School Holiday: Every Monday the Hamstel Children and Family Centre will be running a new group during school holidays, it will be holding a drop-in group for teen parents and parents to be. These sessions will include activities that are all child friendly for those young people that have their babies or young children, and will also be based around different and fun aspects of learning. The sessions will be held 1.30pm – 3.00pm and will include refreshments.
The first session on Monday 13 February will be a baking session and will include lunch.
Time to Learn dates: The surgery will be closed on the following Tuesdays from 1pm to 8am next morning due to staff training as recommended by the Department of Health: You can access a healthcare professional during these hours by phoning our surgery line which will transfer you automatically to the Out Of Hours service. 5 April 2011, 10 May 2011, 7 June 2011, 5 July 2011, 6 Sept 2011, 4 Oct 2011, 1 Nov 2011, 6 Dec 2011, 7 Feb 2012, 6 March 2012.
Travelling abroad: Don't forget to check what vaccinations you need as soon as you know your travel dates and destinations. Make an appointment with our practice nurse to find out.
Evening Clinic: We run an evening doctor's clinic for our patients who find it difficult to attend the surgery during day time. The clinic runs twice a week from 6.30pm to 8.30pm by appointment only.
Problem with patients not attending their appointments: WE ARE EXPERIENCING A REAL PROBLEM AT THE PRACTICE WITH PATIENTS WHO DO NOT TURN UP FOR THEIR APPOINTMENTS. WE ARE FORCED TO TAKE ACTION AND WHEN A PATIENT DOES NOT TURN UP, HE/SHE WILL NOW RECEIVE A WARNING LETTER AND IF IT HAPPENS AGAIN, WE WILL HAVE NO OPTION BUT REMOVING THE PATIENT FROM OUR PRACTICE LIST.
In December 96 patients did not turn up for their appointments which means 18 hours of clinics have been wasted when they could have been offered to other patients. If you cannot attend for your appointment please let us know as soon as possible. You can cancel your appointment online; you just have to ask our receptionist team to give you a personal username and password. You can also book your appointment this way as well as requesting your prescriptions. We have started sending text messages when you book your appointment and a reminder text is sent the day before your appointment, our receptionists work hard at organising this so please keep your appointment or let us know if you are unable to attend. They will ask you if you are happy with receiving text messages, please let them know if you don't agree.
Central-surgery Patient Participation Group. It is about our patients being involved in decision making. We set up the group in December 2008; we had initial meetings to discuss how we are going forward, about you telling us how you would like the practice to improve its services and the practice to promote a healthier lifestyle for its patients. We work in partnership, we have some ideas about what we can do together like organising walking groups or setting up public meeting inviting consultants or specialist nurses or writing up a questionnaire asking what patients want, but we need more members to materialise all these ideas, we don’t ask too much of your time, we have a group meeting every 3 months but we are in touch regularly, so if you have ideas and you want to be part of this forward thinking participation group, please contact Christine Lloyd on 01702 468443. |
