September is not far away now and it’s when we start booking our Seasonal Flu Vaccination Clinics. You can receive the vaccination if you are over 65 years old or are in a medical At Risk group. We are also now vaccinating 2, 3 and 4 year olds with a nasal flu vaccination.
In September please book your appointment On-Line using the Patient Access system or contact reception.
Some facts about general practice:
General Practice in this country is widely admired throughout the world and is seen to deliver high quality services, available to all, irrespective of their ability to pay, cost effective and trusted by patients.
There are 40,000 GPs in the UK and the average GP looks after about 1,700 patients.
In 2004 there were 240,000,000 consultations with GPs and this rose to 340,000,000 in 2013, which means about 1,000,000 patients, consult with a GP each day.
On average a GP will see about 40 – 45 patients per day.
General Practice received about 8% of the NHS budget yet accounts for 90% of all the patient contacts.
Practices are funded between £60 – £80 per patient per year so less than £2 per person per week.
On the 19th May 2014 Wessex LMCs issued a Press Release, commenting on a survey of GP recruitment and retention. These results were obtained by surveying individual GPs.
This survey made grim reading and has serious implications for the provision of GP services in the Wessex region.
Full details can be found at:
https://www.wessexlmcs.com/gprecruitmentcrisis
In addition to the survey of GPs, the LMC has also surveyed Practice Managers to understand the problems that Practices face in relation to the recruitment and retention of GPs, Practice Managers and Practice Nurses.
There are 480 Practices in the Wessex region and 275 (57%) Practice Managers responded to the survey about GPs and Nurses and 342 (71%) about Practice Managers.
The key findings were:
Dr Nigel Watson, GP in the New Forest and Chief Executive of Wessex Local Medical Committees said “this survey was no surprise following on closely from last weeks result and they should be a wake up call to all.
For many practices the problem of recruitment goes beyond just GPs.
Practice Managers have been saying for sometime that their job has become impossible, with more bureaucracy, rising workload and reduced funding it is therefore no surprise that in the next 12 months over 20% of Practice Managers plan to leave the profession or reduce their commitment.
Practice Nurses have become increasingly important to help deliver a comprehensive service within general practice yet it seems increasingly difficult to recruit Nurses and this compounds the problems with GP recruitment and retention.
General Practice is facing the greatest challenge in a generation. Solutions need to be found urgently, if not the result would be unthinkable.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Chair of the BMAs GP committee said:
” GP practices in Wessex, like many across the country, are under relentless pressure from rising patient demand from an ageing population, falling resources and workload being moved from hospitals into the community.
” This survey provides further evidence that GP practices are struggling to recruit the vital staff they need to deliver care to patients in this difficult climate. Without an adequate workforce of GPs, nurses and other healthcare professionals it will not be possible for GP practices to provide enough appointments and services to meet the sheer volume of patients coming through the surgerys doors.
“Patients are getting understandably frustrated by this situation, which is why the BMA has launched the “Your GP Cares campaign calling on the government to begin a programme of long term, sustained investment in general practice. Only by facing up to the problems facing GP services will patients get the quality of care that they deserve.”
The finding support evidence nationally from surveys undertaken by the British Medical Association and the current campaign to support general practice:
The Practice has had a Patient Participation Group for over four years now and values the imput it receives.
Please click on the link below to read more about the group and see our 13/14 Year End Report and Survey Summary.
Our local services are commissioned by the North East Hampshire and Farnham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). For further information please click on the link below to their web site.
To access the Patient Access system you will need a log in. Once you have a log in you can book and cancel appointments, order repeat medication and see your medicaion, allergies and vaccinations On-Line 24 hours a day.
You can request a log in by following this link: https://patient.emisaccess.co.uk or asking the reception team to register you for Patient Access. Once you are on the registration web site, click on the left-hand green ‘Register’ button to complete your registration. It will take approximately one working day for the system to update with your new log-in to enable you to order medication. It will allow you to book an appointment immediately.
Thank you.