National guidance expects long-term involvement of specialists in reviewing these patients and their medical treatment, but this does not currently happen in Oxfordshire.
Therefore, in line with county-wide safety recommendations, the practice has taken the difficult decision that any requests from specialists, both NHS and private, to prescribe ADHD medications to adult patients, will be declined. Also, we will no longer be able to supply ADHD medicines safely to adult patients who have obtained these medicines from the practice in the past. We will be making this clear to providers of ADHD services, at the point we refer patients for a diagnostic assessment.
Care of adults already receiving ADHD treatments remains under careful review. Patients may be able to access the care they need outside of the NHS, for instance by seeking a referral to a private provider from their NHS GP or NHS specialist. As your NHS GP, we will not enter into “shared care” arrangements with private providers.
The practice feels strongly that patients should not be left without the care they need, due to a lack of comprehensive NHS funding, and our local representatives have raised this issue with local funding and decision-making groups. By taking this stand with other Oxfordshire GP practices we hope that a safe service will be funded.
If you also wish to raise this issue, please contact the “planned care team” at BOB ICB, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and/or your MP.
Covid Spring Campaign
We are taking part in the Covid Spring Booster Campaign.
The three eligible cohorts are as follows:
- adults aged 75 years and over
- residents in care homes for older adults
- individuals who are immunosuppressed - For further information on the criteria please read HERE
We are contacting people within the eligible cohorts
For more information about the Covid Spring Booster please visit :- Getting a COVID-19 vaccine - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
We understand that some of our patients may have been unable to view certain documents (e.g. letters from the hospital) when using online services due to a software problem.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.
We are pleased to inform you that this issue has been resolved; any new documents added to your electronic GP health records will be visible and it may take up to a month for older, affected documents to become visible.
Your GP team will have been able to access the letters, so your care will not have been affected during this time.
If you have been contacted by the NHS saying you/your child may not be up to date with their MMR vaccinations but you think they are, please be assured, we are aware that data held nationally may differ from what is held locally and NHS England continues to work with NHS services delivering vaccinations to ensure that patient records are as up to date as possible.
If you are satisfied that you/your child is up to date for MMR vaccination and other childhood vaccination and the general practice are satisfied that the practice record is complete, then no further action is necessary.
Pharmacy First
Pharmacists can give you advice on a range of conditions and suggest medicines that can help.
They may also be able to offer treatment and some prescription medicine for some conditions, without you needing to see a GP (this is called Pharmacy First). Conditions they can treat as part of Pharmacy First are :-
- Sinusitis - For adults and children aged 12 and over
- Sore throat - For adults and children aged 5 and over
- Earache - For children aged 1 - 17 years
- Infected insect bite - For adults and children aged 1 year and over
- Impetigo (a bacterial skin infection) - For adults and children aged 1 year and over
- Shingles - For adults aged 18 and over
- Uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women - Women aged 16 to 64 years
How can I access treatment from my pharmacy?
You can get treatment for these conditions by walking into the pharmacy. You do not need to be referred from your GP Surgery.
If you go to a pharmacy with one of these conditions, the pharmacist will offer you advice, treatment or refer you to a GP or other healthcare professional if needed.
They will then update your GP health record.
If you are not within these age ranges, a pharmacist can still offer advice, but you may need to see a GP for treatment.
The pharmacies in Witney which are offering the Pharmacy First Service are :-
Witney Pharmacy
Boots High Street
Boots Edington Square
Please click HERE to read the Patient Charter
HERE are some to tips for Veterans
The practice will be closed for training on the following afternoons :-
Thursday 27th June 2024 13:00 18:30
Thursday 26th September 2024 13:00 - 18:30
Thursday 12th November 2024 13:00 - 18:30
If during these times you need urgent medical advice please contact NHS 111 online or by phone.
