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Newsletter - Spring 2023
Welcome to our Spring Newsletter.
On 1st April Ryeland Surgery celebrates its first birthday. It has been a year of great change for us all and the team has worked very hard to deliver a successful merger of the
former Marches and Westfield Surgeries.
We have had some excellent new staff join the team in the last year and there have been a small number of retirements and staff moving on. We now have 67 directly employed staff, including 13 GPs working
alongside our Nurses, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, HCAs, Paramedics and Dementia Nurse. We have several teams within the wider team, including our Care Navigation Team taking all the phone calls, our
Front of House Team attending to our reception area, our Prescription Team dealing with prescription requests, our Data Team who process the many documents that arrive each day, our Secretarial Team who
deal with referrals, e-mails and many other matters, our Dispensary Team at the branch surgery in Bodenham, and our Management Team who are in overall charge!
Alongside the Ryeland Surgery staff we are also supported by staff employed by our PCN (Primary Care Network), with whom we work very closely. These include our Visiting Paramedics, Pharmacy Team, Social
Prescribers, Health Coaches, Mental Health Nurses, and Care Coordinators, as well as a Dietician and Occupational Therapist.
We hold a practice education afternoon every four months.
The photo shows the majority of our team at the last such meeting. At that session we agreed our mission statement for the new surgery, which captures the essence of what we strive to achieve – Our aim is to deliver first class patient care from a motivated and supportive team and to be an inspirational training and research hub
Digital Health
The NHS App is a great resource to find your information in your own time, without needing to call or contact the practice. You don’t need to go to your bank to check your bank balance these days – you just need to check an app or login online. The NHS App gives you this same easy to use service but for your health records.
There’s a lot of things that you can control or change through the NHS App, without needing to contact your practice, for example:
- Order repeat prescriptions
- Select your nominated pharmacy, so that your prescriptions always go to your favourite or local pharmacy
- View and make amendments to your health records
- Access to your laboratory results (contact us to arrange access to these if needed)
- Manage your organ donation decisions
- Decide if data from your health records are used for research and planning
If you haven't signed up already, give it a go.
Patient Triage
Did you know you can contact us online via our website?
- Request advice from the comfort of your own home at a time to suit, no queuing on the phone.
This is ideal for adults seeking advice regarding a nonurgent concern, and we will respond to you within 2 working days with advice or to book a consultation.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PATIENT TRIAGE
Weekend Appointments
Can't get to surgery during the day?
Taurus Healthcare offer routine appointments at various hubs around the county, including Ryeland Surgery on Saturdays and Sundays.
These are bookable via the practice so please do ask about this option when you call. The clinician will be able to access to your medical records, they can prescribe and arrange referrals if necessary, so offer a full general practice service.
What is Care Navigation?
At Ryeland Surgery we have a practice team composed of a wide range of clinicians, with different skills and interests to deliver excellent care to our patients. In order that you get to see the right person at
the right time, we have a dedicated team of ‘Care Navigators’ who are trained to signpost you to the best service to fulfil your needs.
In order to do so, they will need to ask you a little about the nature of your problem. This information you give them is all in strictest confidence. Please help us to help you by sharing information with our
Care Navigators, so they can offer the most appropriate advice or book your appointment with the best person to help you.
Bodenham Update
Bodenham is a dispensing practice, but the rules state that we are only allowed to dispense to patients who have newly moved into the area when they register. We are not allowed to dispense to patients who
already live in the area but decide to change practices to Bodenham.
This is not a practice decision, this is a rule set out by NHS England.
Patient Feedback
Friends and Family Test
We have had over 1000 responses to our texts requesting feedback and we are really pleased with the results!
- Very likely/likely to recommend the practice 90%
- Neutral/don’t know 6%
- Unlikely/very unlikely to recommend the practice 4%
We are listening to your feedback regarding getting through on the phone, particularly early in the morning.
- Please do make use of the “ring back” facility—the system holds your place in the queue and we will call you back when it’s your turn. If your call isn't urgent please avoid calling at our peak time of 8-10 in the mornings.
- Please do submit your feedback to us via our website, we are keen to hear your views and ideas, particularly regarding what information you would like us to include on our website, social media or newsletters.
A couple of interesting stats for you
- 5584 GP/practitioner consultations and 4087 nurse consultations have taken place since 1st January
- 16 GP/practitioner appointments and 167 nurse appointments were wasted since 1st January because patients have booked but failed to attend or cancel
If you no longer need an appointment, please let us know so we can offer it to another patient.
Covid Vaccination Spring Boosters
The next round of Covid vaccinations is due to start in April.
The following groups are eligible:
- Care home residents
- Anyone aged 75 and over
- Anyone aged 5 and over who has a compromised immune system
All those eligible will be contacted by the practice in due course.
New Build Update
We are frequently asked how things are going with the plans for a new Primary Care Centre for Leominster. Before the pandemic we were almost there, with a developer (FH Dale Ltd), a site, plans and planning
permission all in place. Final negotiations with the CCG about costs and finances were nearing completion.
Unfortunately, as is the case nationally, the pandemic and then the war in Ukraine have led to very significant increases in construction and finance costs across the board that have resulted in the need to revise
the current new build proposals. The CCG has been replaced by the ICB (Integrated Care Board) for Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and we very much hope the ICB will agree funding so that this vital project
can proceed. They have assured us that the new surgery in Leominster is their number one priority across the two counties for new primary care developments. We wait anxiously to learn whether the new build
will proceed or not.