Newsletter
Spring – Summer 2022

Practice Survey

The practice has commissioned CFEP to conduct a patient satisfaction survey – the widely recognised Improving Practice Questionnaire.

Once all the responses have been collated and processed by the service, we will have data for the practice benchmarked against local and national scores. These results will then be discussed with the whole team for learning, and we will then schedule a Patient Participation Group meeting for patient input.

Staff update

As some of you may already be aware, Dr Alex Moghissi has retired fully from the practice now. Dr. Eleana Bibb is also leaving us, after many years of service here. We hope you will join us in wishing them both the best for the future. Nurse Laura has gone on maternity leave, and Dr. Anissa Patel will be returning shortly from hers. Patients will now be familiar with relatively new faces, Kat, and Oscar in Reception. We also have Simone coming on board as assistant practice manager, as Nilofer is moving on to pastures new.

Patient Participation

The Patient Participation Group is struggling. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic was an obstacle – as many patients did not feel comfortable with online meetings. Whilst there have been a few die-hards who have attended, it would really benefit from more interest.

Generally made up of a group of volunteer patients, a practice administrator, and one (or more) of the GPs from the practice, patient participation groups meet on a regular basis to discuss the services on offer, and how improvements can be made for the benefit of patients and the practice.

The way the NHS works is subject to quite rapid change; it can only be helpful if patients have a better idea of how local, and national, services are evolving. We hope the opportunity to review the Survey report will be a good opportunity for more patients to get involved

e-Consults

The practice has been evolving new ways to assist patients over the last couple of years; many of you will have had telephone or even video consultations. These have proven vital in the time of COVID, but have also been useful as a new way to manage routine issues. Alongside these is the e-Consult. This is a great way to get routine clinical or administrative help, and we encourage patients to use this pathway, which is available during practice hours, via our website.

We encourage all patients to sign up for online services via the NHS App as this allows patients access to electronic prescription requests, aspects of their medical records, and up-to-date medical information too.

LARC at SPMC

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer this at Holborn for the time being.

Until we can arrange for the provision of this service here, we are pleased to be able to refer our patients over to the Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) Clinic at St Philip Medical Centre, our sister practice, in South Camden Primary Care Network (PCN) for fittings, reviews, and removals.

Please ask during your appointment for a referral.

Community Pharmacy referral

The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) was launched by NHS England and NHS Improvement on the 29 October 2019, to facilitate patients having a same-day appointment with their community pharmacist for minor illnesses or an urgent supply of regular medicine, improving access to services and providing more convenient treatment closer to patients’ homes.

The service is helping to alleviate pressure on GP appointments and emergency departments, in addition to harnessing the skills and medicines knowledge of pharmacists.

Should the patient need to be escalated or referred to an alternative service, the pharmacist can arrange this.

The practice, urgent or emergency care navigator, triage nurse, or NHS 111 call advisor makes a digital referral to a convenient pharmacy, where the patient will receive pharmacist advice and treatment for a range of minor illnesses, or for an urgent supply of a previously prescribed medicine

(NB. referrals for urgent prescriptions from general practice are not covered by this service).

Comments & Suggestions

We welcome any comments and suggestions from patients. The simplest way to send these in is via this form.

Of course, you may also submit handwritten comments or suggestions to the practice at Reception – there is a little post-box next to the prescription request box.

Complaints

We appreciate sometimes things do not go as planned, we are keen to do what we can to put things right. It is best to deal with these things as they arise, so would encourage patients to speak to someone to see if their concerns can be resolved at the time. There is a complaint form here.

Patients may obtain a complaints form and leaflet from Reception.

There is a PDF of this Newsletter available here.