News

MyGP

MyGP is a new app which allows you to book and cancel appointments via your smartphone. Go to www.mygp.io/afz through your app store to download the app.

Changes to the Phlebotomy service

From 1st December 2016 we no longer have an in-house Phlebotomy service here at the surgery.

Patients will need to attend one of the four hubs across Wirral for a blood test. These are at:

• Eastham Clinic
• St Catherine’s Health Centre
• All Day Health Centre at Arrowe Park Hospital
• Victoria Central Walk in Centre in Wallasey

Clinics are open between 8.30am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday on a drop in basis.

Please ensure you have your blood form or order number with you before attending.

Patients requiring a Glucose Tolerance Test will need to contact the Call Centre (0151 514 2222) before attending.

For more information about the new Phlebotomy service changes Click here

Dementia Friendly films

The Light Cinema in New Brighton are holding Dementia Friendly screenings of classic films. Tickets cost just £5 and your carer is free. Free refreshments are included and there is a sing along in the interval. For upcoming films and times, please click here

Improving our surgery building

Our extension is now completed! We have two spacious new consulting rooms on the ground floor. These will be used by Dr Grey and Dr Leighton. Thanks to all our patients and neighbours for putting up with any noise and disruption caused during this time.

 Changes to prescribing

Wirral CCG have changed their prescribing policy for certain over the counter medications which we will no longer be able to prescribe under NHS prescription. These include medication to postpone periods, headlice treatments, short term pain killers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen and hay fever remedies for adults. This does not affect patients with a long term medical condition. For a full list of excluded medications please click here

For more up to date information on prescribing, please see ‘Prescribing’ under the ‘Prescriptions’ tab.

Your PPG

The next Patient Participation Group meeting will be Thursday 6th April at 6.30pm at Charlotte House, Church Road, Bebington. Speakers will be Steph Warren-Jones and Sandra Waite from the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). All Spital Surgery patients are welcome. For dates of future meetings, or to view the minutes from previous meetings, please see our PPG page.

Our PPG has a new Chair, Stephen Evans. If you are interested in joining the PPG or would like more information, please email Stephen on stephenevans03@hotmail.co.uk or you can just turn up to the next meeting.

Friends & Family Test

You can take our Friends & Family Test after every visit if you wish. Your feedback is really important in helping us improve our service as well as letting us see what we are doing well. Since May, you have told us:

99.13% of you are happy with the service we provide, with 93.4% extremely likely to recommend us to others.

Some of you raised concerns about confidentiality and privacy at reception, being able to see a GP of your choice and wanting to know if the doctor you are seeing is running late.

We’re listening and this is what we’re doing:

You can speak to a receptionist in a private room if you wish. We will only ring you about your test results away from the reception desk. We will always try to fit you in with your preferred GP where possible. We will try to let you know if your appointment is delayed and give you the opportunity to rebook if you wish.

 Attendance figures

During February, patients failed to attend 29 GP and 11 Nurse appointments. If you can’t make it to your appointment, please let us know so we can offer it to someone else who really needs it.

Named Accountable GP

Please note that all patients have been allocated a named accountable GP. While you may see any GP you like for appointments, everyone has a named accountable GP who they are registered with who is responsible for their over all care. This will be one of our partner GPs- Dr Gillian Francis, Dr Jane Hortop or Dr Athan Simopoulos. Please ask at reception to find out who is yours.

How we use your Health Records

For information on why the NHS collects information about you and how it is used, please see our leaflet How we use your Health Records

Contacting You

Please make sure we have your up to date mobile number so we can get in touch with you when needed. We can also send you a text reminder before your appointments.

Carers

Let us know if you are a carer for someone over 18 or if you have a carer yourself. We may be able to offer more support and help.