Newsletter Spring 2010 - DOC

							                                 Swadlincote Surgery
                                   www.swadlincote.gpsurgery.net




                            Newsletter - Spring 2010

Inside this issue:                   Out of Hours Medical Services
Headlines:                           Walk-in Centre at Swadlincote Clinic
Out of Hours Medical Services        Opening hours: 6.30 pm – 10.30 pm weekdays
                                                    9.00 am – 10.30 pm weekends and bank holidays
Wasted Appointments
                                     A walk-in service is available at Swadlincote Clinic, Civic Way,
Patient Contact Details
                                     Swadlincote. No appointment is necessary and there is no need to
Hay Fever                            telephone first.
Swadlincote Surgery News:            Derbyshire Health United Services
Doctor news                          Outside of the above times, if you are unable to attend the walk-in
                                     clinic or if you require telephone advice, please contact Derbyshire
Practice participation group
                                     Health United (DHU) by calling:
Training practice
                                                                  0844 412 2239
Premises improvements
                                     DHU services are available whenever Swadlincote Surgery is closed.
Understanding Our Services:          Typically this is from 6.30pm to 8.00am on weekdays, and all day on
                                     weekends and bank holidays.
Our Doctors – who’s who?
                                     A call handler will take your call and ask you for the following
Practice Boundary
                                     information:
                                            The phone number that you are calling from
       Online Services                      The patient's date of birth and home address
                                            The patient's registered GP surgery and the name of their GP
   Did you know that you can                The patient's symptoms
  book GP appointments and
  request repeat prescriptions       At the end of your call you will be advised what is the most
            online?                  appropriate course of action. This could be:
    You just need to fill in a              Health advice over the phone
      registration form.                    An appointment at a treatment centre
                                            A visit to your home by the service
   (Forms are available from
 reception and on our website)              To visit your GP when they are next open
                                            Advice to attend your nearest Accident and Emergency (A&E)
                                             department
                                            Transfer to the ambulance service
 Extended Hours Surgeries
                                     Overnight, patients are seen at the Duffield Road Clinic, Duffield Road
   We currently hold extended        Derby by appointment only.
    hours GP surgeries every
    Saturday morning and on
alternate Monday and Thursday        Wasted Appointments
           evenings
                                     During December, January and February 221 patients failed to attend
    Appointments for these
                                     their appointments. This wasted 37 hours of doctor and nurse
  surgeries can be booked in
                                     consulting time.
           advance
                                     To put that in perspective, it is equivalent to a doctor losing an entire
We hope that by offering these
                                     morning of appointments (18) every single week!
 appointment times we will be
  helping patients who work          These wasted appointments could have been used by other patients.
during normal surgery hours to
                                     PLEASE be considerate and cancel an appointment if you are unable
            attend
                                     to attend.

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Patient Contact Details
Do we have your current contact details?
It is vital that we have up-to-date full contact details for all of our patients. ‘Up-date forms’ are available at
reception and can also be printed off from our website.
Do we have your current mobile phone number?
It is important that we have current phone numbers for all of our patients. This allows us to contact you with
results and to arrange/change appointments etc. If you have a mobile phone please remember to keep us
up-to-date with changes to that number as well as to your landline.
Do we have your email address?
Please let us have your email address so that we can send you our newsletters by email. Either complete a
‘patient details update form’ or simply send an email entitled ‘newsletter’ to:
                                dco-pct.WebsiteSwadlincoteSurgery@nhs.net

Hay Fever
As the hay fever season approaches it is worth remembering that effective treatments are available, without
prescription, from pharmacies at LESS than the price of a prescription. Remember that tree pollen can
become a problem as early as April. Simple measures to reduce pollen exposure, when the pollen count is
high, are also effective and are worth a try. These include:
       Stay indoors as much as possible, and keep windows and doors shut
       Avoid cutting grass, large grassy places, and camping
       Shower and wash your hair after being outdoors, especially after going to the countryside
       Wear wrap-around sunglasses when your are outside
       Keep car windows closed, and consider buying a pollen filter for the air vents in your car. These
        should be changed at every service
       Avoid drying your clothes and bedding outside on a washing line
       Smear vaseline around the inside of your nostrils to trap pollen and reduce the amount being inhaled

