Support Your Surgery – please sign the petition
June 2008

Either drop into the surgery or log onto www.supportyoursurgery.org.uk to sign the petition to preserve the future of comprehensive, high quality patient care in communities across the country.

The Wilson Practice doctors believe that the government is unaware of the risks it is taking with the viability of general practice by implementing or planning measures to bring private companies in to run GP surgeries.

There is an information display in the surgery – or you can find out more from the website above.

Quality of Care and GP Opening Hours – the debate in the media
January 2008

Dear Patient,

Your GP surgery works hard to ensure that most patients can be seen as soon as possible, and at times that are convenient.   We understand that many patients have to work and sometimes may struggle to get an appointment time that fits in with work and other commitments. At present, we are open from 8.00am – 6.30pm Monday to Friday; care outside these hours is provided by Thamesdoc.

Those who need emergency appointments can see a doctor as soon as possible and satisfaction levels with our service is very high. A recent questionnaire confirmed that 86% of our patients say they are happy with current opening hours.

You may have read or heard reports that GPs have refused to extend their opening hours for patients. In fact, the British Medical Association has offered for GPs to work longer hours by limited opening in the morning or evening or on Saturday morning for routine appointments, but our offer has been rejected by Government.   It wants us to open for longer times, but we believe that this would reduce our availability to the majority of our patients and harm their care.

We are also fearful that the Government may be using this issue to introduce further reforms, through the back door, that will affect patient care.

There are 250 million consultations with GPs in the UK every year. Most appointments are needed by elderly people, small children and patients with long term conditions. These patients require a high level of service during the day. We believe it is a fundamental value of the NHS that those who need the care most, are most able to access a GP and support services. If surgeries were to stay open for longer, there will be fewer appointments and resources available for these patients.

Although the Government may present their plans as ‘patient friendly’ or responding to ‘consumer’ demand, a GP service is not the same as a supermarket or a bank. We know that for our patients, quality is the most important concern, and that we will not offer our best service if we are continually undermined by reforms that do not offer real benefits to patients.

There is no benefit to patients of a surgery opening for longer if the quality of care is poorer, and the patients who need care most find it harder to get the appointments they need. We are also concerned that extended hours are an excuse for the Government in England to introduce large GP surgeries or polyclinics that may be run by multinationals. GPs are very worried that this will put your local surgeries at risk.

GPs are fighting these reforms, as we do not believe they are right for us or for our patients. Ultimately these reforms could undermine the very basis of the NHS. The NHS is 60 this year, please help us protect it and keep it working for everyone, particularly those who need it most.

We need your support as your GP surgery, as you know it, is under threat. If you value your local surgery and the NHS there are two things you can do:

·      Write to the local or national press telling them you are against these changes and why.

·      If you have Internet access, please sign the national petition to No 10 Downing Street:   http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Polyclinics

·      Write to your MP and tell them how much you value your local surgery, do not want to lose the relationship with your family doctor and do not want to see the breakup of NHS general practice that this government is planning.   Depending on where you live, his contact details are:

East Hampshire                                        Hampshire North East
Michael Mates, MP                                  James Arbuthnot, MP
House of Commons,                                 House of Commons,            
London SW1A 1AA                                London SW1A 1AA

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

The doctors at The Wilson Practice

Click here for copy of this letter  in PDF format

Click here for TRUE OR FALSE   - facts about your GP service

OUT OF HOURS PROVISION - FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE?
July 2007

The provision of primary care services has always been about a partnership between the doctor and the patient.  Nowhere is this more evident than in out of hours or emergency cover. 

