FESTIVE HOLIDAYS
Monday 26th December 2005	Closed
Tuesday 27th December 2005	Closed
Monday 2nd January 2006	Closed
Tuesday 3 rd January 2006	Closed

Patient Information

Disabled Access

Now that the lift has finally been fixed, we hope that people with mobility problems are able to come to their appointments more easily. We won’t be moving to a new building for years, but this doesn’t mean that this building can’t be adapted for disabled patients. So if there are any problems, or you have any suggestions, we would like to hear from you!

CHRISTMAS SONG ANAGRAMS - can you guess?

1. Bells Lens Jig
2. Calms this star
3. Freshen tilt leo
4. This knee grew

Christmas 2005

Patient Services Information

Hall 4 Report

The Hall 4 Report ‘Health for all children’ became NHS Lothian policy on October 31st. Details of implementation have yet to be worked out but there are changes in the service offered to families with children under 5 years. The routine medical and developmental check at 6-8 weeks continues but the medical/developmental checks at 8-9 months and 3 ¼ years are withdrawn, despite these pages remaining in some red books/parent held records. The Health Visitor contribution continues as before for all families with children under 6 months, for immunisations and in response to any concerns or requests for advice and home or surgery consultations. The Green Practice would like to emphasise its commitment to support for all children and their families.

Clinical Issues

Pandemic Flu – please note that you can gain information on this subject from the following websites: (This is the Scottish Executive website or World Health Organisation.

May we take this opportunity to wish all our patients a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for 2006

Patient Satisfaction Survey Feedback

We would like to thank everyone who took part in this year’s patient satisfaction survey. We found the feedback very helpful, and the whole team discussed the results and have produced the following action plan.

1. We have written to the estates manager expressing our dissatisfaction with the current level of maintenance of the building, and stating our intention to withhold maintenance payments until the situation improves.
2. We have taken steps to ensure that local business users do not fill the few parking spaces available for patients.
3. We have made all staff aware of the ventilation problems in the waiting area, and reminded them to switch on the air conditioning on warm days. Patients may also ask at the desk for the air conditioning to be activated if they are too warm.
4. We will continue to check the magazines in the waiting area on a daily basis and discard any that are more than 6 months old.
5. We have a number of efficient options available for ordering repeat prescriptions, but it was apparent from the feedback that some patients are unaware of this. We will explore the use of a TV/visual messaging board in the waiting area giving information on this and other issues. Please remember that you can order prescriptions through our website, and you are still able to collect prescriptions throughout the day, including the 1.00pm to 2.00pm lunch period.
6. We were disappointed that a significant number of patients felt they were kept waiting before being seen at their appointment. At times this may be unavoidable e.g. where emergencies occur or where complex problems are presented that require longer than the 10 minutes slot to deal with them. However we want to keep waiting times to a minimum, and we intend to look into the feasibility of running a new appointment system where patients are asked at the time of booking whether they would like a short or long appointment. We do not yet know whether it will be possible to introduce such a system, but we are aware that it has been successful in helping doctors run to time in some other practices. We will give notice of any change we make in our newsletter and on the website.
7. Some patients expressed concern that there was no longer a Saturday morning surgery, and expressed a desire for more evening and weekend appointments. This is perhaps not surprising as it is only a year since the system changed and the GPs opted out of all out of hours provision. We would expect that as patients become more familiar with the new NHS 24 system, and have had the opportunity to use it, they will be reassured that it is effective and there is no need for their own GP to be available at these times. As a practice we feel the removal of GP responsibility to provide out of hours care for patients has been a very positive step, leaving GPs less tired and stressed and more able to attend to the increasing demands of their daytime workload. This should lead to significant benefits for patients and professionals alike.

We will carry out a further satisfaction survey in one years time, and thank you once again for your valuable feedback.