Call 999 if you have a lie threatening emergency
If your child hasn’t had one or both doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) which helps protect them against these potentially serious illnesses please contact Reception to book their appointment
To find more information about the MMR vaccine here: www.nhs.uk/mmr and https://vaccineknowledge.ox.ac.uk/mmr-vaccine
As a practice we are always looking to improve our ability to communicate with our patients so would like to encourage all smart phone users to download the NHS APP this will allow you easy access to your medical records for results and ordering repeat medication.
For more information on how to download the app please following the website: https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/the-nhs-app/
We would also like to ensure we have up-to-date contact details on your health records, so please call Reception if any details have changed or you need to add an email address/mobile number.
If you are yet to have your Covid 19 Autumn Booster please contact 119 or visit the following web page - Getting a COVID-19 vaccine - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Due to increased workloads within the Practice, we are not able to guarantee that Prescription requests will be processed within 3 working days. We are now advising patients to allow 5 working days for prescriptions to be processed and sent to their nominated pharmacy.
In line with current recommendations from the BMA (British Medical Association) and LMC (local medical committee), we have opted out of the proposed enhanced patient access for the time being, due to safety concerns for some of our patients. Please see attached link from the BMA which explains why we have taken this decsion. We will update you when we get any more information.
Accelerated access to GP-held patient records guidance (bma.org.uk)
FEAR OF FLYING
Patients come to us, asking us to prescribe diazepam for fear of flying. There are a number of very good reasons why prescribing this drug is not recommended.
1) Diazepam is a sedative, which means it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you.
2) Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however when you do sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than 4 hours.
3) Whilst most people find benzodiazepines like diazepam sedating, a small number have paradoxical agitation and increased aggression. They can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.
4) According to the prescribing guidelines doctors follow (BNF) Benzodiazepines are contraindicated (not allowed) in treating phobia. Your doctor would be taking a significant legal risk by prescribing against these guidelines. They are only licensed short term for a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the case, you should be getting proper care and support for your mental health and not going on a flight.
5) Diazepam and similar drugs are illegal in a number of countries. They may be confiscated or you may find yourself in trouble with the police.
6) Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing you may fail this having taken diazepam.
We appreciate that fear of flying is very real and very frightening. A much better approach is to tackle this properly with a Fear of Flying course run by the airlines. We have listed a number of these below.
What is changing:
There will be an ability now to pre-book appointments with GP in the future: both phone and face to face.
You no longer need to phone up on a specific day that your GP is in.
Online “e-consults” will be available Monday - Thursday from 18:30 to 20:00, and on a Sunday from 16:30 - 20:00.
We are being more transparent with our patients about our capacity for GP appointments, and aligning our work patterns with the BMA’s statement on safe working in General Practice. (https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/gp-practices/managing-workload/safe-working-in-general-practice)
Individual GPs are also spreading their capacity throughout the week.
Why is this changing:
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic we changed our appointment system by having all requests for GP appointments to be triaged first (usually by telephone). This was in response to patient complaints that the wait for appointment was too long. By triaging appointments and dealing with as much as we could remotely, we increased our throughput of consultations with patients receiving GP care far quicker than before. As it happens, the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted GP practices nationally to adopt a similar system for differing reasons.
However, the need to phone was frustrating for patients and the volume of work was exhausting for our GP staff.
Most of our GPs work 10-12 hours a day a week, mostly 3 days a week or more, with additional hours working from home when not at the surgery doing important work which is not directly patient facing but vital for patient care. This works out at around what most people would regard as “full time” over the course of a week. On a typical day in our old system any one GP may have 30 to 60 patient contacts (mainly by phone). This is more than the BMA’s recommendations on safe working intensity for GPs. We have three to five GPs in on any one day.
What is not changing:
There will still be an element of telephone or online triage, especially for on the day capacity and to manage demand for appointments generally. The central problem has not changed: the demand for GP time is beyond the capacity we have to provide GP appointments. It is therefore envisaged that the wait for appointments booked in advance will run to several weeks.
We continue to encourage patients to self care were possible and seek alternatives to GP appointments where more appropriate.
