Litchdon Medical Centre

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1 Friends & Family Survey We are taking part in the national Friends and Family Test where you can give us feedback anytime and as often as you like about the surgery by answering two simple questions either by completing a form in surgery or online on our website. Your feedback is anonymous and will help us to understand what you feel about the surgery and where we can improve services. Thank you in advance for your contributions. Surgery Newsletter Welcome Welcome to the Winter edition of our newsletter, we hope you will find the information provided useful. This feature includes news on our CQC Assessment results, along with general updates from throughout the practice. If you have any suggestions please do let us know! Best wishes on the retirement of Dr Brian Malcolm who retires on the 31st December after 30 years and Josie Hillson, Medical Secretary who retires on the 7th January after 50 years at Litchdon. Mission Unbreakable In aid of North Devon Hospice A number of staff took up the challenge of participating in the North Devon Hospice s Mission Unbreakable on the Sunday 1st November. The challenge which was a 10km assault course including a number of obstacles to name but a few a Tractor Pull, Sheep Dip, Commando Jump, Hay Hurdles, Monkey Bars & an Ice Bath! Team Litchdon stuck together all the way through and helped raise the grand total of 2193 for a great local charity! We re on the Web!

2 Message from Dr Simon Jones, Executive Partner You may have seen in the North Devon Journal that Litchdon achieved a ranking of outstanding in a recent CQC visit. This was a very in-depth NHS check performed by a total of 5 inspectors. In addition to spending a whole day with us, they also looked at a large amount of background information before and after the visit and spoke to a number of patients to get feed back. We are delighted to say that we were awarded outstanding across the board. Everyone at Litchdon has worked incredibly hard to achieve such a good result- which has only been awarded to 3% of practices in the country so far. Litchdon were also in the Journal for the success of 15 staff members in the recent North Devon Hospice Mission Unbreakable. This was a 10 km assault course on Exmoor with activities ranging from being submerged in rivers, to climbing, shooting (with paint ball guns!) and jumping over fire and through skips of ice! We raised 2193 for the Hospice which was a great effort. Dr Brian Malcolm is hanging his stethoscope up after 30 years at Litchdon. He will be sorely missed by many people in Barnstaple, and has dedicated his working life to the practice. We are lucky to have Dr. Emily Marsh to replace him. She is a Park School graduate who went on to do her medical training at Birmingham before returning to North Devon. Dr Hazel Warner and Dr Lucy Dallimore also went to school in Barnstaple so we are developing a very local team! We have just registered for a green and sustainable practice scheme and are one of the first practices nationwide to be involved with this. On behalf of everyone at Litchdon I wish you a relaxing festive season and a healthy Dr Simon Jones. Surgery Newsletter More Mission Unbreakable Action Shots!

3 CQC Assessment July 2015 We are delighted to be rated as an outstanding practice by the CQC. This recognises that as a Practice we always do our best to put safety and quality first, whilst offering as friendly and helpful a service as we can. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our patients and all our great staff who help to make Litchdon the Practice that it is. To see our report in more detail please visit We re on the Web!

4 Being more Green is committed to developing sustainable healthcare within North Devon. We have recently conducted our first green committee meeting with contributions from both clinical and non-clinical members of staff as well as a representative from the community the aim being to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable. We discussed a range of ideas that covered minor personal day to day changes that each of us can make such as switching off lights and computers when they are not in use, to more far reaching changes in practice infrastructure. There has been both local and national interest in the project. The committee intends to meet quarterly to discuss how we can evolve present healthcare delivery into a more sustainable service. We will also review the success of any changes already made and see if they can be improved further. In fact, we have already embraced a number of environmentally friendly practices such as identifying all recyclable waste, internal lighting with LED light sources, and where possible purchasing products such as stationary from local suppliers to lower our carbon foot print. Another major change that you may recently have noticed is the use of our new patient messaging system using text & telephone voice messages. This enabled us to invite the majority of our patients for their annual flu injection without using reams of paper. This saved 4000 letters and envelopes! Some of the other topics that we discussed included the potential installation of solar panels at Litchdon if it is demonstrated that they enhance our energy performance, ensuring that the practice is fully insulated throughout to conserve heat especially with winter in mind, encouraging staff to cycle to work by endorsing the national Ride to Work scheme and making enquiries regarding the existence of charities that would be able to donate unwanted and unused medicines to countries that could use them. We will keep you fully updated with any changes we implement but if you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to the practice manager at D-CCG.AdminLitchdon@nhs.net.