From the inception of the NHS in l948 GPs were responsible for all the patients on their list 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Most GPs, particularly in rural areas, ran a personal list system - as we still do.  There was a reasonable understanding that the doctor you called at 3 o’clock in the morning was also the same doctor who had worked a full day the previous day and would be working a full day the following day.  For those who have never had to work in this sort of system it is sometimes a difficult concept to grasp and the hours we worked were almost incomprehensible.  Most full time doctors in the Wilson Practice until four years ago were working over 70 hours per week.  Inevitably it was sometimes difficult to give of your best when you were so tired.  The situation did not improve as time moved on.  Medicine advanced, meaning that doctors were able to do more; patients’ medical expectations have therefore quite correctly increased.  We have moved to a much more 24/7 society and people have increased expectations of availability of medical advice and access to doctors at any hour of the day or night.  This was set against a rapidly changing medical work force.  Over 75% of entrants to general practice are now female and many are part time.  Whilst this has redressed the previous imbalance of a male dominated profession many of this newer generation of doctors do not want to do on-call - indeed it is not a possibility for them as they have young families to care for at home.  All of these factors meant that the situation and system that had worked for 40 years was no longer tenable. 

The new contract introduced by this Government in 2004 addressed amongst other things this problem.  It changed things dramatically and I believe for ever.  The Government took out of hours responsibility away from GPs and gave it to the PCTs.  They clearly thought that this would be a simple and cheap option to run but unsurprisingly this has not proved to be the case.  There is no doubt that the Government and Department of Health undervalued the work that GPs were doing out of hours, and now they wish to backtrack.  There has been a lot of bad press and propaganda from the government which has been extremely unhelpful.  The new contract may have taken out of hours away from us but it also heaped upon us considerably more bureaucracy and day work.  Despite losing out of hours we are still working in excess of 50 hours a week and simply going back to the old system is not an option.  The current out of hours service needs to be improved, it needs to be made more local and more responsive and there are certainly ways in which this could be done, perhaps by making better use of local facilities such as community hospitals.  It requires Government to work with the profession - sadly not something that they have shown a great willingness to do.  Meanwhile the partnership between doctors and patients must continue and it is up to all of us to direct Government to make the correct decisions on our behalf to provide not only a good and safe out of hours services but also a day service that is manned by doctors who have not been up all hours of the previous night or expected to be up for most of the following night. Many people believe that this would have been a much more effective use of increased resources than some of the high profile political initiatives such as Choose and Book which has proved, at least in this area, a complete and expensive irrelevance.

Dr Michael Hayward

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The Future of the Care Record Service
Jan 07

Family doctors have long seen themselves as trusted guardians of their patients’ confidential medical records.  The Department of Health is attempting to develop an England wide computer database of health information for about 40 million people known as the NHSCRS (the NHS Care Record Service).

Each patient must give explicit consent before personal information on, for instance, their medication and drug allergies, can be accessed.  There will be rigorous security measures in place to make sure that notes are not accessed inappropriately.   Patients’ notes will automatically be put on the NHSCRS, unless the patient informs us that they do not wish this to happen.  Notes will be audited to check that they have not been accessed without patient consent or contact with that individual patient.  Access will only be allowed with a series of passwords.

Information included will be the summary of care record including

• repeat prescriptions active and recent
• acute prescriptions in the last six months
• suspected adverse and allergic reactions. 

This information shared across health professionals will improve safety and enhanced patient care significantly.  If, for instance, you were attend casualty whilst on holiday in Devon and could not remember your medication the treating doctor would be able to access that information with your consent.  There are also advantages for public health care because of the tremendous advantages of huge amounts of anonymous but aggregated data that can be used for health planning and public health policy.

Hampshire have been leading the way in this area, piloting a model that started in 2000.  100,000 leaflets were sent to households to gauge opinion and of 250,000 people only 12 wrote letters to say they did not want their records included.

The NHSCRS is currently under discussion, with the finer details of the system yet to be finalised.  We wish to bring to your attention that you may opt out of the NHSCRS if you wish to, by writing to us.  If we do not hear from you, then we will assume that you are happy for your medical notes to be included on the database.

More information can be obtained about this on www.thebigoptout.org, or on the advice line on
01494 882458.