Our GP mostly continue to work the equivalent of full time (approximately 37.5 hrs a week) over 3 or more days a week.
What we are continuing to do:
We are continuing to monitor how our appointment system works, and are seeking to expand our clinical workforce. Frustratingly, there is a recruitment and retention problem nationally with GPs. We are also seeking to expand our workforce to support our existing GP according to government's additional roles initiative as part of working in a Primary Care Network (PCN).
This practice is supporting vital health and care planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice at:
NHS Digital's own website.
Note that consent to have your data shared in this way is automatic unless you opt out.
What Data is Shared
Data may be shared from the GP medical records about:
- any living patient registered at a GP practice in England when the collection started - this includes children and adults
- any patient who died after 1 July 2021, and was previously registered at a GP practice in England when the data collection start
NHS Digital will not collect patients’ names or addresses. Any other data that could directly identify patients (such as NHS Number, date of birth, full postcode) is replaced with unique codes which are produced by de-identification software before the data is shared with NHS Digital.
This process is called pseudonymisation and means that patients will not be identified directly in the data. NHS Digital will be able to use the software to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify patients in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason.
To Opt out Of Data Sharing
If you would prefer that your identifiable patient data is only shared for your own health care purposes, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both.
These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail in below. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt-out using either option (or both).
A Type 1 opt out has to be registered by your Practice; please let us know if you want to register a type 1 opt out.
A National Opt out can be done without contacting your practice, at https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/
Type 1 Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data)
NHSD will not collect data from GP practices about patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out with their practice. More information about Type 1 Opt-outs is in the GP Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice, including a form that you can complete and send to your GP practice.
The collection started on 1 July 2021 so if you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital, please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice.
If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after this collection has started, no more of your data will be shared with NHSD. They will however still hold the patient data which was shared before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.
If you do not want NHS Digital to share your identifiable patient data with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out.
You can download a blank form here which you can then send to us by post or email.
National Data Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital sharing your data with other organizations)
NHSD will collect data from GP medical records about patients who have registered a National Data Opt-out. The National Data Opt-out applies to identifiable patient data about your health, which is called confidential patient information.
NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you - this includes GP data, or other information, such as hospital data - with other organisations, unless there is an exemption to this.
To find out more information and how to register a National Data Opt-Out, please read NHSD GP Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice.
If you’re a patient at our practice you can now use the new NHS App, a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services on your smartphone or tablet.
You can use the NHS App to check your symptoms and get instant advice, book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, view your GP medical record and more.
You will also have evidence of your covid vaccinations on the App; useful for when you have to travel abroad.
If you already use any of the Patient Access providers, you can continue to use them. You can use the NHS App as well.
For more information go to www.nhs.uk/nhsapp
We have been part of the scheme for 3 years.
A map showing premises signed up to the scheme throughout West Oxfordshire can be found on the WODC website.
https://www.safeplaces.org.uk/search/?query=West%20Oxfordshire%20District%2C%20UK&exact
For more information on the scheme, please see:
https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/communities-and-leisure/community-safety/safe-places/
https://www.facebook.com/SafePlacesOxfordshire/?ref=hl
There is also an App which you can download here:
https://www.safeplaces.org.uk
Community Connect
Medicine that doesn't come in a tube or bottle!
Community Connect, a new Social Prescribing service which helps with people’s health and well-being, is now available at the Nuffield surgery. It links people with community activities to improve mental and physical wellbeing and reduce loneliness.
Social Prescribing is a way in which people living with long term conditions can get access to a variety of support services they need. Issues like help with getting a job, housing, debt management and social contact. Help with these things is often available through local authorities, charities and local community organisations.
Social Prescribing means that the individual can build their support links by working with a Community Navigator who does know, or who has expertise in finding out, what is available. Following a referral from the GP, together with the Community Navigator, the individual can discuss their problems and identify the support that they need to manage their own health more effectively and meet their own personal goals.
Get in touch: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Find out more at: https://www.canosn.org.uk/Pages/Category/community-connect
