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Latest News
LATE SUMMER 2008
Chlamydia
Screening
You may not know that you have it. You don't have to be
examined and the test is simple, painless, totally
voluntary. It is available to anyone who is a patient of
the practice, sexually active and under 25 years old.
The test is available now in the practice so ask the
receptionist, doctor or nurse for a testing kit and they
will tell you what to do.
If you want to know more about chlamydia or the test go
to
www.chlamydiascreening.nhs.uk/index.htm
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Arm against
cervical cancer
From September 2008, the HPV vaccine will be offered
routinely to 12- to 13-year-old girls (school year 8).
Over the next three years there will also be a catch-up
programme for older girls aged 13-18 starting with 17-
to 18-year-olds this autumn. Oxfordshire PCT has decided
to deliver the vaccine via a school-based programme for
the 12 to 13 year-old girls.
For more information follow this link
http://www.immunisation.nhs.uk/Vaccines/HPV
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PATIENTS' Survey
It's time again for our annual patients' survey and so
if you are coming into the surgery you may be asked to
complete a questionnaire. We will be running the survey
from 15 September until 3 October and will post the
results in our newsletter and here on the website.
You can see the results from last year's survey against
the benchmarks that were set here.
Click here to download Benchmark Data compared
with Cropredy Surgery
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Is your Electric Blanket
Safe?
Oxfordshire County Council is offering FREE safety
checks for your electric blanket in Banbury on Thursday
9 October or Bicester on Thursday 23 October.
You will need to contact Trading Standards
trading.standards@oxfordshire.gov.uk to
arrange an appointment or you can call 01865/815607.
This scheme operates on a first come, first served basis
so book your appointment as soon as you can.
GP-led Health
Centre
The plans for a new GP-led Health Centre
(often called a Darzi Clinic) in Banbury are going ahead
with an intensified consultation for patients and the
public. Meetings have been held for professionals and
the public to find out more and put forward their views.
If you would like to have more information or offer your
views about the plans visit the British Medical
Association website
http://www.supportyoursurgery.org.uk/ or the
Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust website
http://www.oxfordshirepct.nhs.uk/news/equitable-access.aspx
Ballot Result
The recent ballot of patients for the Oxfordshire Local
Medical Committee shown on our website and in paper
version in the surgery reception, had 7103 (95%)
respondents across Oxfordshire against the new GP-led
Health Centre in Banbury and 255 patients in favour out
of 7467 received (109 respondents did not specify their
preference).
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Keeping Cool in a
Heatwave
Most of us enjoy sunny weather,
but extreme heat can seriously damage your health.
During a heatwave, when temperatures stay really high
day after day, it can sometimes be fatal.
Some people are more at risk
than others such as, babies and young children, older
people, those with mobility problems or the physically
active, like manual workers, and sportsmen and women.
Keeping out of the heat
especially between 11am – 3 pm, keeping cool by staying
in the coolest rooms, splashing your face and the back
of your neck with cold water several times a day or
taking cool baths or showers, will all help.
Drink lots of fluids even if
you don’t feel thirsty. Avoid alcohol, tea and coffee as
they make dehydration worse and try to eat more cold
food like salads and fruit, which contain water.
Seek advice from your doctor, a
pharmacist or NHS Direct if you are worried about your
health during a heatwave.
If anyone you know is likely to
be at risk during a heatwave, help them to find the
advice and support they need. Older people living alone
should be visited daily to check that they are OK.
The Department of Health has
produced a leaflet offering advice on who is at risk,
what to do if there is a heatwave and how to help
others. There are copies of the leaflet in the surgery
waiting room or you can contact NHS Direct on 0845 4647
www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk for advice about heat stroke
and heat exhaustion.
If you want advice on
protecting your skin during hot weather you can contact
the Cancer Research UK SunSmart campaign website at:
http:/info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/sunsmart/
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Prescription Charges' Rise
Prescription charges will rise
on 1 April from £6.85 to £7.10 per item.
Some patients qualify for
exemption from charges. These include:
- Children under 16 years of
age
- Full time students aged
16, 17 or 18
- Anyone aged 60 or over
- War pensioners with a
valid certificate
- Anyone in receipt of
Income Support or income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- Anyone with a partner in
receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit
- Anyone with one of a range
of exemption certificates
Certain medical conditions also
entitle a patient to exemption. Discounts are available
for patients requiring longer courses of medicines, via
"Prepayment Certificates". For more information visit
the
Department of Health website.
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Extended
opening hours
Extended opening hours for GPs has received much media
coverage and debate. In deciding whether to increase the
hours that we open we have considered the responses from
our patients in last year’s survey.
There were 200 respondents to the survey and 85% of our
patients said that they were satisfied or very satisfied
with our opening hours 8.00 am to 6.30 pm Monday to
Friday.
