AUTUMN NEWSLETTER 2000

We welcome Karol Curry as our new Practice Manager. She has experience at several other surgeries in County Durham and we look forward to working with her to develop the services within the Practice. We have already seen some of her ideas come into action in her first month with us and look forward to further changes in the future. She has many ideas to improve the services for patients, and improve efficiency in the Practice - we hope we will all benefit from her experience.

We would, at the same time, like to thank Trish Brett for many years of hard work with the Practice, and hope she enjoys her 'retirement'.

Doctor News

We are pleased to welcome Dr Heppell as our new GP registrar. He is experienced in joint and muscle problems, and also has a wide knowledge after several years working in hospitals. He will be with us for the next 6 months in order to gain experience in general medical practice. He is closely supervised by the doctors in the Practice, and has regular training and feedback sessions to ensure his safety to practice.

We remain committed to being a training Practice as having young doctors with us encourages us to keep up to date and be open to question and advice from a younger colleague.

Reception Request

Our receptionists have asked if patients would please order prescriptions and sick notes in good time. We deal with hundreds of prescriptions every day and we have a system to handle these in the quickest possible time.

People who demand that their prescriptions are done immediately not

only slow down the doctor's surgeries but they also slow down the response for all the other patients who are waiting. Please be considerate and allow plenty of time, ie at least 2 working days, preferably longer at peak times, in order to make sure we can meet the needs of all our patients best.

Our receptionists are trained to inquire for details about any medical request - be it a request for a home visit or an appointment - and they are simply trying to help those in the most need get to see the doctor. Many of them are very experienced and they keep information in strict confidentiality. So please let the receptionists do their job and let them ask some basic questions to find out how your needs can be best met.

Stop Smoking - New Prescriptions

You will have heard about Zyban and Bupropion in the media, but the Health Authority has asked us not to prescribe this until we have special clinics in place here at the Practice. Our nurses are awaiting training from the Health Authority, but courses have not as yet been arranged. We have been advised not to prescribe these preparations until we have a full package of measures in place. It would be appreciated therefore if you could exercise patience and understanding as we are not able to prescribe at the present time. We will let you know as soon as the relevant nurse training has been carried out and we get the go ahead.

Flu Vaccinations

Flu vaccinations will arrive in early October when we would advise all patients with heart, lung and kidney conditions, and diabetes to attend or contact the surgery to arrange a flu vaccination. Also, now the Department of Health is advising that those over the age of 65 should attend for a vaccination as flu will cause strain on the heart and lungs and make vulnerable groups at risk to severe chest infections, and aggravate conditions they suffer from already. Please contact the surgery for arrangements in early October.

Meningitis Vaccine

There have been some concerns about the Meningitis C vaccine. However, all the serious events have been due to other causes when this was looked at carefully by the Government committee, and was judged to be nothing to do with the vaccine. The under 5's registered here at the surgery have almost all had their vaccines and the over 5's will be getting theirs through the schools health service.

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