Patient Participation Group:

• next meeting 18.30 Wednesday April 25 2018 at the surgery
• should you be interested in joining us please come along

Reminder:
Online Service: Book Appointments & Request Repeat Prescriptions

• since March 2014 we have a service available called The Waiting Room to enable patients to book on line [some] appointments & repeat prescriptions
• it has recently been updated to Waiting Room2 & the requirements for signing up for this service have changed
• should you wish to have this facility application forms which are self-explanatory, are available at the practice & to download from here
• one email address can now for used multiple patients in a family
• when a form is completed, returned with the required proof of identity & actioned by us you will receive a link to set up your account
• all those patients who are already signed up have been automatically transferred to the latest version

Practice information:

• the latest information from our practice leaflet has been entered on the website

• all GP practices are required to declare the mean earning (eg average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice
• the average earnings for GPs working in Meneage Street Surgery (2016/2017) were £45,029 before tax & National Insurance; this is for 1 full time, 3 part time GPs & locums who worked in the practice for more than six months

Should you have any questions or require further information about anything in this update please contact the surgery.

Having had several changes both in partners & staff during the past year our new team is completed by a clinical partner, who joined us on 1st November; below is the list of partners & clinical team:

Partners:

• Dr David Vyvyan
• Dr Kathrine Shaw
• Dr Daniel Kingston
• Linda Granger (Managing Partner/Practice Manager)

Salaried GP:

• Dr Elaine Mowle

Practice Matron:

• Sarah Spence

Nurses:

• Anne Pascoe
• Kathryn Whatley

HCAs:

• Shelly Collick
• Alex Confaloni
• Gill Dodson

Should you have any questions or require further information about anything in this update please contact the surgery.

Flu Clinics:
Our vaccine arrived late in September & we have started offering flu clinics on a variety of days & times, our Saturday clinic is on October 21; we also offer vaccination during routine reviews if appropriate.
Flu strains change, therefore, the vaccine varies from year to year. This year we have quadrivalent vaccine which should broaden protection because it against two A strains & two B strains of the influenza virus.

We advise the following amongst our patients to take advantage of the annual campaign to protect themselves from flu this winter; those are patients:

• over 65 years (date of birth on or before March 31 1953)
• who are pregnant
• with chronic (long term) respiratory disease such as severe asthma or COPD
• with coronary heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, stroke, TIA & chronic neurological disease
• who have a weakened immune system due to treatments that suppress the immune system eg chemotherapy & conditions such as HIV
• who are carers or frontline health or social care workers
• children aged over 6 months to 2 years with a long term condition

This year:

• annual influenza vaccination in the form of a nasal vaccine to children aged 2 & 3 years plus those at risk due to asthma, diabetes etc in primary care
• to clarify eligibility the relevant dates of birth are:
• on or after 01/09/2013 & on or before 31/08/2015
• all children over this group in at risk category will be given nasal vaccine unless contraindicated

If you or your child is in any of the above groups please phone the surgery on: 01326 558714 to book your appointment.

The shingles immunisation programme September 1 2017 - April 1 2018:

• the age cohorts of patients are eligible to receive this vaccine are:
• patients become eligible on their 70th birthday
• any patient born after 01/09/1942 who have not received the vaccine
• patients aged 78 years on 01/09/2017
• eligibility ceases on the day of your 80th birthday
• we offer vaccination opportunistically and will be contacting patients in the new 2017/2018 groups but should you wish to please phone the surgery as above to book your appointment
• this vaccine is contraindicated & will not be given to individuals who are immunosuppressed
• further information is available on www.shinglesaware.co.uk

Summary Care Record [SCR]:

• SCR has been activated within our practice
• the SCR is an electronic record of important patient information, created from GP medical records
• it can be seen & is used by authorised staff in other areas of the health care system involved in the patient's direct care
• access to SCR information means that care in other setting is safer, reducing the risk of prescribing errors & helps avoid delays to urgent care
• at a minimum, the SCR holds important information about:
• current medication
• allergies & details of any previous bad reactions to medicines
• name, address, date of birth & NHS number of the patient
• unless a patient previously opted out the above information is created automatically with implied patient consent
• click here for a slip (also available at reception in the surgery) should you wish to change you SCR consent
• for more information please visit: digital.nhs.uk/summary-care-records

Team changes:

• during the last year we have had changes; our new team will be complete on November 1 2017 when our new GP partner joins us; please check our November bulletin

Information:
note: NHS England requires that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised & the required disclosure is shown below. However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice or the number/time locums are employed. It should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, or to make any comparison with any other practice.

