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| Archived News |
April 2008 - Renovation Work Being Carried Out At The Surgery
As part of our improvement of services to you we will be making some internal and external changes to the surgery. The first stage of this will involve the Reception area and patient waiting room being changed to create a larger patient waiting area to accommodate our growing patient population.
Obviously this type of work will incur some disruption, but we would ask if you will bear with us through this transformational time and hope you will enjoy the end result.
We will keep you informed as developments unfold. Once again we would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused whilst these works are being carried out.
Dr Wells and Dr Johnson
March 2008 - Your Practice, Your Say, Excellent Results Again!
You may remember visiting the surgery and filling in a patient questionnaire recently. The practice has finished analysing your feedback, and, as always, we want to share it with you!
To see a copy of the patient questionnaire results for 2007-2008 please click here.
If you have any comments relating to the questionnaire then please feel free to email the Practice Manager: johan.taylor@gp-p88006.nhs.uk.
February 2008 - Text for a Pharmacy, Optician or Dentist!
NHS Direct have launched a text service to provide contact details of the following local services:
- Pharmacies
- Opticians
- Dentists
Send a text to 61121 from your mobile with the service you require together with your postcode, for example PHARMACY SK6 6BW.
In return you will receive an instant text message with the details of the three nearest services, including a phone number and the distance from your postcode.
Text messages are charged at standard rate; however, some operators fees may vary.
January 2008 - A New Face For The New Year!
You may remember back in August that we introduced you to our first “Foundation Year 2” doctor, Dr Kathryn Vickers, who proved to be very popular with our patients. Upon completion of her primary care training, Dr Vickers left the surgery in December, opening the way for our second “Foundation Year 2” doctor, Dr Sutapa Ghosh.
As part of her ongoing training to become a GP, Dr Ghosh will be at Marple Cottage Surgery for 4 months holding surgeries every day.
December 2007 - Get Your Christmas Prescriptions In Early!
Yes, it’s that time of year again! A time to put up the Christmas trees, fill your stockings and buy your turkeys!
It is also a time to ensure that you have all the medication you need for over the festive period. The surgery will be closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Therefore we would suggest that you submit your prescription requests by Wednesday 19th December to avoid delay!
You can request your prescriptions using our various online services, dropping them in at the surgery, faxing on 0161 427 8160 or ordering via any of the local pharmacies. If you include a stamped addressed envelope we will post your prescription back to you!
Please note, all prescriptions will be ready for collection in 2 working days. Prescriptions cannot be taken over the phone.
November 2007 - Another Addition To Our Award Winning Team!
We recently informed you of the arrival of our GP Registrar Dr Mike Fleming, and would now like to inform you of another new member of our team, Dr Deborah Ashley.
Dr Ashley will be offering late morning/lunch time appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and has special interests in women’s health and other clinical services.
October 2007 - Flu Vaccination Campaign 2007
Yes it’s that time of year again, the nights are drawing in, the frost is beginning and its time to prepare for the annual flu vaccination clinics.
Influenza vaccinations are important as the flu virus and the complications associated with the illness such as bronchitis and pneumonia can be serious. If you are aged over 65 or fall into any of the following ‘at risk’ groups then you should have received a letter inviting you to book an appointment for this:
- Reduced immunity
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Kidney failure
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Have had a stroke
If you have received a letter and you would like to book an appointment then please telephone the practice on
0161 426 0011 or email marplecottage.reception@gp-p88006.nhs.uk.
September 2007 - New Faces At The Surgery!
Next time you arrange an appointment at Marple Cottage Surgery it may be with a new doctor!
As part of our commitment as a training practice for new GPs and medical students we would like to introduce you to our recent additions to the practice.
Dr Mike Fleming has joined us recently to complete his registrar training and will be at the practice for one year until next August. He has previously spent many years as a GP in Hong Kong.
As part of her ongoing training to become a GP, Dr Kathryn Vickers is our first “Foundation Year 2” doctor. She will be at Marple Cottage Surgery for 4 months holding surgeries every day.
August 2007 - Congratulations To Nurse Sarah Longland!
As many of you may have already heard our Practice Nurse Sarah Longland has recently tied the knot in July of this year.
Sarah will now be called Nurse Sarah Wilkinson and will continue to offer appointments Monday to Friday. Please note that this has meant that her email has changed to sarah.wilkinson@gp-p88006.nhs.uk.
Please continue to email any queries you may have.
We wish Sarah all the best and hope that she will be very happy for the future.
July 2007 - Winners-NHS Leadership in Health Accolade 2007
Marple Cottage Surgery was presented with first prize for this Accolade Scheme, which is to reward and recognise innovation in the use of health informatics.
