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August Newsletter
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for the patients of The Roseland Surgeries
Flu Vaccination Campaign 2016
We have secured a very rare opportunity to take delivery of our flu vaccines especially early this year to improve on our ‘community immunity’ and to that end, we will be holding a special Flu Day on
Friday 23rd September
with appointments starting at 8 am for those keen to be vaccinated, perhaps before you go on to work!
Your GP recommends a flu jab if you are over 65 years of age. We are also keen to target anyone who is immunosuppressed, pregnant, a healthcare/social care worker or in receipt of Carer’s Allowance. As in previous years, if you suffer from a disease of the heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, nervous system or are affected by asthma or diabetes, you should also have the jab. Although we’re still in July, appointments are already available, so be an early bird, and book your appointment now!
Please don’t wait for an invitation letter
Other organisations may approach you offering to provide an alternative service, but please remember they will not have access to your medical records and cannot give other immunisations, such as those to protect you again pneumonia or shingles, which are often given at the same time.
Your NHS: What it costs
It won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that the NHS is not in a great financial state. Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group is facing a huge deficit of funding and extensive work is being done to try and reduce the debt.
Although you as the ‘user’, receive your care free of charge (with the exception of prescription charges for some) we thought it might interest patients to know what some of the ‘hidden’ costs are.
Calling an ambulance: £240
Walking into A&E: £111
Seeing your GP: £ 32
Making a call to NHS111: £ 16
Looking at the NHS Choices website: £0.46p
Please choose wisely : Ambulances are for emergencies only and wasted hospital appointments cost over £4 million in Cornwall each year.
Ordering non-repeat medication:
Our clinical system has a programme called The Waiting Room – once registered for this service you can order prescriptions and book appointments online. Occasionally, you will need to request medication that is not on your regular ‘repeat’ list. If you use ‘The Waiting Room’ there is a little box at the bottom of the screen where you can add ‘free text’ to let us know you need something that isn’t on your usual list.
If you hand in your repeat slip to us, you can write on this slip anything else that you need – but it’s important that you copy the name of the medication and the strength from the pack you already have (if you still have it).
Items that do not form part of your regular repeat prescription are requested specifically from the GP – this can delay the prescription being dispensed by another day or so (especially if your GP does not work every day) so do bear this in mind when collecting your medication.
If you would like more information on The Waiting Room programme, do please ask at reception.
Ordering prescriptions via emails:
Our dispensary team has asked me to raise an issue with our patients following receipt of emails requesting medication. This issue is specifically when an email arrives with requests for more than one family member.
If at all possible, would you be kind enough to leave spaces between each individual and their medication requests, so that when we print the request out, we clearly see that one email is actually for more than one patient.
It’s very important that we don’t miss out vital instructions and the team are very grateful for your help with this.
Improving our health
Getting fit and increasing our activity isn’t just something that adults should do – we should be ensuring that our children have good habits which will take them through to adulthood.
You may recall seeing advertisements for the Change4Life Programme encouraging us all to change our eating and drinking habits, swapping ‘fizzy’ drinks to ones without so much sugar for example. This programme is aimed at everyone, adults and children alike and the Change4Life website offers lots of information from recipes, easy ways to increase your activity to finding local support groups. Find out more at their website: http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/be-more-active.aspx
To help inspire children, Change4Life is now working in conjunction with Disney using Dory, one of the characters from ‘Finding Nemo’ to help your children to “jump, dive, bounce and boogie with shake ups and supercharged special moves”……
http://www.nhs.uk/change4life-beta/campaigns/ten-minute-shake-up
Couch to 5K
You might also like to consider a targeted programme of fitness. There are lots of benefits to even just a small amount of exercise a day, including reducing your risk from long term conditions. A great way to start is the “Couch to 5K” program. This might sound scary, but this programme takes you from walk to running 5km (3miles) in 9 weeks. You can download the app or print off the instructions from the website. Week one starts with mainly walking and a minute running. The schedule then builds up to a point here you are eventually running for 30 minutes. That might seem a long way off but because you gradually work towards that goal, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can do it! Search ‘Couch to 5K’ online. or click on the link here: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/couch-to-5k-plan.aspx
A reminder about ear syringing
Just a quick reminder to patients – if you think you may have blocked ears that require ear irrigation, please book an appointment to see the doctor in the first instance. Many thanks.
Summer has definitely arrived!!
At the time of writing this newsletter, we’re hitting the dizzy heights of 29˚C and whilst we must not complain, we must remember that the sun will damage our skin if left unprotected. Most people don’t use enough sunscreen – as a guide, you should apply 2 teaspoons of sunscreen to your head, arms and neck OR 2 tablespoons of sunscreen if you’re covering your body while wearing a swimming costume. It should be reapplied liberally and frequently, and remember to use a water-resistant sunscreen if you are bathing.
Try to go into the shade between 11 am and 3 pm when the sun is at its most damaging and take extra care with children who will burn at the drop of a hat.
If you do burn, sponge sore skin with cool water, then apply a soothing aftersun. Painkillers, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen will ease the pain by helping to reduce inflammation caused by sunburn. Seek medical help if you feel unwell or the skin swells badly or blisters and stay out of the sun until all signs of redness have gone.
Take care to ensure you are well-hydrated in hot weather. Have regular cold drinks, avoiding excess alcohol and caffeine and avoid extreme physical exertion.
For more information about how to stay well, check out the NHS Choices website: www.nhs.uk
Nicola Hayward
Practice Manager
Dr. Mike Black MB ChB MRCGP DRCOG FP Cert
Dr. Will Hynds MA MB BChir MRCGP DRCOG DCH
Dr. Terese Tubman BMed MRCGP DipFFP
Dr Jonathan Jacoby MB BCh BSc (Hons) MRCGP