Summer/Autumn 2006

Clinical Issues

Are you between 45 & 64?

We wish to provide the best possible health care and on reviewing your records we note that we do not hold recent basic health details for some of you. When you come in for a doctor’s or nurse’s appointment a receptionist will ask you to complete a questionnaire and a Health Care Assistant or trained receptionist will check your height, weight and blood pressure.

Immunisation programme

Proposed changes in the childhood immunisation programme will finally take place from September after delays due to supply problems. The revised schedule will be as follows:
2 months- Diptheria Tetanus Pertussis Polio Haemophilius & Influenza B (DTaP/IPV/Hib) & Pneumococcal conjugate Vaccine (PCV)
3 months- DTaP/IPV/Hib & Men C 4 months- DTaP/IPV/Hib & PCV & Men C
12 months-Hib & Men C
13 months- MMR & PCV.
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) protects children against diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis caused by pneumococcal bacteria infection. Booster doses of Men C and Hib vaccines at 13 months maintain protection against these infections beyond infancy. All children under 2 will be included in the new programme, and there will be a catch up programme for those who have finished their first course of immunisations.

Travel

International travel is becoming more common. Whether travelling to a Mediterranean beach or going to the other side of the world, using a sunscreen is very important to prevent skin cancer.

Please remember the following tips for your travels:

• Apply a sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 15 or more, remembering to reapply often.
• Don't forget to cream hands, feet, ears and lips.
• Avoid being in the sun between 11a.m. and 3 p.m.
• Keep babies out of the sun.
• Wear sunglasses and a hat.

Staff News

Baby boom!

Congratulations to Dr Hayley Hannah on the birth of her first baby, Hannah in April, followed by Dr Morag Reid’s second baby Rachel in May and Dr Sayers second baby Jonathan born in July. We look forward to lots of visits from the wee ones (and their mums!). Saying goodbye to the practice is Dr Nikki Smithson who has moved to Slateford Health Centre, following the completion of her Registrar year and Nikki Wraight, one of our district nurses, who is going back to university to further her nursing qualifications. Finally we say goodbye to Lesley Horn, our Health Visitor, who has been here for twenty seven years and retires at the end of August. We wish them all the best and they will all be missed at the Health Centre by both patients and staff alike.

Foundation Doctor

We are delighted to welcome Dr Fiona Ryan to the practice as our first attached Foundation Doctor. This is a relatively new arrangement whereby doctors in their second year of training after qualifying can spend four months attached to a GP practice to gain experience in this field. We feel that this is a very positive development, because it will hopefully lead to a better understanding of general practice by young doctors, whether they intend to become GPs or to specialise later in their careers. During the year we will have three attached doctors, and they will be supervised and mentored by Dr Parker, or one of his colleagues when he is absent.

Appointments

Most of you will realise that we now have different health professionals working in the practice that you can see by appointment. There are the Practice Nurses and GPs of course, but we have Linda McMillan a health care assistant who can check blood pressure if you are not on medication, take bloods and carry out checks on people over 65 and newly registering patients. Because not all the professionals have skills in all areas we need to make sure that you do not end up seeing the wrong person. For instance, the practice nurses give advice on foreign travel whereas the GPs do not routinely do this. Some of the nurses have further training in the management of chronic diseases such as asthma or diabetes, but not all of them in each area.
In order not to waste your time and to maximise the effectiveness of the appointments that are available, the reception team are asking you for some basic information about the nature of your problem when you phone or call in to ask for an appointment. This is not out of nosiness and they are fully trained to treat all information in the strictest confidence. This will allow them to advise you which health professional would be the most appropriate person to see and to give you the earliest suitable appointment. Of course you do not need to divulge the nature of your problem, but please bear with us if you have to wait a few days for this appointment with a particular doctor or nurse.
Ideally, help us to help you by giving the receptionists a brief indication of what you want to discuss (it does not need to be a full story!) and they will do their best to help you.
We welcome any feedback you may have about how our systems work and are grateful for any constructive suggestions; all are carefully considered.