Patient Newsletter: Issue 6

Welcome to our summer newsletter of 2024. In this issue we shine a spotlight on one of our partner GPs Dr Matthew Burkes. 

Some of the topics we will cover include the new pharmacy first scheme, our recent patient survey results, outpatient wait times and updates on this winter’s flu and Covid vaccination programme. Also included is June’s appointment and practice statistics. 

Dr Matthew Burkes Spotlight

I never wanted to be a doctor as a child – my sights were firmly set on being on Top of the Pops, playing in a rock band. As it happens this didn't quite pan out, though I do still play a Fender Precision bass when time allows. I grew up in Whitley Bay, on the North East coast and though I have lost the accent, I have not lost the love of the mighty Newcastle United! I trained initially as an academic psychologist before giving it up to go backpacking round India, South East Asia and Australia/NZ. On my return to the UK, I had a "Road to Damascus" moment during a pub quiz on Tyneside and applied to study Graduate Entry medicine at St George's Hospital Medical School in London. This turned out to be a good decision. My wife's family are from this area, so we used to escape the big smoke for the beaches of West Wittering. Moving to this area after qualification seemed a logical choice and we have been here ever since. I have three children (who seem to have grown up into teenagers) and too many pets, including three whippets and a tortoise once owned by Dr Bowen-Perkins. 

I can safely say that being a GP is my dream job – I love the challenge of providing community-based medical help to the local population and think that continuity and generalism are the keys to the health of the NHS and the UK population. Despite the challenges and pressures facing the system, I still believe in the NHS. I am a GP trainer, helping to build the workforce for the future, and also host medical students to give them experience of primary care. I am very proud to be part of Langley House and love the supportive and gifted team that work here.

Pharmacy First Scheme

When contacting the surgery you may be signposted by the reception team to visit a local pharmacy before seeing a GP. The new Pharmacy First service, launched on 31st January 2024, enables community pharmacies to help patients treat 7 common conditions. 

These conditions are:

• Ear Infections (1-17 years)
• Impetigo (1 year and over)
• Infected insect bites (1 year and older)
• Shingles (18 years and over)
• Sinusitis (12 years and older)
• Sore throat (5 years and older)
• And uncomplicated urinary tract infections (Women 16-64 years)

Pharmacists are able to assess the condition and prescribe antibiotics if needed. Patients do not need a referral to attend the pharmacy for these conditions.

This new service is expected to free up GP appointments for patients who need them most and will give people quicker and more convenient access to safe and high quality healthcare.

June Practice Statistics 

From May we started analysing our practice activity date to share with our patients and identify any areas of improvement. This data is on display in our reception areas.

Please find below Junes statistics:

• Telephone appointments completed- 1,232
• Face to face appointments completed- 1,797
• Incoming calls- 7,875
• Average call wait times- 2 minutes 50 seconds
• Appointments not attended- 132
• Wasted hours from appointments not attended- 33.25
• Online consultations processed by reception- 365
• Incoming documents processed by secretaries- 3,777
• Prescriptions processed- 10,233

Outpatient Waiting Times

If you have been referred for an outpatient appointment it can be a worrying time waiting for your appointment. Waiting times can vary between hospitals and you should consider this when choosing where to direct your referral.

You can use the My Planned Care website to compare waiting times at different hospitals.

The length of time you wait will depend on specific treatment and clinical needs, and you could be seen quicker or wait longer than the waiting time shown.

Safety in the Home

Child Safety Week | Child Accident Prevention Trust 

Child safety week is the Child Accident Prevention Trust annual community education campaign, acting as a catalyst for thousands of safety conversations and activities UK-wide. This year’s event ran from Monday 3rd June to Sunday 9th June 2024.

Accidents are the biggest killer of children and young people but they don’t have to happen.
(ROSPA) have produced a Safe at home: Tips for under-5s booklet which is free to view or download. 

There is also some real life examples through the RoSPA Virtual Safety Kitchen tour  - Keeping Kids Safe - RoSPA.

Have you heard of Martha’s Law?

Martha's Rule is a new policy which means that patients, families, carers, and staff will be able to access a round-the-clock rapid review from a separate care team if they are worried about a patient's condition.

This has come into being following the death of Martha Mills in 2021, who developed sepsis in hospital and who may have survived had she been moved to intensive care sooner - this was following her family consistently raising concerns about her condition which were not responded to.

You can find out more about the policy on the NHS website.

Carers Leave Act 2023 now in force

Following the approval of the draft regulations of the Carer's Leave Act 2023 on Tuesday 27 February, the Act came into force on Saturday the 6th of April.

What does this mean for you as a carer? It means that if you are a carer in employment, you are entitled to a new statutory right to take five days of unpaid leave from work each year to fulfil your caring responsibilities.

Any member of staff is eligible to apply carers leave irrespective of job family and length of service. A member of staff's employment is continuous during a period of Carers leave. Staff members do not need to provide evidence of their dependant's care needs.

You can read more about the Act here.

Covid Vaccination

There will be a Covid vaccination programme starting in October 2024 for specific groups of patients; details have not been fully released as yet by NHS England. We can, however, confirm that the Chichester practices will be delivering Covid and flu vaccines to our housebound and care home patients.  

Further details will be added to our website once we have more information.

Flu 

Flu vaccination programmes will commence from October 2024 for the following cohorts:

• Those aged 65 & older
• Those aged 18 to 65 in a clinical risk group
• & those in residential long stay care homes

The practice will be sending out letters and textual links to book an appointment to all eligible patients in due course.