The announcement was made at the NHS Connecting for Health national conference in Leeds in May.
This year`s topic was "How we made IT happen by meeting challenges and overcoming obstacles".
The award was given for our work on the online asthma consultations, which we have recently launched.
We are further developing work in this area with the intention of having similar online consultation services for other areas of care soon.
For further information see our website pages on online services and asthma.
June 2007 - Marple Cottage Launches On-line Consultations
If you have asthma you may have already heard from us about this new and unique service.
We are pleased to have developed the on-line asthma consultation facility, which allows asthma patients to update the asthma nurse with changes to their asthma management without having to come into the surgery.
Using the internet patients complete and submit a questionnaire about their asthma on the secure web page. The information, which automatically becomes part of the medical record, is reviewed by the asthma nurse and an assessment is made about immediate future care. Once this is done the patient can view a record of the assessment together with the revised personalised self management plan by secure access to their medical record on line.
Not only for asthma patients! - in the future we hope to provide similar services for other areas of care as well.
If you would like to use this service and are not already doing so email warren.tuite@gp-p88006.nhs.uk.
May 2007 - 100% Achievement Of The National GMS Contract
On 22nd March 2007 Dr Andrew Johnson from Marple Cottage Surgery attended a formal awards ceremony, hosted by Rt Hon Kevin Barron MP, in recognition of winning the Service Innovation for Medicines Management Award in Nov 2006. This award is an acknowledgement of the practice’s commitment to developing new services for patients, whilst simultaneously maintaining the highest standards of care.
This was recently highlighted by our 100% achievement (again) of the national GMS (General Medical Services) contract, which measures the level of care and standards, clinical and organisational, within the practice, from asthma, diabetes and hypertension, through to investment and training of staff.
We always strive to improve our services so if you have any suggestions or comments then please visit our `feedback` page.
April 2007 - nGMS & PMS QoF Awards of Excellence
In November 2006 Marple Cottage Surgery won the Service Innovation for Medicines Management Award, which was presented by the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt to Dr Andrew Johnson at the NHS Alliance 2006 conference in Bournemouth.
This award was in recognition for our continued efforts in preventing unnecessary referral to hospital, providing more services at the practice, and developing our range of online services for patients.
See our Practice Award page for further details.
March 2007 - New Health Care Assistant
You may have been pleasantly surprised to notice that one of our receptionists has been taking your blood tests and blood pressure checks in the recent weeks.
Joanne Royle has recently completed training to become a Health Care Assistant at the practice.
Joanne will be involved in working with the Nursing Team to offer appointments for Blood Tests, Blood Pressure checks, Spirometry and in the future Cardiovascular Screening, to name a few.
Joanne will be available for appointments on Monday & Tuesday mornings.
February 2007 - Patient Access Survey
Between January - March 2007 you may receive a request from the Department of Health to complete their "Your doctor, Your experience, Your say" patient survey.
As part of the government`s "Improved Access Scheme" this national survey will ask for your experience at accessing appointments at the practice.
We believe that offer a very high standard of access to our patients, and in our recent patient survey 98% of patients felt they could get an appointment with a GP within 48 hours. We hope you will agree when completing the survey.
January 2007 - Patient Choice (Choose & Book)
As part of the national Patient Choice initiaive we are now making referrals to hospital via the NHS `Choose & Book` system.
August 2004 - Hib Campaign
As part of the Department of Health initiative we will be offering parents with children aged 6 months to four years at 1st April 2003 the opportunity to take advantage of an Hib vaccine catch-up programme.
The introduction of Hib vaccine into the routine immunisation programme in 1992 has proved very successful, with confirmed cases of Hib disease in children under 5 years of age falling by 98% by 1998. However, a small increase in the disease over the last few years has prompted the DoH to offer this catch-up immunisation programme.
Therefore, over the next few months we will be sending letters to parents with children that fall within the age category and ask that you ring the surgery to make an appointment with one of our Practice Nurses.
September 2003 - Flu Clinics
It`s that time again! If you are over 65 years of age, or under 65 years of age but in an `at risk group` (e.g. have diabetes, chronic heart disease, chronic asthma), you will be receiving a letter soon about booking an appointment for a flu vaccination.
If you do receive a letter please ring the surgery and book into one of our clinics, either Wednesday afternoons or Saturday mornings.
Also this year we are following DoH guidance to offer patients over 80 years of age Pneumoccocal immunisation (this protects individuals against pneumonia and meningitis). If you receive a letter, or feel that you are in an `at risk group`, please ring the surgery for an appointment.
