Patient Survey Results
Thank you to all the patients who took time to complete our Patient Satisfaction Survey. The results were encouraging as the following summary indicates.

The figures shown below are the percentage of patients questioned who rated our service as good, very good or excellent.

• Surgery Reception 94%
• Surgery Opening Hours 91%
• Surgery Waiting Times 54%
• Ease of getting through to the surgery on the phone 91%
• Ease of getting to speak to Dr on the phone. 81%

We recognise that our GPs do not always run appointments on time and patients have to wait, and this is an area we are working on. The survey did however confirm that patient satisfaction with consultations with all our GPs is very high and well above the national average

Cervical Screening Tests (Smears)
Recent celebrity news has highlighted the importance of having your routine cervical smear. This is a free test offered to women between the ages of 25 -64 years of age. It enables us to identify small changes in the cervix (neck of the womb) which if left untreated, could possibly develop into cancer.

Please remember to come and have this important test. We write to all women whose test is due. If you think you may have missed a test, please give us a ring and we will gladly check our records.

HPV Vaccinations
The new HPV vaccine is now being brought in for girls in year 8. This protects girls against the human papilloma virus (HPV) which can go on to cause cervical cancer. This would not mean that girls of this age would not need smears when older but could significantly reduce the risks of them developing cervical cancer in the future.

Although this vaccine will be routinely given to year 8 girls we are currently running a catch up campaign for girls up to 18. We will contact you as and when we are instructed to vaccinate each age group.

MMR Campaign
The department of health is predicting a measles epidemic. Because of this we are trying to ensure that all under 18s have had 2 doses of the MMR vaccine. If you still have your child’s health record book, please check to see if they have had 2 doses. We are currently checking our records too and contacting anyone we feel would benefit from another dose.

Late Opening Hours
Don’t forget for those of you that are unable to get in to see us within normal opening hours, we are now open until 9.30pm on a Wednesday evening. These appointments are for routine appointments only, no emergency cover is available. Normal out of hours emergency cover applies. Late appointments can be booked in advance and our doctors take it in turns to work these late shifts.

Duty Doctor Appointments
Appointments are available on a daily basis with the “duty doctor”, these are for patients who need to see a doctor urgently, please try not to use these slots for routine appointments. Also the duty doctor is responsible for triaging visit requests and dealing with phone calls and other queries. If you are given a duty doctor appointment please be aware that these are very busy clinics and are more likely to run behind time than normal clinics. We do our best to run to time but as most of these appointments are urgent, running late can be at times unavoidable.

We can deal with many things in our Minor Illness clinics which are held every morning, these are also booked on the day but can also be booked in advance, these deal with things such as coughs, colds, rashes, spots, boils, acne, chest infections, urine infections, emergency contraception, etc. Please ask reception if you think your ailment might be suitable for this clinic. This will also free up duty doctor appointments for patients who really need them. Thank you for your co-operation in this matter, which helps us to give our patients a first class service.

Repeat Dispensing
Patients, who are on repeat medication which never really changes, may be able to get their repeats on repeat dispensing. This means that we issue the chemist with prescriptions that will last you for a whole year. When you run out of medication you can get your next prescription directly from the chemist without having to put the request in to us. If you would like to be considered for this service, please ask the doctor next time you are in, or speak to one of the receptionists.

Confidentiality
Can we politely remind all our patients that all staff including the receptionists are bound by extremely strict rules of confidentiality. This means that we cannot give personal information to anyone else about you or your treatment. This even stands between husband and wife. We are unable to give test results or details of appointment times to anyone other then the patient, unless we have written consent to do so. Please do not get cross with the receptionist if she refuses to tell you information about someone else’s appointment time or test result, she is under strict instructions not to do this. Thank you.