New RSV vaccination programmes from 1st September 2024

RSV is a common respiratory virus that that can cause serious lung infections. While RSV infection can occur at any age, the risk and severity of RSV and its complications are increased in older adults and in neonates and small babies, and it has a considerable impact on individuals and NHS services during the winter months.

All adults turning 75 years old on or after 1 September 2024 will be eligible for the routine programme and should be offered a single dose of the RSV vaccine on or after their 75th birthday.

Women will be offered RSV vaccination in each pregnancy from 28 weeks gestation.

New Resource for Living Well with Dementia – My Choice

My Choice, a new information resource for people living with dementia has been launched on 18th April 24 is offering people the information they need to help them live well following a diagnosis of dementia.

A diagnosis of dementia can be worrying and have a big impact on you and those close to you. It can take time to adjust to your diagnosis and process all the information you have been given. Sometimes people can feel overwhelmed by too much information, while others can feel they are given too little information. It is important that you understand what can help you manage your symptoms, how to live well with Dementia, and how to prepare for the future. This includes what you and those around you can do, as well as how to access activities and services that are available to support you. The aim of ‘my choice’ is to give you accurate and accessible information in a way that helps you make informed choices to support your health and wellbeing now and for the future. What you choose to do, and how you do that is your choice. It is very important that you feel comfortable and enjoy the things you do. But don’t be afraid to try new things, or to do things differently. This can feel overwhelming at first, and you might need some support when trying new things, but it is often worth it in the longer term.

New information resource launched to help people live well with dementia

Patient Survey Results 

Q1: How helpful do you find our Receptionists?           
90% rate our receptionists good, very good or excellent 

Q2: How satisfied are you with the care given by our HCA’s? 
95% rate our HCAs as good, very good or excellent 

Q3: How satisfied are you with the care given by our Nurses? 
97% rate our nurses as good, very good or excellent 

Q5: How easy is it to book or cancel an appointment by telephone?  
72% rate booking appointments over the phone as good, very good or excellent

Q6: Have you tried the call back facility on our phone system? 
43.95&% - Yes / 56.19% - No

Q8: How easy do you find it to get an urgent appointment with a GP? 
76% rate the ease of getting an urgent appointment as good, very good or excellent 

Q9: How easy do you find it to book an appointment in advance?      
71% rate the ease of booking an appointment in advance as good, very good or excellent 

Q10:How easy do you find it to book an appointment with your preferred GP?
62% rate the ease of seeing their preferred GP as good, very good or excellent 

Q11: How satisfied are you with the length of our appointments? 
82% rate the length of appointments as good, very good or excellent                   

Q12: How satisfied are you with our appointments running to time? 
80% rate timely appointments as good, very good or excellent 

Q14: How satisfied are you with the support given to manage your long term conditions(s) eg diabetes, asthma, heart disease etc? 
84% rate support with long term conditions as good, very good or excellent 

Q15: How easy is it to re-order your repeat medication online? 
95% rate ordering medication online as good, very good or excellent

Q16: How satisfied are you with your appointments at our branch surgery in Bosham?   
95% rate our branch surgery as good, very good or excellent 

Q17: Have you used our online consultation request facility from our website?    
95% rate our branch surgery as good, very good or excellent 

Q18: If you have used our online consultation facility, how satisfied were you with the process? 
78% found using our online consultation facility good, very good or excellent                                                                                                                         

Q19: Overall, how satisfied are you with Langley House surgery? 
90% of patients rate Langley House overall as good, very good or excellent 

Overall we have been delighted with our patient survey results and the excellent response. Almost 700 patients completed our digital questionnaire. There is no room for complacency at any time and we constantly monitor our telephone answering times and the ratio of pre-bookable appointments to urgent appointments where patients need to be seen quickly. Patients rated availability of appointments as the most important issue. Given our lack of space and thus our inability to increase our capacity, we also monitor closely the numbers of new patients registering, given the population growth in Chichester.  We do have the ability to cap our list temporarily which we have done in the past. 

We will continue to promote our call back facility so that patients are not kept waiting unduly. Please use this at peak times (e.g. 8-9 am). Call back is an automated process and patients get called back by reception in strict order by how long you have been waiting. Any later incoming calls do not jump the queue! Call-back use has grown steadily from 550 requests in March to 859 in May. 

In response to some of the free-text comments, we thought we could clarify a few points:- 

“I do not like a receptionist making the decision about type of “emergency”” Our receptionists use signposting/booking guidance written by our GPs by condition which indicates how soon an appointment is required.  Receptionists can and do escalate appointment urgency queries to clinicians where there is any uncertainty.    

“When you ring at 8am for an appointment only to find you are 25th in line, and can't sit and wait 30 to 40 mins” Please use our call back facility as described above. It is entirely automated and you will get called back by reception in strict order of how long you have been waiting. 

“The online consultation system places a huge and uncomfortable barrier between patient and doctor.” This is an optional way to requesting an appointment for those patients who do not want to phone the surgery. 

“The fact that you usually only get a phone appointment is detrimental to care.” Patients have a choice of whether a GP appointment is face-to-face or over the phone for the majority of our surgeries. Please just let our receptionists know. 

“The fact that you usually have to see any random doctor rather than your preferred one is also very detrimental to care.” Our team do try and prioritise continuity of care wherever possible and we agree there are huge benefits for clinicians and patients. Sometimes, it can be difficult because of the part-time working of some of our GPs or patients requiring specific times for appointments.   

Published: Jul 24, 2024