The Medical Centre Patient Participation Group – Update

Living a Healthier Life Style www.oneyoukent.org.uk

The One You Kent website www.oneyoukent.org.uk also provides a comprehensiveselection of health and fitness information as well as the opportunity to book a session with a One You advisor for help in setting achievable health goals. This includesinformation about stopping smoking and support reducing alcohol intake, advice for maintaining a healthy weight as well as advice on a range of lifestyle issues.

One You is the first campaign in England to target adults in midlife in a holistic way and it will encompass all our adult health brands from now on. It follows our other successful holistic campaign, Change4Life, which will continue to be aimed at children and families. The overall need is to support people in taking steps to reduce their risk of developing avoidable conditions.

Currently 42% of adults in midlife are living with at least one long-term health condition and the NHS spends a minimum of £11bn a year on treating preventable illnesses caused by the effects of poor diet,

inactivity, smoking and drinking alcohol.

Look out in the Surgeries for contact details and further information.

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Oct 2018

The Medical Centre - Patient Participation Group

Newsletterwww.themedicalcentregroup.co.uk

Are you a Carer? Important Dates:

The next Patient Participation Group meeting will be on the…17th January 2019 at Shepway

Surgery starting at 6pm……… everyone is welcome to come along and join us.

Influenza 2018

Our flu campaign started on the 17th September 2018 for most with the exception of children receiving thenasal spray, which will arrive in October.

Please book your appointments early- we are very flexible in times and days of our clinics.

This year we will be offering the vaccine to;

ALL patients over the age of 65 years Patients from 6 months-65years in clinical risk groups, i.e diabetic, heart, respiratory and other long term conditions

including immunosuppressant medication patients. Pregnant patients Children born between 1/9/2014 and 31/8/2016 aged 2-3 Long stay residential home patients Carers

If you have any queries regarding eligibility please speak to a member of staff.

MMR

There are serious outbreaks of this disease in Europe, Africa, the middle East Asia and the Americas.

The UK has a seen as significant increase in confirmed cases within the last six months predominately in London and the South East.

Measles is spread by airborne/ droplet infection and is highly contagious, and can lead to death.

Please do check that you are covered. 2 doses of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine are required to obtainimmunity spread over the months.

Patients donate £300 to Surgery allowing us to purchaseSpecialist scales

Both Dr. Singh and the Patient Group are extremely grateful for a gift of £300 fromPatients, (who wish to remain anonymous) and are relatively new to the Practice. Themoney will be used towards the purchase of equipment in the Surgery, which in their words “in recognition of the service they have received”.

The Surgery will be purchasing two sets of specialist scales with the money;one for each surgery.

Who to See?

When calling the Surgery for an appointment, who is it you really need to see?

Not necessarily a Doctor. Traditionally Patients did not have a choice is the past as it was only a Doctor who was available.Often there wasn’t even a Receptionist, you just sat and waited your turn. Things are very different today.

These days there are many highly qualified Clinicians such as Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Practice Nurses and Healthcare Assistants working in a progressive Surgery such as ours, who are more than capable of helping with your medical needs. You can see who and how many by clicking onto the website under @Practice Staff’.

It may also be an option to direct to a Pharmacist.

The receptionists, whether answering the phone or speaking directly, will in future ask a number of questions to help direct Patients to the support they need first time. They are not being intrusive and have been trained in this process which is being rolled out in every Practice throughout the Country.

We are here for you for longer!We recognize that many of our patients work or are restricted to time. The

Surgery is now open lunchtimes between 1300-1400 to allow patients to access reception.

Bowel cancer screeningBowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK. The aim of the Bowel Screening Programme is to discover bowel cancer at an early stage, before symptoms have a chance to develop. The sooner it’s caught, the easier it is to treat and treatment is more likely to be successful.

Screening is a way of testing healthy people to see if they show any early signs of cancer.Men and women from the age of 60 are eligible. This involves a simple test that you carry out in your own home. We encourage you to consider doing this screening test, which you then send off in the envelope for analysis.

If you have not received your screening pack or wish to have another sent out to you, phone the bowel screening helpline on 0800 707 6060.

On-line services: you can book GP appointments online wherever you are!