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 me...

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...

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.