Patients Newsletter Summer 2014
Welcome to the latest Patient Participation Newsletter. Quite significant progress is being made at Four Oaks Medical Centre to improve the patient experience and we would like to identify some areas that may be of interest to you.
Patient Access
NHS England requires all Practices to have a website by February 2015 and online booking during 2015. The website, is already set up and used by many patients and the online appointment booking is in the process of being run out to those who register on the website. The Practice has taken on board complaints about the difficulty of obtaining appointments by phone at key times and you can now book for routine appointments 4 WEEKS AHEAD. This has significantly reduced telephone trafficduring these times. If it isn’t urgent please ring outside key times as this will help those who desperately need an appointment on the day to get through quickly. If you are feeling really groggy, the last thing you want is to keep ringing and ringing the surgery.
Would those of you use mobile phones, please give your number to the surgery as this will enable text reminders to be sent, one week and 24hours before the appointment. One of the drawbacks of allowing appointments four weeks in advance is that people forget them and numbers of DNAs [Did not attend] increase. This, of course, wastes valuable resources and prevents others from accessing medical attention. Please ensure the FOMC has your up to date contact details including your mobile phone number.
Repeat Prescriptions and Online Appointment Booking
Those patients who request repeat prescriptions online will have a new system to deal with in future. It will require patients to register for Patient Access through the FOMC website, Once online registration is completed, you will need to bring a passport or new-type driving licence to the surgery for id purposes. From then on you will be able to request repeat prescriptions and book/cancel appointments online.
Website and Email
For those of you with access to a computer we would urge you to join the Virtual PPG and you can do this by contacting the surgery through the website . This will help you to have up-to-date information from the Practice along with electronic newsletters. If you have any comments about the Practice you can email the PPG direct at .
Red Patient Views Boxes
You may have noticed that there is a red box in each waiting room. These are for you to suggest any improvements to the operation of Four Oaks Medical Centre. Please do use them because we, as a PPG, have only our own experiences and we want to know yours as well so that we can work together in this.
Noticeboards
You may also have noticed the much improved and more frequently updated noticeboards downstairs in the foyer. This is one way we can communicate with all patients attending the surgery and to let you know when there are special events going on with specific references to different health matters. So please, while you are waiting for the lift, or coming through the door, take some time to look at the noticeboards for useful information.
GP and Nurse Specific Interests
Did you know that some of the GPs and nurses at FOMC have specific interests within the Practice? Here is a list for your information, however please remember that you can see any GP for any condition and the nurse’s skills are much broader than their specialties:-
Dr. Coutts – Child Development, COPD, Asthma, Prescribing
Dr. Gent – Minor Surgery, Dermatology, GP Training
Dr. Desveaux – Diabetes, GP Training
Dr. Cuthbert – Women’s Health, Mental health
Dr. Hooper – Women’s Health
Dr. Foley – Women’s Health, Child Development
Dr. Pawar – Women’s Health, Acupuncture
Nurse Kate Coutts – Asthma, COPD, Diabetes, CHD, Women’s Health
Nurse Michelle Heaney – Asthma, COPD, Diabetes
Nurse Sue Horwell – CHD, Asthma, Women’s Health, Childhood Immunisations
Health Care Assistant Sue Weaver – Phlebotomy, Smoking Cessation
Medical Records
You may have read in the press the concerns of some over the release of an individual’s medical data. Here is a brief synopsis of the data that will in future be kept of your records:-
Summary Care Record [SCR]-This is a national database that is intended to provide basic health information to all providers who need it.It is intended that your demographics (personal details such as name, dob, address etc.) as well as basic medical information about you, (initially just drugs taken, documented allergies and any “End of life” decisions) would be stored and made accessible to anyone needing it within the NHS (for example if you were seen in a Casualty department in another area of the country.]
Central Care Record [CCR] –This brings together information held on computers in Health care and in Social care. They are designed to give staff working in these areas faster access to relevant patient information. Anyone accessing a patient’s records will have their details recorded so it’s possible to see who has opened each record. In Birmingham, this local care record is called the “Central Care Record, or CCR” and covers organisations in Birmingham, Solihull and Sandwell.
Care.data - In 2013 the government proposed to extract large sections of data from GP practices to form a national database from which they intend to analyse health needs across the country & also locally.GP’s will not have a choice about this extraction and it will be universal, to help support NHS planning. It is important to understand that this project will extract most coded data from your record. Only “coded” data, like symptoms, diagnoses, drugs, lab results etc. is extracted. This data will then, it is claimed, be anonymised so that it would not be possible to work out whose data it was. It could then be passed on later to other agencies, including commercial organisations. This is due to happen in autumn 2014. Although staff at Four Oaks Medical Centre cannot block the upload of our patient data to the HSCIC, you can block your own data being uploaded, if you wish by notifying the Practice of your decision. An opt-out form is available on the practice website: