Building
The development of our Station Road site is well under way and will be ready by April 2007.
The repair/replacement of the rear and side boundary walls is nearing completion. It has been a relief to be able to dispense with the safety fencing and tidy up the site.
Staff
A second of our Specialist Nurses has completed the Nurse Prescriber training and will be permitted to prescribe for Coronary Heart Disease and Family Planning.
Our four Nurse Advisers are close to completing their training for handling Minor Illnesses. The Assessment Clinics are being extended to match their new proficiencies. We plan to move them onto Nurse Prescribing training as investment funds permit.
Services
WWPCT terminated our contract, wef 30th November 2006, to provide the blood tests and ECGs that are required by Secondary Care (District Hospitals) prior to outpatient, day cases and in-patient appointments. This service is now being provided by the MIU in Warminster Community Hospital and they should be contacted to arrange an appointment.
The Partnership's business cases to invest up to £141,000, of the £256,000 prescribing savings the Partnership made on 2005/6, have been approved. This will include moving to Totally Electronic Patient Records, Patients Automatic Check-in, on-site INR diagnostic testing with instant results, development of the 24Hr Ambulatory BP Service and a Nurse Led Enhanced Family Planning and Teenage Sexual Health Service.
Partnership has joined with West Wilts and Devizes Practices to form the Wiltshire Practice Based Commissioning Consortium. A Board of GPs, an Executive Team of GPs and Practice Managers and funding from the Practices are all in place.
Prescribing
A local Pharmacist has started to work with the Partnership to carry out Partnership prescribing projects under the Community Pharmacist programme.
Flu Vaccinations
Our yearly flu vaccination programme has been seriously disrupted due to serious problems with the flu vaccine deliveries. We still have flu vaccines available for all those who wish to be immunised. Flu immunisations are only free to our registered patients.
Performance Management
Partnership Strategy meetings were held in September and December 2006. Partners reviewed the business and set the business agenda for the next three to five years.
IT
The Partnership has completed the change to a new clinical software system that is compatible with the National NHS Connect development. This will enable us to share a patient record on the system with other healthcare professionals, such as hospital consultants, with obvious benefits to the patients provided the individual patient agrees to this sharing taking place.
External Issues
Wiltshire PCT is now the 'local health authority' for the Partnership. The PCT has continued its predecessor's Service Review under the 'Pathways for Change' banner and the PCT Board will consider retaining 20 in-patient beds in Warminster Community Hospital when it meets on 30th January 2007.
The Avenue Surgery’s
Patient Participation Group
(THIS SECTION IS INDEPENDENT OF THE SURGERY AND WRITTEN BY PATIENTS FOR PATIENTS)
The purpose of the Avenue Surgery PPG (or Patient Participation Group to give it its full title) is to provide an informative link between patients and doctors of the Avenue Surgery. We meet several times a year to learn of plans, successes and difficulties that the Avenue Surgery has, and we have the opportunity to make observations and suggestions on behalf of patients. We believe and hope our work is an encouragement to the Partners and staff of the practice as well as to our fellow patients. We are not a ‘complaints commission’ insofar that there is an individual procedure in place at the Avenue Surgery for any person who wishes to make a complaint, but we are available to take up suggestions from patients.
An example of this is a suggestion from one of our patients following last year’s Annual General Meeting. A gentleman, who had to walk with crutches at the time, spoke of the difficulties he met when crossing from the Library Car Park to the Avenue Surgery. He often found the traffic intimidating because drivers would not stop for him and requested a pedestrian crossing be provided. Other patients using wheelchairs or pushing baby buggies have also found the same difficulty and need. We wrote to the W.W.D.C. which is responsible for this stretch of road and received a reply which was sympathetic but also regretted that lack of funds meant nothing could be done at that time. Since then, many other persons have expressed the need for a safe crossing at this point and the matter is still under consideration.
Lack of funds is a recurring problem for many projects. One of our members has begun what she hopes will be a series of ‘Wine and Cheese’ evenings. Such a get-together provides an opportunity for friends and neighbours to meet each other and also to make a contribution towards the cost of equipment for the Surgery. In this case it was put towards the cost of an ambulatory blood test machine from which many patients will benefit. Please watch out for further such evenings in your area.
A recent T.V. advert is taking advantage of the fact that men don’t like it to be known that they are on a diet! It doesn’t give the male a macho build-up. Another word has been found instead of the word ‘diet’. So what suggestions could you come up with for a slogan to encourage men to take an inch or three off their waistlines?
Any replies to this problem, or any suggestions you wish to make to the PPG can be posted to ‘PPG, c/o the Avenue Surgery, Warminster, BA12 9AA’, or handed in at reception, or e-mailed to ‘PPG’ at
avenue.surgery@gp-j83018.nhs.uk.
