You said—We did (Spring 2018 Newsletter)
1. Can we receive the newsletters electronically?
If you would like to receive an electronic copy, please visit our website at www.collinghammedicalcentre.co.uk
Select “Newsletters” (under Further Information) and click on the “sign up here” link.
Enter your name and email address and you will be added to our mailing list to receive future newsletters directly into your email inbox. Or, you can continue to pick up a copy from the usual distribution points.
2. In addition to being able to cancel your appointment by phone, in person or online, patients felt it would be useful to text.
We now offer patients the ability to text the surgery to cancel appointments.
At this current moment in time we can only accept requests to cancel appointments by text, all other queries and requests (ie booking appointments, ordering repeat medications) must be made by telephone or in person.
If you need to cancel your appointment, text
07498 083528. We are unable to accept telephone calls to this number.
Please remember to include your name and date of birth so that we can quickly identify who the message.
3. A number of you have asked if there will be Wi-Fi available following NHS England's initiative
| As a rural location, we are having some bandwidth issues. Public Wi-Fi is available, speeds are slow and the NHS IT guys are liaising with the networks to improve the speed. |  |
4. Please improve access to GP, same day acute problems & nurse appointments.
We have redesigned the skillset of the team to meet todays’ healthcare needs.
Our needs constantly change and services adapt. New team members are
- GP - Dr Arize Agunwa whilst Dr Walker on Maternity Leave
- Practice Nurse, Jo
- Specialist Respiratory Nurse, Debbie
- Phlebotomist, Dee
5. Can we have more weekend & evening appointments—once funding became available in this locality
Lombard Medical Centre and Collingham Medical Centre are working in partnership to offer additional evening GP appointments as well as Saturday morning appointments. These appointments are available to Newark residents who are registered with a GP Practice in Newark.
Evening appointments are available on Mondays at Collingham and Tuesday to Friday 6.30pm – 8.00pm at Lombard Medical Centre. Saturday morning appointments will be available on a rota basis. Please note that these appointments are for non-emergencies and are pre-bookable only. For further information please contact our reception staff. |  |
You said—We did (Autumn 2018 Newsletter)
6. Why do the letters I receive from Collingham Medical Centre look like circulars or junk mail?
The envelope may look a little different, now we use unique mail management for some of our letter printing and mailing needs. This allows us to reduce the time we invest in this process and the costs so that we can reinvest in clinical time.
Docmail uses the NHS IG recommended 256 bit RSA encrytion for sending the letter image to their printer.
The standard delivery of letters remains unchanged as Royal Mail Standard Class (2-3 days).
Docmail is environmentally friendly too, accredited to FCS (Forest Stewardship Council).
7. Why do team members not put their names on the bottom of the letter?
As most of the NHS team work long days but not 5 days a week (they can work 40 hrs over 3-4 days due to our opening hours).
- Any Patient Care Adviser (PCA) can support a follow-up query
- Any Nurses can support a vaccination query following a patient receiving a letter
We had made the decision to allow flexibility in order that a patient does not feel that only the team member who has signed the letter can answer the query. We can see the team member who generated the letter to ensure that there is accountability in your care.
That said, a number of patients recently have not been happy with this approach and suggested we consider re-instating a personal signatory. We now ensure there is a named individual on each letter for your reference.
You said—We did (Winter 2018 Newsletter)
8. How do I know which is the right service, it’s confusing ?”
9. How do I care for a Feverish Child?
You said—We did (Spring 2019 Newsletter)
10. What's happening at the Collingham Medical Centre, what are all these different roles?
The Collingham Medical Centre presented to an open forum on Wednesday, 20 March 2019 at the Collingham Memorial Hall. A summary of the event has been written by our PPG and can be found on the practice website. We answered this and many other questions. The Q&A from the evening can also be found on the website.
The clinical skills at Collingham Medical Centre have increased to be the home of 10 prescribing roles - 4 GPs, 2 Clinical Practitioners, 1 Advance Nurse Practitioner, Specialist Nurses and a Clinical Pharmacist. It is the combination of these clinical skills that helped the practice deliver over 40,000 appointments in 2018. A summary of the role descriptions can be found on the website and in our practice leaflet.
Please liaise with the Patient Care Advisors (PCA) on the phone or at the Centre to signpost you to help. It may be that we can pose your question to a clinician without the need for you to invest time in an appointment.
Public Meeting – 20.03.19
Questions & Answers
- Where will the Health Pod be placed? Might the best place be in the Pharmacy? – Discussed in presentation by Julie Reid.
- How many GP’s were there in 2001 for 5000 patients? How many now? And support staff then and now? – In 2001 there were 3.75 WTE GP’s. Today we have 3.0 WTE GP’s, but have a total of 9 senior clinicians, which include Clinical Practitioners, Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Pharmacist.
- In emergencies when an ambulance has been called, do we get any information from the hospital? – Yes the ambulance service sends us information, and we also receive an admission slip from Accident & Emergency/Minor Injuries, as well as a discharge summary following an inpatient stay, which includes information on treatment received and where you have been discharged to.
- Following my hip replacement operation in Kings Mill last year I agreed to particate in ‘Flo’ follow up process. Will it be adopted locally and please could someone tell us more about it. - Not sure how the hospital use Flo, however in Primary Care we use Flo text service for blood pressure monitoring.
- Have “high” levels for Type 2 diabetics changed? – not sure what is meant by “high” levels, however a couple of years ago the monitoring did change from % to HBA1C.