Alternatively, you can request your appointment by clicking on the link below and entering all your details required. This will automatically be sent to the surgery and you will receive notification of your appointment as soon as possible. Both vaccinations can be administered at the same appointment.
Request an appointment
September 2003 - Dr Checkland`s departure
As you probably already know, Dr Checkland has left the surgery to make a new life with her family on the other side of the Pennines. We are still drying our eyes and clearing away the cups of tea, but we thought we had better keep everyone up to date with what is happening.
We have an advertisement out for a new GP as a replacement but (as you might have read in the newspaper) there seems to be a national GP shortage, and so finding a permanent replacement may take a little longer than we would like. In the meantime we have three female doctor locums working with us until a new GP is in post, they will be Dr Nicole Ward, Dr Helen Bain, and Dr Mary Atherton.
As usual you can make an appointment with any of the GPs here including the locums, and also the Nurse Practitioner.
I will keep you regularly updated with our progress.
August 2003 - HRT - a balanced view
Recently there have been news reports linking an increase risk of breast cancer for HRT patients.
If you are worried or unsure please contact the surgery to arrange an appointment with our Nurse Practitioner.
August 2003 - A Message From Dr Checkland
`I am very sorry to announce that I will be leaving the practice at the end of August. This is for family reasons, as we are leaving the area. I have been here for twelve years, and have thoroughly enjoyed working with both the staff and the patients. Many of you have become friends in that time, and it will seem very strange to no longer be involved with your care.
I realise that some of you would like to say goodbye, and, therefore, I have organised an ~open afternoon~ on Thursday 28th August, between 12 - 2pm. I look forward to seeing you then.
Thank you to everyone for making me so welcome in Marple; it has been a good twelve years!`
August 2003 - ETP Programme Termination
Marple Cottage Surgery has over the last year been involved with a NHS national pilot to allow patients prescriptions to be electronically securely transferred (via encryption) between practice and pharmacy. The aim of this service is to allow patients to order and pick up their repeat prescription all from the pharmacy, without having to come to the surgery first.
Unfortunately, as from the end of July this pilot will be closed whilst the Department of Health decide upon which technical solution they would like to adopt nationally.
However, for those patients who have been using the ETP solution you can still arrange for the pharmacy to request prescriptions items, and to collect your prescriptions, on your behalf. Please liaise with your pharmacy accordingly.
We will keep you informed on when a decision is made by the Department of Health on rolling out a national ETP programme.
August 2003 - NEW Appointment Booking System
As part of our commitment to increasing patient access to our services we are piloting a new and improved 24 hour online appointment booking system. This system will allow access to all our GPs and our Nurse Practitioner. However, all nurse appointments e.g. blood tests, blood pressures, diabetic reviews, will need to be made via the telephone.
As well as 24 hours online booking access, we hope, in time, to be able to offer patients the choice of additional on-line services such as the ability to review useful medical records such as vaccinations, treatments or medication, repeat prescription ordering, making address changes, and more.
In line with our confidentiality and security policies regarding patient information all communications with the practice web site are encrypted, using the same high security that major banks use for their internet transactions (128 bit SSL). Only you can see the personal information you enter. The web site is administered at a remote high-security site managed by EMIS, not at the practice, so there is no possibility of unauthorised access.
July 2003 - Remote Access
Following a recent pilot by the NHSIA into the technical capabilities of remote access into primary care systems via Broadband, Marple Cottage is conducting further work into the benefits of remore access to general practice as a whole. We believe the ability and choice for both clinical and non-clinical staff to have access to our systems whilst based from home is an important step forward in the productive use of information technogy advances, and fits well into our overall Work Life balance policy.
July 2003 - Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (ETP)
Marple Cottage Surgery has over the last year been involved with a NHS national pilot to allow patients prescriptions to be electronically securely transferred (via encryption) between practice and pharmacy. The aim of this service is to allow patients to order and pick up their repeat prescription all from the pharmacy, without having to come to the surgery first.
Working in partnership with the Coop Pharmacies in Marple we have found many patients finding this service very useful, convenient and ultimately saves time.
If you would like to find out more about this service please ask our reception staff or any local Coop Pharmacy.
July 2003 - Work Life Balance (WLB)
In line with the government’s Improving Working Lives’ initiative Marple Cottage surgery has worked alongside an leading consultancy group to develop our own Work Life Balance policy. As part of this policy we are committed to, where feasible, create flexible working opportunities for our staff, helping create a better mix of personal and working lives. We aim to break the common stressful, long working hour culture inherent in General Practice, for both clinical and non-clinical staff.
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