Newsletter: August 2024

 

Update on duty doctor triage / new telephone system / Digital front door

We appreciate it has been a difficult time during the merger of sites, with trying to obtain appointments and getting through on the telephone. The team at The Lewisham Care Partnership have listened and have been working hard to improve this, and it has taken us some time to pilot. 

A text was sent to every patient that had an up to date mobile telephone number with us to inform all of the above improvements, leaflets were handed out at reception and this information was also added to the website.

Progress:

  • New telephone system
  • Digital front door (staff will be at hand to guide you through navigating the NHS App, checking in, how to book an appointment etc. Urgent duty Triaging appointment system.
  • Patient Participation Forums (PPF ) are back up and running, and they have been working hard with us to support patients and staff.
  • Recruitment of GPs, Care Navigators, Call centre, Pharmacists, Nurses , HR , complaints, Social prescribers, Primary care operations and CQC compliance administrator.

Central Care navigation hub

Care navigators take calls at local sites from 8:00am to 10.00am, then all calls to all 5 sites go to this team. 

 

Global outage update Friday 19th July 2024

There is still a considerable backlog to get through following the global IT outage that took place on Friday 19 July 2024.

It was one of the toughest single days in recent times for our GPs due to the temporary loss of the EMIS patient record system, which meant booking appointments , viewing patients records, issuing prescriptions 
and total management of patients care extremely challenging. The IT outage was caused by a faulty update to CrowdStrike antivirus software, which crashed Microsoft systems. Please bear with us while we work 
through our back log.

 

Due to a recent cyber-attack on Synnovis, we cannot undertake any routine blood tests

There are also issues sending other diagnostic samples and receiving results. We understand this may cause distress and are awaiting further instructions. Please be patient, see our website for any updates.

 

NHS Reviews 2 Stars

In the context of NHS reviews, there appears to be a tendency for patients to write reviews on official NHS platforms primarily when they have complaints. Positive reviews are often shared directly with the practice or healthcare provider but may not be formally entered into the NHS review system. 

Month Positive Negative
January 2024 81% 12%
February 2024 76% 17%
March 2024 78% 11%
April 2024 69% 24%
May 2024 72% 20%

Friends and family

The "Friends and Family Test" (FFT) is a feedback tool used by the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom to gather patient and staff opinions about their healthcare experiences. Introduced in 2013, it asks whether people would recommend the services they received to their friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment. 

See our latest results

 

Patient participation Forum (PPF)

The PPF is for patients (who wish to take a more active part in developing local healthcare services) and practice staff to work together to share ideas, by helping patients to take more responsibility for their own health and improve the services offered at the Practice. It gives patients a say in how services are planned, developed and evaluated, by fostering a good working relationship with the practice staff and GPs.

The PPF seeks to improve communications through the practice website along with the use of notice boards and direct communications within the practice e.g. articles in the patient newsletters. This includes notifying patients how recent changes to NHS will affect services provided, letting practice staff know more about the level and standard of service they provide from a patient perspective and then deciding on the overall service priorities, helping patients understand more about their medical condition/problems including talks on individual topics, e.g. Diabetes and Heart Disease, and last but not least by providing information on help available and support groups and networks to improve the experience of attending the practice. 

Any patient can join the PPF, but the PPF is not there to deal with personal medical issues or individual patient complaints as there is already a well-established procedure to deal with these. By joining the PPF you can help the practice provide accessible and responsive services and you will be amongst the first to hear about news and updates. The PPF has a patient chair and vice chair who will be happy to liaise with you via email and feedback from the PPF will be available in the Practice waiting area and on the website.

Group of patients

However the PPF will only work if patients communicate with us, we have some ideas, but we need your input……

Meetings are quarterly and there is a yearly Annual General Meeting (AGM) of all TLCP PPFs

More about the PPF, how to join and forthcoming meeting dates

 

We wish a fond farewell to 

Dr T Singhrao and Dr Sinthu Kulendran

We would like to welcome to the team 

  • Dr James Fareden
  • Dr Helen Walker
  • Dr Emily Symington
  • Dr Sallahdeen Azeezatsal
  • Dr Victoria Cook
  • Dr Abiramy Eswaravel
  • Dr Alexander Victor
  • Dr Emily Black
  • Dr Nisha Prasad
 

Campaigns for next quarter

Cycle to Work

  • 1st August
  • UK’s biggest cycle commuting event.

Learn more about Cycle to Work Day

World breastfeeding awareness

  • 1st to 7th August 2024
  • The global campaign that aims to inform, anchor, engage and galvanise action on breastfeeding related issues

Learn more about World breastfeeding awareness

Blood Pressure

  • 9th to 15th September 2024
  • UK Encouraging adults to know their blood pressure numbers and take the necessary action to reach and maintain a healthy blood pressure.

Learn more about Blood Pressure

Sepsis Day

  • 13th September 2024
  • An opportunity for people worldwide to unite against sepsis.

Published: Jul 30, 2024