 75% of posts were filled in August 2014 and this will inevitably lead to a shortage of trained GPs in three years time when we would have expected them to have finished their training. The governments enthusiasm for GP seven day a week working comes from lessons learnt from the seven day a week pilot practices but locally they have not started operating. They were 12 month pilots so how they can say they have learnt lessons from them completely mystifies me, unless they meant that they had already decided what the lessons were going to be an

The practice has an active Patient Participation Group. To read what they have been up to click here . They have kindly agreed to attend our Saturday morning 'flu vaccination sessions on three Saturdays in October - 4th, 18th and 25th. If you have any questions for them then do pop-in. They will also be asking you to spend a few moments completing our 'Friends and Family' survey.

Thirty-four surgeries in Wakefield and Pontefract are having 3.8million pounds slashed from their budgets over a three year period starting from April 2015. WE ARE ONE OF THOSE SURGERIES. Across Wakefield and Pontefract this will mean the loss of 38 full-time doctors or 95 full-time nurses . This means that: Patients will wait longer to be seen Small practices may face closure. Other services in the practice may have to be cut. If you want to keep the doctors and nurses you have; and help your surgery stay open then write , email, tweet or facebook: Yvette Cooper - our local MP - click here to send her an email. The Wakefield Express - click here to send an email The Pontefract and Castleford Express - click here to send an email NHS England - click here to send an email Ask them not not remove funding from your family doctor service. Tell them we need to keep the doctors and nurse we have.

Rightsteps is a talking therapies service that is available in Wakefield for people in Normanton who suffer from the following mental health problems: Depression or low mood Stress Anxiety Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - single incident trauma Coping with Long Term physical health conditions or chronic pain Health anxiety Social anxiety Specific phobias Panic disorder with / without Agoraphobia They can help people by providing a range of different support packages that are tailored to meet individual needs. The services that they provide include: Guided self-help Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Telephone work and face-to-face appointments Group therapy and Health Living Workshops 6 session Stress Management Seminar Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) Counselling for Depression (CFD) Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) Emplo

We are holding 'flu vaccination clinics on the following three Saturdays - October 4th. October 18th and October 25th. We recommend 'flu vaccinations to anyone who would be at more risk of the serious complications of 'flu than the general population. This means people over 65, those with a chronic lung or chest condition like asthma or COPD, people who have diabetes and people with heart disease. If you  click here  you can follow a link to the page on our website where you can download our 'flu information leaflet and consent form. The 'flu vaccination clinics are being held between 8.30 and 12 each Saturday morning. To make an appointment you can either ring our appointments number on 01924 223909 option 1 or  click here  to go direct to our online appointments booking. To book an appointment via the Internet you have to be registered with SystmOne Online - to do this either ask at reception or the next practice member of staff you see for a user

The surgery is closed on August Bank Holiday Monday 25th August, 2014. We are open for pre-booked appointments on Saturday 23rd August, 8.00 am - 11.00 am, as usual but are closed on Monday 25th August. We reopen, as normal on Tuesday, 26th August at 8.00 am. We have our usual pre-booked evening appointments on Tuesday 26th August from 6.30 pm - 8.00 pm. If you need urgent GP assistance or advice over the weekend then dial 111. Have a good weekend and I am hoping it warms up!

Had difficulty making an appointment? Concerned that you have not been able to see the same doctor?  Want to have a longer consultation? We would like to be able to offer more appointments, offer longer appointments and ensure that our systems enable people to see the same doctor but general practice is under huge pressure. Last year the number of patients the practice saw increased from 45,584 in the 12 months ending March 2013 to 77,953 in the 12 months ending March 2014. That is a huge increase of nearly 70%! Its a mind boggling huge increase. However funding for general practice is a historic low of 8.39% of the NHS budget and is projected to plunge to just 7.29% by 2017. Indeed this month we have received notification from NHS England that our budget will be cut by £150,000 by the end of March 2017! So, we are facing a crisis - huge increase in workload and budget cuts. No wonder you are having difficulty getting appointments!. The Royal College of General Practitioners h

