****************************
November Newsletter
****************************
Dr Mark Stephen
We are sad to report that unfortunately Dr Stephen is too poorly to return to work for the time being. We continue to source locum GPs to plug those gaps, and we are trying to book the same locums each time so that we can offer some continuity of care wherever possible.
Flu and Covid vaccinations
Just a reminder – at the time of writing, we do still have some flu vaccinations available. If you haven’t had yours yet, and you are in an eligible group, please contact any of the reception teams to book an appropriate appointment. We can book flu vaccinations at any time with the Nurse or Healthcare Assistant.
We did run two Saturday clinics for covid and flu vaccinations and although they were well received and fully booked, unfortunately 19 patients did not attend the last clinic. Those covid vaccinations have had to be destroyed as they cannot be kept beyond the clinic date.
If you would still like to have a covid vaccination, please let reception know and we’ll pop you on a waiting list. Subject to vaccine availability, we will put on another weekday clinic.
Bank Holidays – Christmas and New Year
Friday 23rd Dec – OPEN as usual to 6.30 pm
Sat 24th Dec – Xmas Eve – surgery CLOSED
Sun 25th Dec – Xmas Day – surgery CLOSED
Mon 26th Dec – Boxing Day – surgery CLOSED
Tues 27th Dec – bank holiday surgery CLOSED
Wed 28th Dec – open as normal from 8.30 am
Thurs 29th Dec – open as normal from 8.30 am
Friday 30th Dec – open as normal from 8.30 am
Sat 31st Dec – New Year’s Eve surgery CLOSED
Sun 1st Jan – New Year’s Day surgery CLOSED
Mon 2nd Jan – bank holiday – surgery CLOSED
Tues 3rd Jan – open as normal from 8.30 am
Any medication deliveries that would be scheduled for Tuesday 27th December will now take place on Wednesday 28th December. Please remember, if you are on our housebound delivery list, you will be expected to be in to receive your medication.
If you are going away to family over the festive season, please do let the surgery know in good time, so that you can take medication with you.
As the surgery will close on Friday 23rd December until Wednesday 28th December, please remember to order your medication in good time to ensure you can collect before close of business on that Friday. We would advise you to order by Thursday 15th December, so that we have ample time to order the medication from our suppliers and have it ready for you to collect by Friday 23rd Dec.
From Sophie – our Social Prescribing Link Worker:-
Patient Participation Group ~ we are looking for new members!
MEETING arranged for Friday 2nd Dec 3 pm in the Memorial Hall………everyone welcome!!
The Patient Participation Group is a group of volunteer members. They support the surgery to promote good health and wellbeing and to develop services for the local community. The group is currently looking for new members across all the villages and hamlets covered by the surgery – so if you can offer any amount of time to be part of this or are interested in finding out more, please contact Sophie at the surgery. It isn’t a heavy workload – we don’t expect you to sit for hours in meetings month after month! However, it’s vital that the patient group is representative of the surgery population – we need to know what you’d like to do for the benefit of your neighbours and friends.
There are lots of activities that continue thanks to the support of the patient group – art, ping pong, walking, the choir to name but a few. We’d like to look at other suggestions – as an example, do you enjoy gardening, but don’t have a garden? We’ve got patients who derive such joy from their garden but don’t have the mobility now to work in it as much as they used to. Can we put you in touch with them?
Are you good at fixing things? Can you help by teaching someone how to change a plug, how to fix a broken bedside drawer/cabinet….? little jobs that a ‘handyman’ used to do, but we seem to struggle to find them nowadays…….
Keeping well this Winter:-
Warmth Hubs
Warmth Hubs are in the process of being organised around the Roseland to offer a warm, safe and friendly place for people to visit during the winter. There will be free refreshments available. You can come to them for a warm drink, a chat and for signposting to advice. The details of these will advertised through the RSPG, Roseland Online and the news page of the surgeries’ website in December.
Hubs in other areas of Cornwall can be found on the Cornwall VSF website: https://cornwallvsf.org/community-hubs
Community Energy Plus
A drop-in was held by Community Energy Plus (CEP) at the Portscatho surgery on 9th November. They can provide advice and support for warmer, more energy efficient homes. If you are worried that you or someone you know is not able to keep warm this winter or need energy advice, you can contact CEP or our Social Prescribing Link Worker, Sophie Maziere, who can make a referral on your behalf. https://www.cep.org.uk/
Cornwall Council Winter Wellbeing
Cornwall Council provide a range of information and advice about winter wellbeing on their website: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health/public-health-campaigns/winter-wellbeing/
This includes a winter wellbeing guide that can be downloaded.
Access to a GP when the surgery is closed:
We continue to promote the LIVI service for patients to access a video consultation with a GP for evenings and weekends – and there will continue to be a service over bank holidays. We are also now able to book patients directly into a video consultation with a LIVI GP – please ask reception to do this for you if you would like to avail yourself of this facility.
If you have internet access and a smartphone/tablet, you can register to use the service completely free of charge – go to www.livi.co.uk to see more.
e-Consultations
If you have internet access, you may find putting in your request to the surgery is even easier by using our electronic consultation platform. This can be found on the surgery website: www.roselandsurgeries.co.uk
Fill in the form with as much information as you can – this could be an administrative request (i.e. for a sick note or letter), it could be a query around symptoms and you’re after some advice rather than booking an appointment directly…… whatever it is for, once that form is submitted, it is received by our admin team and processed. They will be able to ensure that you are dealt with by the right person at the right time.
Please note: this service is for non-urgent queries. We turn around responses within 48 hours, often within the same working day, but urgent queries should be dealt with by telephoning the surgery or calling in.
If it’s something that’s routine, this service can definitely help as it saves you trying to get through on the ‘phone which at busy times, can be frustrating.
Contacting patients by email and/or texts:
There are many ways that we can contact patients, and increasingly, where possible we can use email and/or text messaging.
Please ensure that we have your mobile ‘phone number and/or an email address – it just gives us another option if we need to get hold of patients.
Festive wishes
This will be our last newsletter before Christmas – and it will be here before we know it. With that in mind, we would like to extend our warmest wishes for the festive season to all our patients and their families.
Merry Christmas and a Happy (and healthy) New Year!
Nicola Davies
Practice Manager