• all GP practices are required to declare the mean earning (eg average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice
• the average earnings for GPs working in Meneage Street Surgery (2015/2016) were £31,789 before tax & National Insurance; this is for 1 full time, 3 part time GPs & locums who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Should you have any questions or require further information about anything in this update please contact the surgery.

Telephone system:
At around 10.00 am today our new telephone system became live; set out below are the salient points:

• main surgery number: 01326 558714
• repeat prescriptions:01326 555287

Additional information:

• for a short time patients who dial 0844 will be advised of the change; our new main number has been in use for several years as a secondary surgery option
• when first connected to the surgery the options have changed so please listen carefully before you select
• our new dedicated prescription line will enable repeat requests to be made 24/7 even when the phone is unattended

Many of you will be aware of the difficulties experienced by patients & ourselves with the 0844 number; a brief summary from the practice perspective follows:

• extracting ourselves from the provider was an extremely time consuming & difficult task
• the contract was set up approaching 7 years ago when it was an acceptable route & offered call queuing
• over the years the attitude of those who 'issue rules' changed; we installed, at an additional cost, the required extra line with a local number for patient use
• the vast number of contracts/tariffs, on both land lines & mobiles, which have become the norm resulted in creating a minefield for practices who, in good faith, had a system with an 0844 number
• to terminate the contract sooner was not viable; the cost was prohibitive & any other option offered to us was financial lunacy for us to accept
• the financial penalty to terminate now is a cost carried by the partners

Reminder:
Online Service: Book Appointments and Request Repeat Prescriptions

• since March 2014 we have a service available called The Waiting Room to enable patients to book on line [some] appointments & repeat prescriptions
• should you wish to sign up for this service please submit your email address to us at reception &you will then receive an email inviting you to join The Waiting Room
• one caveat is that this requires a unique email address for each patient
• once done, you can access this service at www.TheWaiting-Room.net

Patient Participation Group:

• next meeting 18.30 Wednesday November 23 2016 at the surgery
• should you be interested in joining us please come along

Should you have any questions or require further information about anything in this update please contact the surgery.

Flu Clinics:
Our vaccine arrive late September & our will offer clinics on a variety of days & times, our Saturday clinic is on October 22; appointments will be available shortly.

Flu strains change & therefore the vaccine varies from year to year.
We advise the following amongst our patients to take advantage of the annual campaign to protect themselves from flu this winter; those are patients:

• over 65 years (date of birth on or before March 31 1952)
• who are pregnant
• with chronic (long term) respiratory disease such as severe asthma or COPD
• with coronary heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, stroke, TIA & chronic neurological disease
• who have a weakened immune system due to treatments that suppress the immune system eg chemotherapy & conditions such as HIV
• who are carers or frontline health or social care workers
• children aged over 6 months to 2 years with a long term condition

• it is national policy to offer annual influenza vaccination in the form of a nasal vaccine to children aged between 2, 3 & 4 years plus school years 1 & 2 on August 31 2016
• to clarify eligibility the relevant dates of birth are on or after 01.09.2011 & on or before 31.08.2014
• all children over this group in at risk category will be given nasal vaccine unless contraindicated

