Saturday, November 07, 2015

Nairn Healthcare News - November 2015

November Newsletter from Nairn Healthcare 

Staffing

Nairn Healthcare would like to wish our Cardiovascular Nurse, Liz Batstone, a long and very happy retirement. Liz has been a member of the NHG team for 27 years and will be missed by both patients and staff.

Scottish Cervical Screening Programme

Cervical screening aims to reduce the likelihood of cervical cancer in women by detecting pre-cancerous cervical changes and we would like to encourage more women to attend for their check-up. Women aged between 20- 60 are invited to have a cervical smear every three years.

From April 2016, the eligible age range will change to 25-64 years with 25-50 year olds being screened every 3 years and 51 – 64 year olds every 5 years.

Bowel Screening

New reports show that bowel screening has been a success last year with 63% of our patients aged between 50-74 years old undertaking the simple test.

The Scottish Bowel Screening Programme aims to reduce mortality from bowel cancer by detecting the condition as early as possible. A home screening kit is sent to patients aged 50-74 years every two years.

For more information about the Bowel Screening Programme, you can call them on 0800 0121 833 or visit their website: www.nhsinform.co.uk/screening/bowel

Phone Options

From the 14th November, Nairn Healthcare will have a new phone system. This will give you the option to communicate with the person most appropriate to deal with your call whether it’s booking an appointment, looking for blood test results or a general enquiry.

Text Message Reminder Service
In the next few weeks, Nairn Healthcare will be launching a new texting software to remind patients of any upcoming appointments at the GP Practice. A message will be sent to all mobile numbers we have on record to inform you once we are going live. If you wish to not be included in this service, please email the Practice on nhshighland.nairnhealthcare@nhs.net to opt out.

WHAT IS RPIW?

Nairn Healthcare welcomed the Rapid Process Improvement Workshop (RPIW) to the surgery for a week at the beginning of October. NHG staff from all levels, pharmacists and our three patients, Dick Youngson, Karen Henderson and Chris Meecham, took the opportunity to attend. The aim was to improve patient access to the surgery and to ensure that our patients are able to see the right person at the right time. We were also hoping to inform patient’s of other services that are available to them and possibility more appropriate such as the chemist and the MATS service.

Our main focus was to reduce appointment waiting times, have the workplace as well organised as we can and work together with the local pharmacies to improve prescription processes.

NEW IMPROVEMENTS

With the help of RPIW, Nairn Healthcare found many areas that required improvements.

The self-check in machines are rarely used therefore we will now have a receptionist walk the floor to encourage patients to use this fantastic service that isn’t getting taking advantage of. The receptionist will be available to help so why wait in a queue when you really don’t have to!

We have just done our initial launch of the text message reminder service. This will be up and running very shortly. If you wish to opt out of the service, please email nhshighland.nairnhealthcare@nhs.net or call 01667 452096. We can only send texts to those who have provided us with their mobile number so again, if you wish to be a part of this service, please let us know!

The surgery also has a lot of patients who “do not attend” pre-booked appointments. In one week alone, we had 110 patients not attend the surgery. This resulted in 18 hours of clinician time being wasted in one week. We have brought out a new policy for frequent non-attenders to now receive an initial letter and if they continue to not attend their appointments, will be penalised and the Practice will be allocating their future appointments, the patient will no longer have a choice of date nor time.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

We have implemented the new phone options which will start on the 14th November to direct patients to the most appropriate receptionist to deal with their query.

We will also have a duty Healthcare Assistant for urgent blood tests and ECG checks. This will free up some GP time and save patients having to re-book an appointment at a later date. We have also added an extra 22 weekly HCA appointments.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

with regards to the self check ins,,they do not tell you what room your doctor will be in,you could sit near the reception desk,and the room you need to go to is at the far end or vice versa,thats why they are seldom used,could the system not be updated to add that information?
w.mckechnie.

Rhona47 said...

My comment was going to be exactly as Anonymous said.
You use self check in but unless it is a Dr you go to regular you still have to ask at desk which room. Surely it could be updated with the room which you are going to attend.

Anonymous said...

But still over 3 weeks waiting to see my GP

Anonymous said...

One of the very best NHS practices anywhere in the UK. But in Nairn some folk think their GP shouldn't even be allowed a holiday! If your condition is urgent then a GP is always made available.
"Grateful patient"

Rhona47 said...

I agree with grateful patient as I have never had any problem with either getting a dr if it is urgent, or arranging for a telephone conversation with my own dr if I need to talk something through. I think Nairn practice is one of the best when I hear what relatives elsewhere have to suffer.