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June Newsletter
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for the patients of The Roseland Surgeries
Flu Vaccination Campaign 2016
At the time of writing this newsletter, the weather is lovely, the birds are singing and all is well with the world (well, almost!!) ………. However, the weeks are flying by and Autumn will be upon us before we know it – and with Autumn comes this year’s Flu Vaccination Campaign. 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 June, appointments are already available, so be an early bird, and get your appointment booked 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, which are often given at the same time.
Sharps Bins
If you have to inject yourself with medication on a regular basis, you should have at home, a ‘Sharps bin’ in which to put your used needles. Unfortunately, we are NOT able to take full bins from you at reception and these should be collected by the Council.
In the first instance, you should contact the Council directly on 0300 1234 141. You will need to register to have your sharps bin collected and you can do this either by phoning the number above (and they will send you the relevant paperwork to complete the registration) OR click on this link here to download the form directly.
https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/10372313/household-clinical-waste-collection-form.pdf
Non-emergency Patient Transport
If you have mobility issues, or are on a low income, you may be able to access patient transport to help you get to and from hospital for routine out patient appointments in Cornwall.
Patients can now request transport (if they meet the criteria above) by contacting the Patient Transport Office directly on 01872 252211. The office is open Monday to Friday 8 am to 8 pm and 9.30 am to 5 pm on weekends.
If your hospital appointment is at Derriford, you will need to contact the Plymouth office on 01752 431954.
Research and Roseland Surgeries
The Roseland Surgeries have been invited to become affiliated with the South West Peninsula Clinical Research Network (part of the National Institute for Health Research). We are extremely pleased to have been invited, and are excited about the opportunity to improve health outcomes both for our patients and for patients nationwide. As part of this, we are likely to be asked to identify patients suitable for entry into various ongoing clinical studies. If we do identify you as a potential candidate for any study, we will write to you with further information and to ask if you would like to participate. We will NOT put you forward for any studies, nor will we pass on ANY details about you, without your express written consent. We will not pass on clinical details to drug companies.
We do hope that if we approach you, you will be as keen as we are to participate. However, please do be assured that if for any reason you don’t want to, it will not affect your ongoing care in any way.
If you are disappointed that we haven’t approached you, and if you are interested in participating in clinical research in any way, please do let us know.
National Institute for Health Research – http://www.nihr.ac.uk/
Helping Us to Help You
From time to time, patients (or their relatives/carers) will call us with a request to speak to a GP. The receptionist MUST ask you for more details at this point in order that we may appropriately and efficiently deal with your enquiry. For example, you may want to speak to a doctor about medication – but this might be something that the dispensary can help with – and they can often speak to you straightaway. You might think you need to speak to a doctor chasing a referral, or a query as to when your hospital appointment is likely to be. Our secretary Debbie, can help you get all these answers.
So, please remember, we’re not being nosy, we really do want to help – but in order for us to do that, we may need to ask you a few questions first in order to direct your call swiftly and appropriately.
Please also remember that everyone who works at the surgery is bound by a strict code of confidentiality. Anything you say to a member of staff remains within the surgery building and will go no further.
Well done Samantha and Debbie!!
Patients may recall seeing an article in the Roseland Magazine a month or so ago, which thanked everyone for sponsoring Samantha and Debbie (our Office Administrator and Secretary) as they successfully completed the Bideford Half Marathon back in March. At that point, sponsorship had raised £1800 but now the final figure is actually over £2000. The money has gone to Cornwall Hospices in memory of loved ones.
Leaving urine samples at reception
Occasionally patients are asked to bring in a urine sample, whether that’s as a result of seeing the Nurse for a health check, or perhaps because the patient feels they may have an infection.
If you do need to drop a sample off at reception, please remember to put your full name on the bottle. Please also make sure you hand it to a receptionist who will check the details with you and ask you for more information (e.g. the requestor of the sample and the reason for the test) Samples have unfortunately been left without acknowledgement (perhaps because the receptionist was on the telephone) and missing vital information which means that we are unable to send the sample off for testing – which is annoying for all concerned.
Roseland Surgery Patient Group News:
‘IT’ Training
A big part of everything we do here (and in our lives generally) is run by technology. Pen and paper are dismissed as we are instructed to ‘email’, or ‘sign up online’. Gone are the days of writing thank you notes, or even a simple hello – as social media takes over and we have, it seems, become tied to our keyboards.
There are a number of people out there though, who struggle with technology but want to embrace it as much as their neighbour and we wondered how many of you would take up an offer of some computer training? The Roseland Patient Group is trying to put together some IT training for residents of the Roseland but we can’t do this, unless we know what numbers might be involved.
If you would like to take up this opportunity, could you let Nicola, the Practice Manager at the surgery know? She will collect names and providing we have sufficient numbers, we will look into the possibility of setting up some simple classes.
Walking in Company – continues in Portscatho through the summer. St Mawes will have their last session on 28th June before the summer break.
Painting for Fun – has now ended for a summer break but will resume in September.
Keep an eye on RSPG posters on local noticeboards for further news.
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