• the age cohorts of patients are eligible to receive this vaccine are:
• patients aged 70 years on September 1 2016
• patients aged 78 years on September 1 2016
• in addition, patients who were eligible for immunisation in the first three years of the programme but have not been vaccinated remain eligible until their 80th birthday; these are:
• patients aged 71 to 73 on September 1 2016
• patients aged 79 on September 1 2016
• eligibility ceases on the day of your 80th birthday
• we offer vaccination opportunistically and will be contacting patients in the new 2016/2017 groups but should you wish to please phone the surgery as above to book your appointment
• this vaccine is contraindicated & will not be given to individuals who are immunosuppressed
• further information is available on www.shinglesaware.co.uk

• next meeting 18.30 Wednesday September 14 2016

• all GP practices are required to declare the mean earning (eg average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice
• the average earnings for GPs working in Meneage Street Surgery (2014/2015) were £65,086 before tax & National Insurance; this is for 1 full time, 3 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year!

New service: The first of a bi-monthly Hand Clinic took place on Thursday January 8 2016.
Following referral from a GP this offers consultant assessment, hand surgery, injections etc in a community setting; it is available via the referral service.

Other services, in addition to General Medical Services, at Meneage Street Surgery:

• Adult NHS hearing services clinic
• Community Macular Clinic [since the first of our weekly clinic on 29.10.2014 till 31.12.2015 the number of patient contacts for full assessment including retinal screen etc plus injection where indicated was 1222]
• Vasectomies

Reminders:

Named GP:

• all patients have a named GP. As you are aware each patient is registered with GP partner in the practice; this is your 'named GP'. You may, of course, when pre-booking an appointment see the GP of your choice (assuming availability) whether he/she your registered/named GP or not.

We offer:

• text reminders via mobile phones
• on line repeat prescription service
• on line appointment booking service
• from January 1 2016 we do not accept 'managed repeat' service via pharmacies
Should you require more information re the above please contact the surgery

Patient Participation Group:
The next meeting will be at 18.30 on Wednesday January 27 at the surgery. Should you be interested in joining the group or attending the meeting to see what we do please contact the surgery.

CQC Inspection:
You may be aware that we had a CQC Inspection in September 2015. Our overall rating for all the services each is good in each area. The areas covered by the inspection are:

• Are services safe?
• Are services effective?
• Are services caring?
• Are services responsive to people's needs?
• Are services well led?

Managed repeat service via pharmacies:
With effect from January 1 2016 we will not be accepting requests from any pharmacy for medication via the 'managed repeat' service; the pharmacies have been informed & will be advising those patients currently using the system.

The rationale for our decision includes:

• clinical risk
• compliance
• waste and stock piling of drugs
• increased workload
• patients, whenever possible, should control their prescribed medication

Managed repeats were discussed at the November meeting of our Patient Participation Group who agree with and back our decision.

Requesting repeat medication:
There are several ways by which repeat medication requests may be made:

• the counterfoil attached to prescription or electronic token; clearly mark the drugs required & return to surgery or drop into pharmacy for delivery to us
• by telephone to surgery between 10.00 & 16.00 Monday to Friday
• on line request service via this website
• processed prescriptions may be sent from the surgery directly to a pharmacy

Note: please allow 48 hours (excluding Saturday & Sunday) after the request is made for the prescription to be produced by us plus a minimum of a further 24 hours for the pharmacy to dispense.

Patient Participation Group:
The next meeting will be at 18.30 on Wednesday December 16 at the surgery.

We now have a page for Surgery policies and Procedures. You can find a link at the top of all pages.

This is a new section, so we will be adding documents to it. Check back for more documents!

Flu strains change & therefore the vaccine varies from year to year.
We advise the following amongst our patients to take advantage of the annual campaign to protect themselves from flu this winter; those are patients:

• over 65 years
• who are pregnant
• with chronic (long term) respiratory disease such as severe asthma or COPD
• with coronary heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, stroke, TIA & chronic neurological disease
• who have a weakened immune system due to treatments that suppress the immune system eg chemotherapy & conditions such as HIV
• who are carers or frontline health or social care workers
• children aged over 6 months with a long term condition

• it is national policy to offer annual influenza vaccination in the form of a nasal vaccine to children aged between 2, 3 & 4 years plus school years 1 & 2 on 31 August 2015
• to clarify eligibility the relevant dates of birth are:
  on or after 01/09/2010 & on or before 31/08/2013
• all children over this group in at risk category will be given nasal vaccine unless contraindicated