July 06

BETA_BLOCKERS

Many of you will have read the recent discussions in the popular press about the use of β-blockers. These are a class of drug that are widely used in the treatment of heart disease and high blood pressure. Recent research has shown that in the treatment of blood pressure, for some people, there are more effective medicines than β-blockers.

The doctors at the Wilson Practice have been aware of the published work on β-blockers for some time. Many people who would previously have been commenced on β-blockers for high blood pressure, have been started on different drugs over the past year.

If you are on a β-blocker for high blood pressure do not panic! The drugs are safe and effective. In those people who should be on other medicines, we are changing them over at the time of their routine blood pressure review. Please do not stop your medicine without discussing your treatment with your doctor or clinic nurse.

Please remember that many people use β-blockers for reasons other than high blood pressure e.g. angina or migraine. There is no evidence suggesting that these people should change to another drug and we would ask you to continue with them.

Summary: Beta-blockers are safe drugs for most people

• We now know that in some people there are medicines that are more effective than β-blockers for treating high blood pressure.

• Do not stop your medicine without discussing your situation with a clinic nurse or your doctor first.

• If your medicines need changing we will suggest an alternative at your next routine review.

  Bird Flu-Popular myths dispelled
Jan 06

Bird flu is caused by a virus which usually affects birds. It can occasionally cross the species barrier and infect humans. At present the bird flu viruses cannot be passed from one human to another and infection depends on close contact with infected birds.

Recently, one form of bird flu has been identified which is associated with a very high death rate when humans are infected. This strain of flu virus does not have the capability to cause a pandemic at present, however if it was ever to mutate so that it could be transmitted between humans, a pandemic could follow.

There is no way of knowing if and when this may happen. Vaccine cannot be produced until it happens as we do not know what virus to manufacture vaccine against. Antiviral drugs exist but until we know what virus we are dealing with we will not know how effective they will be.

Flu Pandemic- How can I protect myself and my family?

You can reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of catching or spreading influenza during a pandemic by:

• Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or  sneezing, using a tissue when possible

• Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully - bag and bin them

• Avoiding non-essential travel and large crowds whenever possible

• Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing your hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to your face, or to other people.

• Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. kitchen worktops, door handles) frequently, using a normal cleaning product

• Making sure your children follow this advice.

If you do catch flu:

•    Stay at home and rest

• Take medicines such as aspirin, ibuprofen or paracetemol to relieve the symptoms (following the instructions with the medicines). Children under 16   must not be given aspirin or ready made flu remedies containing aspirin

• Drink plenty of fluids.

Mumps and MMR vaccine
May 05

There is a national increase in mumps and cases have occurred in young people at Alton College -

What is mumps?

Mumps is an infectious disease caused by the mumps virus. It is a mild disease in most people and may even go completely unnoticed. Symptoms begin with a headache and fever, followed by swelling of glands in front of the ears on one or both sides. Rarely, it can cause complications which could be unpleasant and require admission to hospital. These include viral meningitis, hearing problems and inflammation of the testicles. It is spread through coughs and sneezes. People with mumps should stay at home for 5 days after the start of swollen glands and avoid contact with other people where possible. There is no treatment for mumps.

How can it be prevented?

The only way to prevent mumps is to be immunised with MMR vaccine Many young people are not fully protected against mumps as they have not had 2 doses of the MMR vaccine. (Students immunised in 1994 at school would have received the MR vaccine which only protects against measles and rubella, not against mumps. Students bom before 1987 generally will not have had MMR vaccine as young children.) You are advised to check with your surgery who will be able to offer you MMR vaccine if you are not fully protected. Immunisation is recommended for those born after 1980 as older people are more likely to be immune.

MMR vaccine

The vaccine is extremely safe. Further information is available on www.mmrthefacts.nhs.uk. Medical reasons for not having the vaccine include a very weak immune system and pregnancy ~ pregnancy should be avoided in the month after immunisation,

Many universities are requesting that new students are immunised before

starting their courses. This is because large outbreaks have happened in

universities.

AVOID MUMPS BY BEING PROTECTED WITH MMR