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Winter Newsletter
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for the patients of The Roseland Surgeries
Surgery opening times –
Christmas and New Year
Xmas Eve – Fri 24th Dec – 8.30 am to 6.30 pm
Christmas Day – Sat 25th Dec – Surgery closed
Boxing Day – Sun 26th Dec – Surgery closed
Bank Holiday Mon 27th Dec – Surgery closed
Bank Holiday Tues 28th Dec – Surgery closed
Wed 29th Dec – open as normal 8.30am to 6.30pm
Thursday 30th December – “ “ “
New Year’s Eve Fri 31st Dec – “ “ “
New Year’s Day – Sat 1st Jan – Surgery Closed
Sun 2nd Jan – Surgery Closed
Bank Holiday Mon 3rd Jan – Surgery closed
Tues 4th Jan – open as normal 8.30 am to 6.30 pm
Scheduled medication deliveries on Tuesday 28th December will thus take place on Wednesday 29th December instead. If anyone is planning on being away with family over Christmas, and might normally have a medication delivery, it would be helpful if they could let the dispensary know ahead of this so that our delivery driver doesn’t have a wasted trip.
Please remember that on the three working days between Christmas and New Year, we will be trying to do five days’ work to ensure we don’t get behind in the dispensary. It will be hugely helpful if you can remember to order your medication earlier than you would normally, taking into account the bank holiday weekend at Christmas. Order by Friday 17th December to ensure you get your medication before Christmas Eve!
Thank you.
This year’s Flu Campaign and Covid boosters
Patients should be getting reminders to book their covid booster as they are due. They can only be given 6 months from the date of your second vaccination. If you haven’t heard from NHS England, or you’re unsure if you are due to have your booster, do give us a call.
Some patients want to have their covid and flu vaccines separately and we do completely understand that. So, we are also offering separate flu clinics. Please contact reception to book an appropriate appointment – please don’t wait to hear from us for this! Flu vaccinations happen every Autumn without fail so if you had one last year, you’ll need another one this year.
Flu immunisations for 2-3 year olds:
We are still able to offer the flu imunisation (which is given by nasal spray) for our 2 and 3 year old children. If your child hasn’t yet been vaccinated, please call us and book an appointment with the Practice Nurse.
We are open!!
There are still some messages circulating that we are closed, or that you are unable to book an appointment with a doctor. This is untrue.
There are several ways you can access a GP, largely dependent on what you need. We offer telephone consultations – these are very useful if you’re feeling under the weather, possibly have covid but want to discuss your symptoms with the doctor. They’re also very useful for follow ups, for example if you want to check on blood/X-ray results, or you might recently have been seen at the hospital and want to have a chat with the doctor about the outcome of that appointment. You don’t need to come in to do that so feel free to ask about a telephone consultation.
Our nursing team is operating as normal and you can book face to face appointments with the nurses and our healthcare assistant at all three sites. We are still unable to perform spirometry procedures, but everything else is available.
We have restarted our chronic disease monitoring check ups and health checks. For obvious reasons, we are behind, so your invite that would normally happen in your birthday month may be a bit out of kilter. Please bear with us, but remember if you would like to see the nurse for this check up, you can contact the reception team and book your appointment. We are also looking at streamlining how we contact you and you may get a text message from us (if we have your mobile telephone number) with a link to a questionnaire. If we send this to you, please click on the link, fill out the form and submit back to us. The Practice Nurse will then review your answers and make contact with you directly to book a face to face or telephone appointment.
We are still taking great care as covid is still around. Please wear a face covering when you come into any of the surgery buildings. The doctors and nurses continue to wear protective equipment – we need to ensure the safety of our patients and our team so we continue to operate social distancing wherever we can.
Video consultations with a doctor outside of normal surgery hours:
The practice has arranged access to remote consultations with doctors via a system called LIVI. This is a FREE, NHS service for our patients giving you improved access to a doctor at a time that might be more convenient for you.
If you want an appointment with a doctor later in the evening or on a Saturday or Sunday, and you have internet access, you can book a slot with a LIVI doctor. You can find out more about LIVI and how to register for this FREE service, here: www.livi.co.uk
We are ‘Veteran Friendly’
If you served at any time in Her Majesty’s Forces, please do let us know and we can ensure your records are flagged as a ‘veteran’. Some hospital specialties have specific pathways for veterans and so it is useful to have this information to hand.
Weight Management – a New Year’s Resolution?
If you are considering losing weight, or you want to eat healthier/improve your diet, there are lots of things you can now access to help you. A good starting point is this:
Start the NHS weight loss plan – NHS (www.nhs.uk) A 12 week free of charge plan to lose weight and change your dietary habits at a steady rate. There are lots of hints and tips on what to eat, small changes that can make a big difference.
You can also check out Healthy Cornwall for local initiatives: Home – Healthy Cornwall
You might be interested in healthy eating, improving your physical activity, stopping smoking etc. Healthy Cornwall can help and support you to make that change. You can complete an online enquiry form via the website link above, call them on 01209 615600 or email the team: healthy.cornwall@cornwall.gov.uk
Yuletide Greetings
As this will be the last newsletter before the Christmas festivities begin, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our patients and their families a wonderful Christmas and a very happy, and healthy New Year.
Nicola Davies
Practice Manager
Dr. Will Hynds MA MB BChir MRCGP DRCOG DCH
Dr. Terese Tubman BMed MRCGP DipFFP
Dr Mark Stephen MB BCh BSc MRCGP DRCOG