The practice is an approved GP training practice and we train doctors to become GP's. They spend either six or twelve months with us and swap over in August and February of each year. This week we have said goodbye to Dr Pang, Dr Kirkham and Dr Alim - they have now all successfully completed their training. Dr Pang has got a job in Outwood, Wakefield and Dr Kirkham and Dr Alim have got posts in Bradford. Dr Richardson has just finished his second year of training. He has another year to do and is going to College Lane Surgery at Ackworth. We still have Dr Mou Sinha and Dr Mohammed Shaikh with us. They are both working part-time and will finish their training in November. Joining us are Dr Suesanne Samara, Dr Katrina Hydon and Dr 'Ronnie' Banerjee who are all in their third year of training and will be with us until July 2015. Also joining us is Dr Aly Damji, he has successfully completed all his GP training but has chosen to do an additional fourth year of training

The GP Patient Survey is a national survey run by Ipsos MORI , an independent survey agency, that administers the survey on behalf of NHS England. The survey is sent out twice a year in January and July. We have just had the results for the January survey. You can find the full survey results here and by clicking on the links get the full report. In January 355 surveys were sent out, 116 were sent back with a completion rate of 33%. The practice does best at: 95% of respondents find it easy to get through to this surgery by phone (regional average 72%) 94% of respondents would recommend this surgery to someone new to the area (regional average 79%) 88% of respondents describe their experience of making an appointment as good (regional average 74%) Patients are currently being sent surveys for July and if you have received a survey form and want to fill it out online click here .

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of all health and social care in England. They are given powers by the government to register, monitor and inspect all health and social care services. In July they are coming to Wakefield to inspect our hospitals and also local GP practices. They are keen to hear your views about your experiences of care you have received from our local hospitals and from local GP practices in Wakefield. By the end of March 2016 they will have visited every GP practice in England. They are visiting 10 practices in Wakefield. We are not one of those being visited in this first round but our turn will come! To receive feedback they are holding a public meeting on Monday 14 July at 6.30 pm at York House Hotel, 10 Drury Lane, Wakefield. You can also email the CQC at enquires@cqc.org.uk or even give them a ring on 03000 616161.

Just a quick reminder that if you are planning to go somewhere hot the practice provides a full travel advice service to our patients including travel vaccinations, travel health advice, 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. The practice is a registered Yellow Fever Vaccination centre. We also provide Yellow Fever Vaccinations and Travel Advice to patients who are not registered with the practice. Our travel advice service is run by our nursing team and they would like you to fill

The practice has signed up to to an additional service that aims to ensure that patients who are at highest risk of being admitted to hospital have had their health and social care reviewed, have had a care plan written and the practice has put in place measures to reduce the risk of people getting admitted to hospital. To enable use to provide this service we are submitting data about all of our patients so that the data can be risk profiled and we end up with a list of people who are at highest risk of being admitted to hospital so that we can then try and do something to reduce that risk. This new NHS service is call 'risk profiling'. Your health information will be profiled in a local NHS data warehouse and the results will be seen only by your GP and health care professionals involved in your care pathway.   NHS security systems will protect the information from beginning to end. The health information of all of our patients will be risk profiled.

We have just started sending patients confirmation of their appointment and then a reminder of their appointment time via text messages. When you book an appointment you will get a text message confirming when your appointment is and then an appointment reminder the day before. And God forbid (!) if you should fail to attend we will send you a short rebuke for not attending as well! Of course this service only works if we have up to date telephone numbers, so if staff ask to check what your mobile number is, this is the reason why.

In the past we have used our Practice Managing Partners' (Christine Sanderson) email address as a contact email address for the practice. This has worked fine until Christine goes on holiday! Her email is not monitored when she is on holiday and if you have emailed the practice via Christines' email address when she is on leave you would not have had a reply until she returned! We have recently got some new nhs.net email addresses for practice staff and have made a generic email address for the practice. This email address is monitored daily and will be directed onto the correct person in the practice for action. Our new generic email address is kings.medicalpractice@nhs.net , so if you want to contact us by email then this is the email address to use.