The extended opening would be one hour a week for a
surgery of this size requiring a doctor, a nurse, a
receptionist and a dispenser to open for that time.
Since we have only two GPs working here, when one of
them was away it would be extremely difficult for the
other to run an effective practice.
The other ‘behind the scenes’ work done by the GPs such
as writing referral letters, visiting patients and
reviewing laboratory results, still have to be completed
even when there is only one GP here covering the work of
two.
The cost of extending the hours for this surgery in
staff time, additional utility bills and security on top
of the practical difficulties, has led us to decide not
to open for longer hours at present. If this changes at
some future point then we will of course let you know.
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The NHS
Spine
One thing that is always consistent in the development
of the NHS computer system is that it is constantly
changing. In our previous newsletter we explained that
patients who do not want their personal information to
be added to the national system, may opt-out by writing
to the practice manager. There are now discussions
underway as to whether the system should be changed to
patients opting-in so that each patient has to give his
or her consent before details are uploaded.
For more information about the system please visit
http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/
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NHS
Constitution
The Government is proposing to introduce a set of
principles and values that should guide everything that
is done in the NHS. It includes a commitment to
providing a comprehensive service, available to all
without discrimination, and based on clinical need not
the ability to pay. This is what has been described as
the Constitution. There is a consultation period that
ends on 17 October after which the Constitution will be
finalised.
Some of the main points for patients contained in the
proposed Constitution are as follows:
- Your right to drugs approved for use if
recommended by your doctor, and to an explanation of
all decisions made about funding your treatment
- Your right to make choices about your NHS care
and to be given the information that you need to do
so
- Your right to have your say in the planning and
development of local services
You can find out more from
www.dh.gov.uk/consultations obtain copies from
www.orderline.dh.gov.uk by email from
dh@prolog.uk.com,
by ringing 0300 123 1002, or by post from PO Box 777
London SE1 6XH
Comments are invited to
nhsconstitution@dh.gsi.gov.uk or by post to NHS
Constitution Room 611aRichmond House79 WhitehallLondon
SW1A 2NS
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Decided to
give up smoking in 2008?
If you are thinking that this is the time to give up
smoking we can help. We have three smoking cessation
advisers who can give you information on the free
support that you can have from the NHS.
Janet, Sue and Siobhan are our trained smoking
cessation advisers at the surgery and they will be able
to support you. Nicotine replacement therapy is also
available on prescription.
So call 01295 758372 or ask at reception for more
information.
You can also call 0800 169 0 169, visit
http://gosmokefree.nhs.uk/ or
www.smokefreeoxfordshire.nhs.uk to get unhooked.
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Accessing our Services Online
EMIS Access is a new way of
ordering prescriptions, booking routine appointments
with the doctor, phlebotomist (for blood samples) or the
dispensary manager for reviews of the use of medicines (DRUMs).
You can also let us know if you change your address or
other contact details.
Click
here to read more on this service.
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Beating
the DRUM for patients' medicines
As part of our dispensing service we
are offering a Dispensing Review of Use of
Medicines (DRUM) to some of our patients.
This review is a face-to-face meeting with Kate our
dispensary manager and is an opportunity better to
understand your medicines and their uses.
You may be invited in when you collect your medicines or
you could make an
appointment with Kate at a time to suit you.
This is an extra service that we offer and not a
replacement for seeing the
doctor or the nurse so you should still come along for
your regular
appointments.
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Do you have a
Hospital Appointment?
Patients who do not keep their hospital appointments
and who do not call to
cancel, cost the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals up to
£1/2million or around 37,000
appointments a year.
In an effort to contain the problem, from 1 January 2007
a new policy is to be
introduced. If a patient does not attend their
appointment and does not contact
the Hospital to let them know, they will be given seven
days to call to arrange
another appointment. If they do not make contact within
the seven days, they and their GP will be told that the
patient has been removed from the waiting list.
This will not apply to cancer patients and other urgent
referrals.
Maternity cases will be offered one further appointment.
There are many appointments within the surgery that
are also lost because people do not let us know that
they are not coming. If we do know, it allows us to
offer the appointment to someone else and cuts down the
time people have to wait to see the doctor or nurse.
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Childhood Immunisations
There were important changes to the childhood
immunisations schedule in 2007 intended to give young
children the best protection against serious,
vaccine-preventable diseases.
One significant change is the introduction of a new
vaccine to protect against
pneumococcal infection. All children born after 4
September 2006 will be invited
to the surgery to receive the immunisation.
Those children who are born before 4 September are being
offered the
vaccinations through our 'catch-up' system.
If you would like more details on the changes or the
catch-up campaign, leaflets
are available at the surgery.
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