• the age cohorts of patients are eligible to receive this vaccine are those aged 70/72 or 78/79 years on September 1 2015
• to clarify eligibility the relevant dates of birth are:
  02/09/1942 to 01/09/1945
  02/09/1935 to 01/09/1937
• patients included in the above relevant dates but with a date of birth below:
  02/09/1942 to 01/09/1944
  02/09/1935 to 01/09/1936
  were included in the programme last year; should you have not previously received immunisation please contact us; it will be obvious from your patient record
• eligibility ceases on the day of your 80th birthday
• we offer vaccination opportunistically and will be contacting patients in the new 2015/16 groups but should you wish to please phone the surgery as above to book your appointment
• this vaccine is contraindicated & will not be given to individuals who are immunosuppressed
• further information is available on www.shinglesaware.co.uk

Should you have any questions or require further information about anything in this update please contact the surgery.

An overview update since our last posting:

We run and staff the clinic ourselves and provide much needed extra capacity in our surgical unit which is unique in general practice. This enables us to provide the regular timely care which previously would require a visit to hospital.

The clinic is a full day each Wednesday and offers, in one appointment, visual fields and logmar vision test, retinal screening and slit lamp checks, consultation/result with ophthalmic consultant plus an injection as required. Since our first clinic on October 29 2014 to the end of July we have had 770 appointments/patient contacts.

We are looking to recruit more members; if you are interested in joining the group please complete the form on the PPG page & return to the surgery.

The funds raised together with donations have provided the following:

• infant pulse oximeter
• fully equipped doctor visiting bag
• two nurse visiting bags; one including equipment
• a fridge for vaccines, injections etc

• access to out of hours is via NHS 111; dial 111 and not the surgery phone number
• since June this year, when Serco finished its contract, care has been provided by Kernow Health which a Community Interest Company owned by the GP Practices in Cornwall

Should you have any questions or require further information about anything in this update please contact the surgery.

Another update at the end of August; please check back.

Sorry for the short notice, but the meeting on 15th April 2015 has been cancelled due to illness. Appologies for the inconvenience, the next meeting will be on 14th May 2015. See you there!
Don't forget to check the dates of our forthcoming meetings on the PPG page!

We're pleased to welcome Nigel Clark from Age UK to our next PPG Meeting on Thursday 11th December!

As always, the first 15 minutes of our PPG meetings are an open forum for all patients to come and speak with us (no joining the PPG necessary, but we always welcome new members!). If you'd like to meet Nigel, come along!

Three age cohorts of patients are eligible to receive this vaccine. They are those aged 70, 78 or 79 years on 1st September.
To clarify eligibility the relevant dates of birth are:

• 02/09/1943 to 01/09/1944
• 02/09/1934 to 01/09/1936

This vaccine is contraindicated and will not be given to individuals who are immunosuppressed.

Further information is available on www.shinglesaware.co.uk.

Our clinics start in October; we offer a variety of days and times, the first in on Saturday 11th October.

Flu strains change and therefore the vaccine varies from year to year.
We advise the following amongst our patients to take advantage of the annual campaign to protect themselves from flu this winter; those are patients:

• over 65 years
• who are pregnant
• with chronic (long term) respiratory disease such as severe asthma or COPD
• with coronary heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, stroke, TIA and chronic neurological disease
• who have a weakened immune system due to treatments that suppress the immune system eg chemotherapy & conditions such as HIV
• who are carers or frontline health or social care workers
• children aged over 6 months with a long term condition

This year it is national policy to offer annual influenza vaccination in the form of a nasal vaccine to children aged between 2 and 4 years on 1st September. All children over 4 in at risk category will be given nasal vaccine unless contraindicated.

If you are in any of the above groups please phone the surgery on 0844 387 9888 or 01326 558714 to book your appointment.

On 12th August, the Friends Group had a stall at Porthleven Market. Many thanks to all those who supported them.