Swadlincote Surgery News
Doctor News
Dr Lang has returned form maternity leave and works at the surgery on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays
Practice Participation Group
The practice is in the early stages of setting up a Practice Participation Group.
What is a Practice Participation Group?
Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) are not new. They were first formed in 1972 and now roughly one in
three GP surgeries has a PPG.
PPG’s tend to be set up by the practice but, over time, they are normally run by the patients. It is usual that a
GP and practice staff will be involved in the group.
PPG’s are not set up to be a “forum for complaints”, but are a way that patients can advise the practice on
what matters most to them, and to identify solutions to problems.
Are you interested in being a member of our PPG?
If so please telephone the surgery and ask to speak to the Practice Manager for more information.
Training Practice
We are a GP training practice as part of the Derby Vocational Training Scheme. Dr Patton and Dr
Hendriksen are both accredited GP trainers and we now usually have two GP Registrars working with us at
the surgery. You may therefore be offered an appointment with a GP registrar. GP registrars are fully
qualified doctors who are in the process of undertaking specialist training in general practice. Our current GP
registrars are Dr Kate Morton and Dr Mahya Mirfattahi. In April they will move on to the next stage of their
training and we will be joined by Dr Charmaine Bird.
Premises Improvements
We are currently in the process of an extensive program of redecoration and refurbishment throughout the
surgery. So far we have added 3 new consulting rooms and have redecorated most of the existing
consulting rooms and the main corridor.


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Understanding Our Services

The Doctors at Swadlincote Surgery
There are usually 10 doctors working at Swadlincote Surgery – 8 partners and 2 GP Registrars. The trainees
are here for between 4 and 12 months at a time.
The Partners:

Name                         Male /      When they work at                  Qualifications               Room
                             Female      Swadlincote Surgery

Dr D Calvert                 Female      Mon, Tues, Fri                     B Med Sci, BM BS                 8

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Additional Qualifications    Diploma of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care
                             Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
                             Responsible for the practice’s website and newsletters

Dr A Davidson                Male        Mon, Tues, Weds, Fri               BSc, B Med Sci, BM BS            10

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Additional Qualifications    Minor Surgery

Dr R Follows                 Male        Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri        MB ChB (Hons)                    C

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Additional Qualifications    Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
                             Coil Fitting, Minor Surgery, Joint Injections, Travel Health, Palliative Care
                             Chairman of the local Practice Based Commissioning Group
                             Executive & Clinical Lead for the South Derbyshire Unique Care Project
                             Chairman of the South Derbyshire Stroke Working Group

Dr A Foster                  Male        Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri        BSc, BM BS                       7

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Diploma of Practical Dermatology
Additional Qualifications    Minor Surgery, Cryocautery, Joint Injections

Dr D Hendriksen              Male        Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri              BSc, FIA, B Med Sci,             5
                                                                            BM BS

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Additional Qualifications    Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
                             Diploma of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care
                             Minor Surgery, Joint Injections
                             GP Trainer with Derby Vocational Training Scheme for General Practice

Dr H Lang                    Female      Weds, Thurs, Fri                   MB ChB                           9

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Additional Qualifications    Diploma of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care
                             Coil fitting

Dr K Patton                  Male        Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri        BSc, MB BS                       B

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Additional Qualifications    Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
                             Diploma of Therapeutics
                             Minor Surgery, Joint Injections
                             GP Trainer with Derby Vocational Training Scheme for General Practice

Dr R Trotter                 Male        Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri        MB ChB                           6

Interests/ Outside Roles /   Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Additional Qualifications    Minor Surgery, Joint Injections

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The GP Registrars:

Name                          Male / Female      Start / Finish Dates                                  Room

Dr M Mirfattahi               Female             December 09 – April 2010                                A

Dr K Morton                   Female             December 09 – April 2010                                 4

Dr C Bird                     Female             April 2010 – August 2010                                 4




Swadlincote Surgery Practice Boundary
We have an open list and are able to accept requests for registration from patients living in or moving to the
practice area.
You can register by bringing along your NHS medical card or completing a form available from reception.
We ask all new patients to complete a health questionnaire and to attend a health check with a member of
the practice nursing team.
We have recently reviewed and extended our practice boundary as shown below:




Please note that if you are already registered with us and live just outside the current practice boundary you
will not be required to change surgeries. Current patients who move from within our boundary to an address
outside it will be required to re-register with a more local surgery.




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