Summer Newsletter 2022

 

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Travel Vaccines

Thinking of booking a holiday abroad? You may need travel vaccines or, if diseases such as malaria are a risk, you may need to start protecting yourself well in advance.

Travel vaccinations at the practice

An airport

 

Staff News

Sadly Dr Walker has left the surgery to pursue a new adventure. We are pleased to announce a new GP will be joining us from August.

We also welcome a new Nurse Practitioner, Jill Dowson to join our existing Nurse Practitioners Vikki and Billie.

We also have a new Practice Nurse, Leesa.  Leesa joins our existing team of  Diane, Gill, Joanne and Beth.

Meet the staff team

 

Dehydration

Dehydration means your body loses more fluids than you take in. If it is not treated, it can get worse and become a serious problem.

Symptoms of dehydration in adults & children include:

  • Feeling thirsty
  • Dark yellow and strong-smelling pee
  • Feeling dizzy or lightheaded
  • Feeling tired
  • A dry mouth, lips and eyes
  • Peeing little, and fewer than 4 times a day

Dehydration can happen more easily if you have:

  • Diabetes
  • Vomiting or diarrhoea
  • Been in the sun too long
  • Drunk too much alcohol
  • Sweated too much after exercising
  • A high temperature of 38C or more
  • Been taking a medicine that make you pee more (diuretics)

How you can reduce the risk of dehydration

  • Drink fluids when you feel any dehydration symptoms
  • If you find it hard to drink because you feel sick or have been sick, start with small sips and then gradually drink more.
  • You can use a spoon to make it easier for your child to swallow the fluids.
  • You should drink enough during the day so your pee is a pale clear colour.

 

No longer on prescription

Mild to moderate hay fever/ seasonal rhinitis can be treated effectively and safely using over the counter medicines. Treatments for these conditions are no longer routinely issued on prescription. Medication previously prescribed (such as fexofenadine) is now available to buy over the counter.

Medication to delay/postpone menstrual periods is no longer available via NHS. Some pharmacies will issue this over the counter with a private fee (please check with the pharmacy for current fees).

 

Fun Facts

  • We exercise at least 36 muscles when we smile.
  • Our nose is our own personal air-conditioning system. It warms cold air, cools hot air and filters impurities.
  • Our eyes can distinguish up to 10million colour surfaces and take in more information than the largest telescope known to man.

 

Patients Wanted

Our Patient Participation Group is looking for patients to join their group. We meet quarterly at the Practice to discuss any ongoing issues with patient care, services and other ideas the group may have to enhance the patients visit. If you are interested, please ask to speak to our Practice Manager, Sally who can give more information.

Message from Patient Participation Group

Do you enjoy the convenience of using systmonline to request your repeat prescriptions?

If you take the same tablets or medicine over a prolonged period of time then you may occasionally see a medication review alert when you try to re-order your prescription. There is no need to worry. This is a routine part of the procedure which helps ensure that your prescription continues to be the most appropriate one for your ongoing needs.

If you see a review prompt, advising you to ‘Contact your clinician’ and you feel that you simply want to carry on with your repeat prescription, as it is at present, then there is an easy way to indicate this.
At the bottom of the screen, you should be able to see a box labelled ‘Custom Requests’. This is a free text box, and you can simply type in something like:

‘I wish to continue taking this as before and would like another prescription issued please’

Of course, if the above does not apply to you and you wish to discontinue, change or discuss your repeat prescription then you can either type something appropriate into the Custom Request text box, or contact the helpful Admin Team at Neasham Road Surgery

 

Other Services available

Remember, you can now access physiotherapy appointments without consulting a clinician.  Please ask the receptionist.

In addition, should you be experiencing anxiety or feelings of low self esteem, appointments can be booked with our Mental Health Link worker.

 

news

Other items

Covid is still unfortunately affecting our staff.  Health and Social care are still bound with isolation rules should they have a positive result which means we may have reducing staffing (admin and clinical) from time to time.  We will, of course, try everything we can to avoid this having an impact on our patients but we would ask you to be patient with us.

We have removed the need to wear masks in the Practice but again would ask for your consideration with this.  Should you be suffering with a cough, or covid type symptoms, please consider wearing a mask to help us protect our staff.

Appointments – while we try to provide as many as we can, we will never meet the demand unfortunately. We would love to expand our clinical team to enable us to provide more appointments but we do not have the capacity at present to do so.  We are still looking at extending the building but this will take time. Until such time, we would ask you to consider consulting with your pharmacist for routine issues or self referral to MSK for any joint or Musculo skeletal problems.

Finally, a big thank you to our patients for their continue support and patience during the last couple of years.  A big learning curve for us all but hopefully we are on the other side.

Thank you from all the staff and Partners at Neasham Road.

Published: Jul 15, 2022