Plans in progress for more events later this year. New members welcome; please ask for information at reception.

Our next meetings which start at 18:30 are published in the PPG section on this website. We have an open forum for the first fifteen minutes of all meetings. Patients are welcome to come along and meet us, ask questions or raise issues. New members welcome.

This clinic restarted in July 2014. It is a consultant led first appointment for assessment following a referral from a GP to dermatology and is available via Choose and Book. It runs every two weeks early on a Thursday evening.

You may be aware that we have been offering these checks, which are for 40-75 year olds who are not on a cardiovascular, chronic kidney disease or diabetes risk register, since they were prioritised by the Government.

Each Health Check involves a face to face interview with a trained screener and includes a lifestyle assessment, family history, height, weight, BMI, waist circumference, BP and lipid testing. Depending on the results a patient may be referred on within the practice for ongoing care/management.

The number involved is high and we are inviting patients to attend for these checks. If you fall into the group described above, have not yet been invited and would like a check please contact us to book your appointment.

Many thanks to all who completed our Patient Survey. You can download the survey results data here.

The responses to question 10 (is there anything that you would like the Patient Group to review?), which are listed together with comments from the Practice perspective will be discussed at the next meeting. You can download a copy of these here.

The next meeting will be at 18:30 on Monday 7th April at the Surgery.

We are always looking to recruit more members! If you are interested in joining the group, please complete the form on the PPG page and return to the surgery.

Each household should now have received an NHS leaflet outlining the rationale for the extraction of information from GP systems (see Jan 2014 news).

As you have heard, the planned upload of data has been postponed until the autumn; we will keep you posted.

Should you wish to refuse consent for information from your patient record to be transferred from the practice system for any purpose other than your medical care (except in special circumstances allowed by law eg a public health emergency) an opt-out form is available here (pdf). It is also available at the practice.

More information is available at www.hscic.gov.uk and the NHS Choices website at www.nhs.uk/caredata.

• Paper copies of some prescriptions for patients who have elected a pharmacy will no longer be produced
• prescriptions will be processed as they are now but signed electronically by a GP and sent directly to the 'spine' and picked up by the appropriate pharmacy
• when medications are collected, the patient will be given a repeat card for next request to practice
• not all drugs can be prescribed this way (eg. controlled drugs)
• when the system is fully functioning will provide complete audit trail and avoid lost paper!

At the beginning of March we were delighted to welcome Dr Elaine Mowle to our practice. She is working each Monday and Thursday, will provide cover for partner leave & train to run our family planning clinic.

We are pleased to announce that a new service, called The Waiting Room, is now available to our patients. This allows booking appointments and requesting repeat prescriptions online.

In order to sign up for this, please submit your email address to us at reception and you will then receive an email inviting you to join The Waiting Room.

Once done, you can access this service at www.TheWaiting-Room.net.

Each household will have received or will receive an NHS leaflet outlining the rationale for the extraction of information from GP systems. We first advised you of this in November 2013; the planned first extraction was delayed.

You are able to refuse consent for information from your patient record to be transferred from the practice system for any purpose other than your medical care (except in special circumstances allowed by law eg a public health emergency).

Should you wish to do this please let us know so we ensure that your record is appropriately marked to prevent data extraction.

More information is available at www.hscic.gov.uk and the NHS Choices website at www.nhs.uk/caredata

Minutes, agreed & signed off, for the meeting held on December 2 2013 plus those for January 14 2014 agreed by the Chairman are available on the PPG page.

Also included are the Patient Survey 2014 which you are invited to complete & PPG Terms of reference.

The next meeting will be at 18.30 on Monday 17th February at the surgery.

We are looking to recruit more members; if you are interested in joining the group please complete the form on the PPG page & return to the surgery.

We are hosting a weekly Adult NHS hearing services clinic with effect from Monday 3rd Feburary 2014. This service is primarily designed for adults over the age of 50 with hearing loss

Appointments may be made:

• will launch in Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly on 4 February 2014
• the easy to remember number will replace NHS Direct's 0845 4647 service
• it should be called if medical help is needed fast but it's not a 999 emergency
• the service will be provided by South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT), which already runs the 111 service in Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year!

