Newsletter - Spring 2024

As many of you know, the NHS is being overwhelmed at present. In terms of general practice we are;

• Offering 20% more appointments than before the pandemic.
• seeing more than 1 million patients per day in England.
• Caring for 8 million more patients across England, who are currently on hospital waiting lists.

our costs are rising, just like yours are, but we are not receiving any extra funding to help with these.

At the practice, we are feeling the pressure and working as hard as we can to provide the right care for all our patients.

However, the funding we receive means that we are unable to recruit more staff, meaning that;

• Answering calls is taking longer than we would like.
• Your waiting time for appointments may increase.
• Requests for things like medical reports, records and assessments may take longer.

Some other NHS services can help ease the pressure so we may signpost you out of the surgery to the local pharmacy or other services. Please do take advantage of these options. 

Please also help free up clinical time by trying to manage minor illnesses yourself, visit the pharmacy first and attending for health checks, such as long-term condition reviews, when invited as these will help you manage your illness.

From April, we will receive a 2% increase for our main contract for the next year. Inflation rates last year were very high and, even though they have dropped recently, the annual rate is still over 3%. There is also a national living wage increase from 1st April of 9.8%.

We are worried and distressed about the current situation too and wish we could do more.

If you feel strongly about the issue of general practice funding, you may wish to contact your local MP to express your views.

In the meantime, we will continue to do our best to look after our patients and we appreciate your support and consideration during these difficult times.

Due to the constant miss use and abuse in the car park during school drop off and pick up times we are having a trial where the gates will be shut during  this period.

We apologise if you do have an appointment at this time and the gates are locked.

we will evaluate after the trial is complete and decide whether this becomes a permanent arrangement.

We are currently looking at our digital access and the needs of our patients. We know there may be a number of patients whow would happily use digital services such as NHS App, but may need help when first setting up the App or may need help feeling confident to use the App. 

We are hoping to run some coaching sessions, delivered by patient volunteers, in the future that will help patients set up the App on their devices, and explain how the app can beneift patients.

If this is something you think you would benefit from, please speak to one of our patient coordinators about completing a questionnaire.

Once we have a sense of how many patients would like these coaching sessions, we will be able to plan and then communicate with patients about requirements for the coaching sessions.