NEWSLETTER –WINTER 2018

St Fillan’s Medical Centre website – www.stfillansmedicalcentre.co.uk
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:-
The way you order your repeat prescriptions is goingto change.
If you have at least one medication that is a‘repeat prescription’, meaning a medication that you can receive regularly without having to see your doctor each time, you need to be aware of the changes that the surgery will be implementing with effect from the 12 March 2018
What is changing?
From 12 March 2018, St Fillans Medical Centre will only accept medication requests from the Patient or their Carer/Family representative, (apart from in exceptional circumstances by prior arrangement with the surgery). Ifyourmedicine is currently ordered for you by your pharmacy, you will now need to order it yourself directly with the Surgery. The exception to this new process is:-
·  If you use a Dispensing Company, e.g. for stoma products, dressings, this will remain unchanged.
·  If you or your carer/family representative orders the repeat medication directly with the practice, you can continue to do this and the changes will not affect you.
·  If you order your own medications and then have your prescription collected from your GP practice byyour chosen pharmacy or a dispensing company, this will still happen. The pharmacy will still be able to collect and if required deliver your prescription to your door.
Why is this happening?
It is important that you only order the medication that you currently require. Medicines that are not takenand are therefore wasted cost the NHSapproximately £300 million every year.Locally, across Chorley and South Ribble and Greater Preston CCGs up to £6 million could be saved by reducing medicines waste.
Ways to order your prescription
The practice will only accept orders for prescriptions from you or yourCarer/Family representativein the
following ways: -
·  Online Services using the FREE App, PatientAccess. To download the app search ‘patient access’ in your app store or visit:- https://patient.emisaccess.co.uk or visit the practice website where you will find the link at the bottom of the Home Page. Ordering via on-line, is the preferred method of ordering your items. If you are already registered to use this service you are ready to order your items and should not need to do anything further. If you are unsure, please contact the surgery to check for on-line access status or assistance in registering.
·  Completing the white tear off part of your prescription, normally attached with your medication from the pharmacy. If your request has gone directly to your nominated pharmacy electronically, this should then be in your dispensed items ready for when you next need to order your repeat medications. If you still get your prescription printed and collect from the surgery, your reorder form is on the right hand side of that printed prescription. Either way, it is important you always have this reorder form for future repeat ordering. Items required should be clearly ticked and put into the post box located inside the main entrance. These forms should no longer be given to your pharmacy. Only the items clearly indicated on the form will be processed by the surgery.
·  If there is a discrepancy on your order, this will result in your request being delayed and your medications not being available within our 48hr processing time. Please always order, giving yourself plenty of time before running out of your medication.
·  Email directly to the practice using the following email address:- (this option may not be available in the future. If possible please use the On-line Services App to order your medication, instead of emailing.
Who to contact if you need more supportor information?
If you feelyou might need support ordering your repeat prescriptions or you know someone who may require assistance, please contact the surgery on 01772 325024. Our Medicines Co-ordinator will be able to assist you further. Where possible patients or their representative, must take ownership of ordering their repeat medications.
Please do not ring the main Appointments Line with any queries in respect to this change in ordering your repeat medication.
Seasonal Influenza campaign 2017-18:-
This year’s flu campaign has been very successful. We have vaccinated over 2000 eligible patients. If you
have not had your flu vaccination yet, please speak to the receptionist. We have a few vaccines left in surgery.
The flu vaccination used by the surgery last year 2016 and for the 2017-18 campaign is known as a
Quadrivalent vaccine. This means that there are 4 different strains of flu virus contained in one vaccine.
If choosing to have your vaccination at a pharmacy, these vaccinations are known as Trivalent. Patients need
to be aware that they are not as well covered as they would be if having attended the surgery and received the Quadrivalent vaccination. Patients may not be aware of the different types of vaccines being offered, so it is important that for next year, you check before proceeding to have your flu vaccination elsewhere. We will
again for 2018-19 season be using the Quadrivalent Influenza vaccination.