Minutes, agreed & signed off, for the meeting held on 16 September 2013 are available on the PPG page.

The next meeting will be at 18.30 on Tuesday January 14 at the surgery.

We are looking to recruit more members; if you are interested in joining the group please complete the form on the PPG page & return to the surgery.

Dr Jo Parry has, for personal reasons, resigned from the Practice; we wish her well for the future.

The last fundraising event, serving coffee & bacon rolls, at our Saturday flu clinic proved very successful & netted £117.00 towards equipment to benefit our patients.

The next Friends coffee morning which will include the Christmas raffle draw is at the The Clies on Wednesday December 11.

If you are interested in joining the group please contact the surgery.

Minutes, agreed & signed off, for the meeting held on July 15 are available on the PPG page.

The next meeting will be at 18.30 on Monday December 2.

If you are interested in joining the group please contact the surgery.

During the next month or so hscic will begin extracting information from GP systems; the initial extraction will be referral data for linking to hospital data. This information is shared, in a secure system, by healthcare staff to support patient care and treatment.

Further information is available from the surgery or at www.hscic.gov.uk.

Our clinics start this month [October].
We offer a variety of days & times including Saturday October 12.

Flu strains change & therefore the vaccine varies from year to year. We advise the following amongst our patients to take advantage of the annual campaign to protect themselves from flu this winter; those are patients:

• over 65 years
• who are pregnant
• with chronic (long term) respiratory disease such as severe asthma or COPD
• with coronary heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, stroke, TIA & chronic neurological disease
• who have a weakened immune system due to treatments that suppress the immune system eg chemotherapy & conditions such as HIV
• who are carers or frontline health or social care workers
• children aged over 6 months with a long term condition

It is national policy to offer annual influenza vaccination in the form of a nasal vaccine to children aged between 2 and 3 years on 1 September. All children over 4 in at risk category will be given nasal vaccine unless contraindicated.

If you are in any of the above groups please phone the surgery on 0844 387 9888 to book your appointment.

Our Friends Group are planning to serve coffee & bacon rolls at the surgery during our Saturday clinic to raise funds for equipment to benefit our patients.

Care Quality Commission [CQC]:

Our Practice achieved CQC registration, for all aspects of primary care plus our surgical unit, on 1st April 2013

Community matron:

We now have a community matron working with our practice on Thursday and Friday each week.

NHS 111:

The rollout of NHS 111 in Cornwall has been postponed indefinitely.

Phone system:

It has become apparent that patients are unaware of our local number which sits alongside 0844 387 9888; it is 01326 558714. This number does not offer a queuing facility ie when already in use there will be an engaged tone but the caller, when connected, will be offered the 'choices' selection eg appointment, visit etc.

The system has been and is subject to ongoing review.

Premises:

During the next month or so the planned refurbishment of our treatment and phlebotomy rooms should take place; having clinical rooms out of action will, obviously, prove a challenge but the end result will be worth it!

The next Friends meeting will be at 15.00 on Wednesday July 31 at the Surgery.

The Friends have planned a Fun Walk on Monday August 5:

• meet at the recreation car park by Penrose and walk to the Penrose Estate Café and back
• everyone welcome including family, friends, dogs, pushchairs, scooter and bikes
• £1.00 per family
• all money raised to go towards surgery equipment to benefit patients

We have had our first Patient Participation Group meeting which was successful, for more information, please see the PPG section of our website.

We are setting up a Patient Participation Group (PPG) and are looking for volunteers to join a group which will meet about 4 times a year.

Every PPG is unique to the practice and patients it serves. Our new PPG page contains information and FAQs about PPGs together with our first Patient Survey. These are also available in the surgery.

The responses to the survey will be collated, reported both on this website and in the surgery and will form a basis for the first PPG meeting.

We look forward to receiving interest from those wishing to join and your completed questionnaires.

Please click here to download the PPG enrollment form (pdf), then fill it out and return it to us at your earliest convenience.

