Additional pharmacies may also be open on these dates, and this can be confirmed on the NHS.UK website where pharmacies can be located by completing a postcode search Find a pharmacy – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Secondary Care Wait Times
Due to the current backlog for secondary care appointments, the Practice is receiving a lot of phone calls and queries from patients regarding their secondary care referral.
There is now a website that patients can use to find out the wait times for outpatient/surgery appointments at their chosen hospital, please click on the link below:
From 1st April 2023, patients that require urgent repeat medication, for example as a result of them running out of a repeat medication, or because they have damaged their medication, or because they have left home without it, have to obtain an urgent supply via pharmacies commissioned under the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service as the local Emergency Supply Service will no longer be commissioned.
The fundamental difference is that under the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service, patients requiring an urgent supply of repeat medication will need to contact NHS111 (by telephone or online) to be referred to a local participating pharmacy.
Patients will therefore no longer be able to be referred via GP practices, GP out of hours providers or just contact a pharmacy directly.
Whilst the supply of urgent repeat medication will continue to be available via the national NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service, it is important that patients order their repeat medication from their GP practice with sufficient time so that requests for urgent repeat supplies are minimised. When ordering repeat medication from their GP practice, patients are advised pharmacies may need a few days to process the repeat medication request once it has been processed by their GP practice.
Patients are advised to order their repeat medication 7 working days before they are due to run out.
BMP Patient Survey
Brewood Medical Practice is carrying out a patient survey during October with the help of the Patient Participation Group (PPG).
The aim of the survey is to gather opinion about services and experiences along with asking for ideas and general feedback.
The questions are designed to identify where improvements can be made or indeed confirm the services that work well for our patients.
Members of the PPG will be attending all three sites, Brewood, Wheaton Aston and Coven over the next few weeks to hand out the questionnaires and help patients complete the questions.
Patients will also be able to complete an electronic version using a touch screen at Brewood Surgery.
For further information about the role of the PPG in the gathering of information click the link to the PPG facebook page.
Brewood Medical Practice is offering a service this year for patients to have their seasonal flu vaccine and the Covid Autumn booster at the same time.
With last years uptake of both flu and Covid vaccines being so great, the decision has been made to streamline the service making Autumn 2022 a one-stop-shop!
Saturday 17th September – Flu and Covid for the OVER 65s (Brewood) Sunday 18th September- Flu and Covid for the UNDER 65s AT RISK (Brewood) Saturday 24th September – Flu and Covid for the OVER 65s (am) – UNDER 65s AT RISK (pm) (Wheaton Aston)
Both flu and Covid vaccines will be available for eligible registered patients on the clinics above from 8.30am.
Both vaccines will be available (those who have had a Covid booster vaccine in the last 90 days or the Covid virus in the last 28 day will not be able to have the vaccine).
You can also choose to have one or the other if you wish. Eligible patients will be contacted via text message.
You can book via online access or contact the surgery on 01902 851475 choosing option 5 for times, availability and further information.
Eligibility criteria for the flu vaccine this year includes:
All adults aged 50 years and over (From 15 October)
Under 50 with a chronic condition
Immunosupressed patients
Frontline health and social care workers
Eligibility criteria for the Autumn Covid booster includes:
Had last Covid Booster OVER 90 days ago
Under 50 with a chronic condition
Frontline health and social care workers
All adults aged 50 years and over
Persons aged 5 to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
Persons aged 16 to 49 years who are carers
Children
Children aged two and three are eligible to have the nasal flu vaccine at the GP surgery. Children aged four and over will have their flu vaccine offered by their school.
Parents and carers two and three year olds will be notified in due course of the dates for the nasal flu vaccine clinics.
“While I’m here…”
When attending your doctors appointment, it may be the ideal time to offload all of those niggles and issues that have been on your mind for a while.
Particularly post-pandemic, many people have ‘saved’ up complaints and vowed to ‘speak to the doctor about it’ when you attend your appointment.
In the vast majority of GP surgeries standard appointments allocated to all patients is 10 minutes. This may sound like enough time to rattle through the list you have prepared. However, a 10 minute slot for discussion, diagnosis, action and follow up planning can be swallowed up quickly.
If you have more than one issue to discuss the advice is to choose the most important or urgent to talk through. The clinicians on some occasions will be able to offer advice on two simple issues but please don’t be offended if you are asked to book another appointment to go through further problems.
The clinicians try to run to time (which doesn’t always work out that way!) and by sticking to your allocated 10 minute slot and discussing one issue allows the whole clinic to run more efficiently.
Together we can help keep things moving and ensure that patients are seen swiftly.
Unwanted Appointments
Life can be very busy and stressful filled with unexpected obstacles.
When booking a doctors appointment there can be many reasons why you are unable to attend.
It may be that the issue you wanted to discuss is not a pressing as you first thought.
Car breakdown, school run, working hours…
Whatever the reason, if you feel that you don’t need the appointment…..cancel it.
Forgetting about an appointment sometimes can’t be helped. In order to help reduce the chances of patients forgetting about their appointments the surgery sends out appointment reminders via text message 24 hours beforehand to help jog patients memories.
The number of wasted appointments at Brewood and Wheaton Aston however has increased recently which means there are fewer appointments available for other patients.
If you are running late for a planned appointment please attempt to let us know. Depending on the type of appointment, the clinician will usually allow 10 minutes after the appointment time for you to arrive.
At the discretion of the clinician, you may be asked to wait to be seen at a later time.
If you arrive too far into your appointment time or there is no availability to see you on the same day, you may be asked to rebook for another day. The team will endeavour to accommodate you so please be kind.
Changes to the Dementia Service at BMP
Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust is the regional body commissioned to treat, monitor and review people diagnosed with Dementia and Memory Impairment Conditions.
Several years ago, Dr Ahmed took over the service so local patients with dementia could be seen at a local facility. The aim was to ensure patients had a familiar, accessible and safe place to go for appointments and assessments. Brewood Medical Practice was the ideal choice with its ample parking, light and bright spaces and disabled access.
Dr Ahmed successfully carried out annual reviews at the surgery alongside medication prescribing and monitoring.
Following the national pandemic however, service level demands and target expectations at all GP surgeries has significantly increased. In addition, communities are expanding putting further pressure on local medical services.
To avoid any potential compromise in patient care, Brewood Medical Practice has taken the decision to transfer the service back to the Trust.
The benefits of this move include:
More diverse availability of dementia specific appointments with specialist staff
A dedicated contact line for patients and their carers
Six monthly and annual reviews
Specialist cognitive testing and diagnosis
As part of the change Dr Ahmed has asked for the trust to provide a Dementia Practitioner to work at the practice. And we are delighted that the trust have agreed to do this. The service will continue to be run from Brewood Medical Practice giving patients the same familiar surroundings they have become used to. It also means that clinicians at the practice can continue to oversee general care and wellbeing of its patients.
If you are a patient or carer of a person affected by dementia you will be receiving a letter outlining the change. You will also be contacted directly by the MPFT to arrange an appointment at the practice.
For any general medical queries, continue to liaise with the team at Brewood Surgery who are happy to help.