Early indications are that influenza B viruses related to the B/Yamagata lineage are predominating among laboratory confirmed influenza B cases. The trivalent 2017/18 seasonal influenza immunisation does not
provide protection against this strain. The influenza B antigen contained within this year’s trivalent vaccine
protects against B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus which is a B/Victoria lineage virus. The quadrivalent vaccine, including Fluenz the intranasal immunisation given to children, does however protect against both B/Yamagata and B/Victoria influenza B virus strains.
Some patients chosing to have their vaccination elsewhere, will have been vaccinated using trivalent
rather than quadrivalent vaccine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), decide on which strains to put into a vaccine for that following year.
This latest outbreak was not predicted and has caught everyone out. Similar to when there was the Swine Flu outbreak, this was not a predicted strain of influenza. The influenza outbreak is the B/Yamagata lineage and
it is this strain that has caused the widespread outbreak of influenza symptoms we have seen recently in the
UK. Our hospitals and GP surgeries who annually have to deal with an increase during the Winter months of
patients with respiratory type illnesses, are struggling to deal with the additional demands on services that this outbreak has caused. As reported in the media, operations are having to be cancelled due to the pressure
that the service is currently experiencing.
For further information on how to treat flu symptoms, please visit the NHS England website – www.nhs.uk
For the 2018-19 Influenza Season this surgery will again be using the Quadrivalent vaccine.
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Welcome to our new Trainees:-
Dr Jessica Roscoe – Foundation Year 2 trainee (Trainer Dr Flowers)
Dr Laura Oliver – Specialist Trainee Year 3 (Trainer Dr Gorajala)
Dr Faiza Hassan – Specialist Trainee Year 3 (Trainer Dr Hiles)
Dr Farzana Thagia – GP Locum until the end of March 2018
Dr Poonam Batra – GP Locum until the end of February 2018
We are also pleased to welcome to our Nursing Team, Sister Anna Cotton.
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Parents of young children visiting the surgery:-
We have a variety of leaflets within the main surgery entrance and within the main waiting area. We would respectfully ask that whilst visiting the surgery you do not allow your child to use these materials to write on
or play with. There is paper available from the main reception area, with colouring pencils that we would
prefer were used. There is also play equipment and books available to children whilst waiting. All play equipment is sanitised at the end of a day. For safety reasons, we would also request that children are not allowed to play on the blood pressure monitors located in the main reception area or run in the waiting area.
A Baby Changing area is also available in a side room, please ask at reception if you require the use of this
room or need to feed your child whilst waiting to see a GP or Nurse. Please take any soiled nappies away with you, do not place them in the bins here at the surgery.
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Are you experiencing anxiety, depression, feel isolated or have experienced substance misuse:-
Would you like to improve your Mental Health and Wellbeing? There is a new local project that patients can benefit from! Challenge through Sports Initiative (The CSI project) is designed to support those in recovery
by helping them to adopt more active and healthier lifestyles. A variety of activities are delivered on a weekly basis and are free of charge to all participants. For more information, who to contact and a list of activities available, please see the separate sheet available from the front reception desk leaflet holder.
The information is also available on the practice website www.stfillansmedicalcentre.co.uk
National Diabetes Prevention Program:-
This program identifies patients who are at a higher risk of developing Diabetes in the future. The practice is promoting this service to those patients identified from an audit carried out at the surgery, that looks at a blood test for diabetes that the patient has had, during the past 12 months. Those results, for the identified patients, show that the patient does not have diabetes, but could be at an increased risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes in the future.
Those identified patients will receive in the near future, a letter or email (if we hold their email address on the clinical system), from the practice, that invites them to attend a FREE personalised healthy lifestyle programme to assist the patient in reducing their future risk of developing the Type 2 Diabetes. We hope this program will be of benefit to those patients identified at this time of being at increased risk. It is entirely at the patients discretion if they wish to join the program. All the required information will be contained in the invitation letter.