The next Friends meeting will be at 10:30 on Wednesday 6th March at the Surgery.

The last fundraising events in 2012, coffee mornings at the practice flu clinic on 27th October and at The Clies on 6th December plus the Christmas raffle raised, including donations, £493 towards equipment to benefit our patients.

If you are interested in joining the group please contact the surgery.

We would like to welcome Anna Elliott, a Nurse Practitioner, to our team. A Nurse Practitioner has extended training (to masters level) and is a full prescriber.

To enhance the service for our patients we are, on some days each week, introducing a minor illness clinic. This clinic is suitable for adults and children over 6 months presenting with acute problems.

When you call reception for an appointment you will be asked some extra questions to ensure that you are directed to the clinic which best suits your medical needs.

This Thursday, 6th December, at The Clies (which is behind the surgery) from 10:00 until 12:00.
Extra stalls this time including local artist's seascape paintings.

If you visited or passed the surgery last week you may have noticed lots of activity.

Sensors inside the door will prevent it from opening should anyone be standing in a vulnerable position.

The door operates:

Our clinics start at the beginning of October and we are offering a variety of days and times, including Saturday October 27.

Flu strains change and therefore the vaccine varies from year to year. We advise patients who meet any of the criteria below to take advantage of the annual campaign to protect themselves from flu this winter:

• over 65 years
• who are pregnant
• with chronic (long term) respiratory disease such as severe asthma or COPD
• with coronary heart disease, heart failure, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, stroke, TIA & chronic neurological disease
• who have a weakened immune system due to treatments that suppress the immune system eg chemotherapy & conditions such as HIV
• who are carers or frontline health or social care workers
• children aged over 6 months with a long term condition

If you are in any of the above groups please phone the surgery on 0844 387 9888 to book your appointment.

Our Friends Group are planning to serve coffee at the surgery during our Saturday clinic to raise funds for equipment to benefit our patients.

This month we introduced text reminders for those patients with mobile phones. You may have received a message asking if you would like to be included in this service. There is an 'opt out' option which if chosen is recorded in the patient records.

Initially, to test the value (eg reduce the number of patients who do not attend pre-booked appointments, cancellations) a limited number of appointments are involved.

The system has been risk assessed. Messages will be sent only to those patients who have not opted out and will never contain identifiable or confidential information.

This is not a forum for seeking other information eg clinical advice.

Should you have any comments or suggestions regarding this or our practice in general please let us know.

The next Friends meeting will be at 10:30 on Thursday September 6 at the Surgery.

Their last fundraising event was on August 2 which raised, including donations, £203 towards equipment to benefit our patients.

If you are interested in joining the group please contact the surgery.

Coming soon: a Friends page on this website.

Dr Jo Parry MB ChB DFSRH, who joined us last autumn, became a partner In April 2012.
The list of patients who have been pooled since the retirement of Dr Williams has been transferred to her.

We have had a busy winter.

Our building project, a unit which includes surgical room with air handling, sluice room, consulting room and waiting area, is complete.

We are very proud of this facility in which we will be able to offer assessment and some day case procedures to both our registered patients and those from other practices in a high spec facility, closer to home and an unhurried, more familiar environment. Photographs will be posted here soon.

Visiting surgeons now carry out vasectomies here; these are bookable after referral by GP via Choose & Book.

Having Dr Parry on board has enabled us to offer a family planning clinic, including insertion and removal of both coils and Nexplanon, in addition to all other contraceptive advice and prescription.

Friends of Meneage Street Surgery was formed in February and held their first fundraising event, a coffee morning and book sale, at The Clies on April 26. As well as raising £180, including donations, towards a hyfrecator for the new surgical unit the event was enjoyed by all.

The next Friends meeting will be at 10.30 on Thursday June 14 at the Surgery. If you are interested in joining the group please contact the surgery. We plan to incorporate a Friends page on this website soon.

There is much change for healthcare just around the corner and we feel that it presents an opportunity to benefit our patients by being involved and committed in the process.