You may be aware that from April all practices are required to provide all their patients aged 75 and over with a named GP who will have overall responsibility for the care and support that our surgery provides to them. We have allocated everyone over 75 years of age a GP and will be informing you via a small message on the repeat prescription counterfoil. We have 867 patients over 75 years of age and everyone except for 14 patients are receiving repeat prescriptions. We have written to the 14 patients who do not receive any repeat prescriptions. Your named GP will have overall responsibility for the care and support that our surgery provides to you. However this does not prevent you from seeing any GP in the practice as you currently do. You do not need to take any further action, but if you have any questions, or wish to discuss this further with us, please contact us on 01924 223909 and ask to speak to Christine Sanderson, Practice Managing Partner

We have just signed up to take students for some work placements in general practice as part of Leeds Universities Widening Participation initiative. The Medical School at Leeds is committed to attracting applications with the best potential, regardless of background to apply to become doctors. However a recent British Medical Association survey found that 71% of students accepted into medical school came from the top three socioeconomic classes. This programme hopes to ensure that all applicants have an equal chance of applying to medical school. We are offering a three day placement in general practice. Students to the scheme will have been signposted from school and recruited into the Widening Access to Medical School and The Reach for Excellence schemes run by Leeds University. The placement starts with a seminar at the University covering what students can expect to get out of the placement together with important discussion about the ethical and confidentiality aspects of the p

Last week Dr Lewis and Dr Still left us. Dr Lewis has moved to South Wales to be near to his mother in law as he has a young baby and she is going to help with childcare when his wife returns to work. Dr Lewis has been with us since 2011 and he will be much missed. Dr Still has been doing a maternity locum for Dr Harding. Dr Harding returns in June, but Dr Still was offered a permanent job at a practice where she had been a trainee and accepted it. This was a week before Dr Lewis told us he was leaving otherwise we would have offered Dr Still the job! Dr Still has been with us for nearly two years, have spent her last year in training with us. We wish Dr Lewis and Dr Still all the best for their future career. Dr Laura Darby has joined us for two and half days a week and Dr John Higgins will be doing a Monday afternoon surgery for us from next week. Dr Darby was a trainee on our local GP training scheme and Dr Higgins is a GP and trainer in Castleford and has worked with all of u

The practice has an active Patient Participation Group and is an opportunity for patients to feedback to the practice about our performance, services we offer and suggestions as to how we can improve. One a year we publish a report that summarises the work of the Patient Participation Group over the last 12 months. To read the report for 2013/14 click here. If you would like to know more or join the group click here to email Christine Sanderson, Practice Managing Partner.

There has been lots in the press recently about the NHS Care.Data programme. For clarity:   NHS Care.Data – this is the programme that will extract Personal Confidential Data from the GP record, anonymise it and then use the data to improve public health. This is not to be confused with:   Summary Care Record – this is details of medications, allergies and sensitivities uploaded to the Summary Care Record so that these details are available to health care professionals when GP surgeries are closed.   Or Enhanced Data Sharing for SystmOne  – this is asking patients for consent to share their records so that  teams of health care professionals directly involved in their care have the opportunity to see one another's records of that care when appropriate.   The Care.Data programme will benefit patients by: Finding more effective ways of preventing, treating and managing illnesses   Making sure that any changes or improvements to services reflect the needs to

NHS England is about to start a programme of extracting clinical data from GP clinical computer systems in order to increase their understanding of the health of the population and ways in which it can be improved. The information contained on GP clinical computer systems is a huge resource about the health of the people in England and I am sure that interrogating it and searching it will lead to improved understanding of our patients health and what we can do about it. The data is extracted to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). Once the data is their it is then anonymised.  The data that NHS England wants to look at includes details about your clinical consultations, medications, investigations and when anonymised it includes postcode, date of birth and sex but during the anonymisation process the data has your name and address stripped from it. The HSCIC is very closely regulated so that the patients can be assured about the anonymisation of this data. For mor

The practice is pleased to announce that we are open on Saturday mornings from 8.30 am to 11.30 am to see anyone who feels they have an urgent need for medical attention. We are particularly keen to see patients who would have either contacted 111 or gone to the Emergency Department. The practice is normally closed on a Saturday morning, apart from our pre-booked surgery from 8 am to 11 am and this new service is funded by Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group until the end of March, 2014, in an attempt to help relieve pressure on patients going to the Emergency Department at Pinderfields or Pontefract. Wakefield CCG had a small amount of money to fund this and we are one of a few number of practices in Wakefield who have decided that we are keen and able to help. If you want to see us on Saturday morning then ring our normal number, 01924 223909, and you will be given an appointment.