Patient Group Meeting
Tuesday 23rd October 2018
Chandler Hall
6.30pm – 7.30pm
Please find an update below following the question and answer session at our meeting in addition to a general practice update that was given by Dr Mitra.
Q&A
Q - What will happen after Brexit in March of next year regarding medications that are currently supplied to the UK from European manufacturers?
A - There is national guidance regarding this and the Brexit Health Alliance is assessing requirements ahead of this time. Dr Mitra also discussed the possibility of receiving supplies of medications outside of the EU. This is not something that the practice has any control over.
Q - There seems to be a shortage of nurse appointments at the practice?
A - We have increased our nurse sessions and continue to monitor these. We also have the hub appointments where we can refer you for some nursing consultations. The hubs are a service that we provide at other practices in North Lambeth. If we are unable to accommodate you here we can offer you an appointment with one of our colleagues in practices on Vassall Road or South Lambeth Road.
Q- There are free exercise classes at the Black Prince Trust for example chair yoga, which are not always well attended. How can we advertise these to our patients and increase uptake?
A - Although we do advertise in the practice and the team discuss with patients, we would also encourage discussion amongst the community as many of these events are discovered by people through word of mouth. We also encourage any suggestions as to how we can improve our promotion of external services within the practice.
Q - Patients have been experiencing some issues with prescription processing via specific pharmacies in the area.
A - The practice advice if you are experiencing issues is to change pharmacies and inform the practice so they know to update on the system.
Q - Self-care medications - concern was raised regarding the new national policy that instructs practices to no longer prescribe certain medications that are available to buy over the counter.
A - Dr Mitra explained that savings need to be made in order for the NHS to continue to run efficiently and this now includes rationing of certain medications that can be bought over the counter. For further details follow this link https://www.lambethccg.nhs.uk/your-health/keeping-well/Pages/Self-care.aspx
Q - Disposal of used or no longer needed medications.
A - If you have medications of any sort that you no longer need please return them to your local pharmacy. If you have sharps bins that you need to dispose of you can return these locked and signed to the practice and we will place in our disposal container for safe collection.
Q - How can the patient’s access afternoon and evening appointments more easily?
A - The practice runs a morning walk-in, early clinics from 7am-8am on certain days throughout the week and some bookable afternoon appointments. All patients can access later appointments or appointments at weekends via our hub service at Vassal Road and South Lambeth Road. This service is available 7 days a week. Please contact our reception team to make an appointment.
Q - Where is information about my health held and is it available to my GP?
A - Your GP practice is informed of all your appointments and we receive copies of all your letters from other health care settings when you have had an appointment or treatment.
Q - What is the turnaround time for repeat prescriptions?
A – Prescriptions should be ready in 48 hours provided you bring the prescription to the practice by 4.30pm. If the prescription is submitted after 4.30pm it will not begin to be processed until the following working day (please note this is Monday to Friday as we are not open at the weekends or bank holidays so the 48 hours does not start until we are open again).
Q - How can the practice best provide continuity of care?
A - We provide the list of each doctor who is available in the walk-in clinic on the website under the appointments tab. You can see which clinician is in each day and then attend and ask to be booked in with them*. Alternatively you can call or drop in to the practice and our team will be able to provide you with this information.
* Occasionally the clinician you have requested will become fully booked and we may need to offer you an alternative.
Q - How do you receive our information, letters etc. from other services and how do we know that these are being read?
A - The majority of our correspondence from other health care providers comes via an electronic system. All documents are processed by our trained administrative team and then any documents with actions are sent on to the clinicians for review and action.
Q - Can patients get repeat prescriptions every 3 months rather than having to request then every month?
A – We suggest that you discuss this with your regular doctor and they will be able to advise you. The reason you ordinarily have to request medications on a monthly basis is because of a national issue with medicine waste. Some patients may not take their medication regularly and therefore end up stockpiling medications which they aren’t using which is extremely costly for the NHS as a whole.
Q - Why do I sometimes feel unwell after the flu vaccine and why should I have it as I haven’t had the flu before?
A - We recommend that everyone who is eligible has the flu vaccination. Although you may have a minor reaction for a couple of days it is preferable to developing flu which can have very severe consequences potentially leading to a hospital admission.
- Useful website for further information about health conditions and NHS services:
www.nhs.uk
- Dr Mitra gave an update on how the practice is looking to work more closely with other practices and the council in order to streamline services and assess a more integrative way of working. There is a government focus on loneliness and isolation in all communities and this strategy plans to address some of those issues.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-commits-to-government-wide-drive-to-tackle-loneliness
- Call for volunteers to run the patient meetings – at present the practice runs the meeting but our hope is that we would in the future have the patient meeting run for our patients by our patients. If you would be interested in becoming involved please contact Sarah Cross, Practice Manager @ lambethwalkgp@nhs.net or pop in to the practice and we can arrange a time for you to discuss this.