5 Contact Details Have we got your up to date contact details? We are using a new messaging system to help us contact you. This will include inviting you in for things such as flu clinics or other one off clinics as appropriate. We will also use it to remind you about appointment dates and times ( to help us reduce the number of appointments that are wasted due to patients not attending). To help us please make sure we have all your up to date contact details including landline telephone number, mobile number and address. Staff Changes We have two new Healthcare Assistants/Phlebotomists who have joined us, we would like to welcome both Jackie & Dawn to the team. Caradoc Practice of the Year award Jayne & Tina our specialist Diabetes Nurse s were shortlisted for the Caradoc Practice of the Year award. They were entered in to the competition by Sharon our practice manager for the Pre Diabetes education group sessions they both run in the practice. The judging panel were impressed & awarded our entry as Highly Commended & we won some vouchers to spend on new medical equipment! Well done Jayne & Tina! Shingles Vaccine Shingles is an infection of a nerve and the skin around it. It is caused by a reactivation of the chickenpox virus. About 1in 4 people will develop shingles in their lifetime, as we get older we are much more likely to develop shingles. The vaccine reduces the chance of you developing shingles & even if you do develop shingles the disease is likely to affect you less severely. If you were born between: 02/09/ /09/ /09/ /09/ /09/ /09/1935 You are eligible for a Shingles Vaccine, to book a appointment speak to a member of reception. More info at Useful Telephone Numbers NHS North Devon District Hospital Devon County Social Services: Adults Children Mental Health Barnstaple Health Centre Genito Urinary Clinic (VD/HIV) Samaritans Age Concern Quay Centre Drug Problems Alcohol Problems Cruse Bereavement Help Patient Advice & Liason Service Litchdon House (Dermatology) Police non emergency 101 Flu Vaccine It is not to late to have a Flu vaccine! If you are over 65, have a child aged 5 or 6, a chronic disease or you are pregnant & wish to have the vaccine please contact the surgery to make an appointment with the Nurses.

6 Surgery News / Updates Opening Times Monday to Friday: Doors open: 08.15am to 6.00pmWe are currently offering a number of evening appointments with a doctor or nurse on a Wednesday and Thursday evening. Please contact our Helpdesk Receptionist for further details. Repeat Prescriptions Please allow a minimum of 3 working days (72 hours) for your prescription to be processed. To avoid error and the risk of mistakes, we do not accept repeat prescription requests over the telephone. Out of Hours Service For urgent medical attention (when the surgery is closed) please telephone the surgery number on Your call will automatically be re directed to NHS 111, or you can call 111 directly this is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Calls are free from landlines and mobile phones. New Patients We welcome new patients joining the Practice. When you register, you will be asked to complete a registration form and a health questionnaire. Our doctors will look forward to meeting you. Surgery online access Did you know On-line Access is available for booking appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions & looking at your medication history and allergies? To register for online access all you need to do is come in to the surgery with a form of photographic ID and speak to reception who can print you off a username & password along with some instructions of how to use the online access. Please note this service is only available to persons aged over 16 years. Please provide us with your address as another form of contact for the surgery. Patient Participation Group (PPG) The patient participation group is one of 100 s of PPGs across the country which work independently but collaboratively with the surgery to improve services to patients. The PPG held their Annual General Meeting in June and Voted in Rob Lockyer as Chairman and Rosie Haworth-Booth as Secretary. The next meeting will be on Wednesday the 16th March 2016, if you wish to attend please contact Rob. We are interested in hearing about your experiences of the surgery & welcome your ideas on how things may be done better or what you may think we may be doing wrong and of course compliments are always welcome. Contacting us: By to litchdonppg@yahoo.co.uk By telephone: By website: litchdonpatientsgroup.co.uk Or leave a message (in a sealed envelope) at reception in the surgery addressed to Litchdon Patients Group.