End of Year Giddiness or is it hysterics

With less than 2 hours to go I along with almost all Practice Managers in the country are checking that everything we have to do for end of year is done… excluding the accounts of course which is for another day including the tax man and his RTI submissions. (Reminder to self..must make that call to Tina at B W Medical Accountants)

Never before have we had to tick so many boxes, look at so many systems and report to so many different bodies…

Tick lists, check lists, coded lists and even a list of those things we think has been done but not received acknowledgement for.

Hairdresser this week will be shocked when she see’s the amount of grey hair I have.

The best thing….  Going shopping this weekend… We are free…. Well for another week anyway until we are hit with next years targets.

Yes,  we in general practice don’t just see patients (that’s for the clinicians), the rest of us have to run a business.

On a positive note we have uploaded our patient survey (after meeting with the patient group) onto the website.  The practice team and the patient group are very pleased with the results. As one of our patient group said ‘overall a very positive report’

Tomorrow is another day and  I am taking part in a 'day in a life of' survey.  Not sure how this will work but I do believe every hour I need to upload where I am and what I'm doing..  I can tell them now.. sitting with Joanne biting our nails to make sure the figures have gone through so that we can get paid....  then off to the CCG Executive meeting and then off to meet the new NHS England Chief Executive - Mr Simon Stevens. Now that should be interesting !   I think the giddiness and hysteria is going to last a while longer.

And breathe....

  

Sunderland Young Carers...Simply amazing

End of year and so many things to do. Targets to hit and end of year reports to be completed.

I usually decline invitations to meetings at this time of year but when the email came around from Sunderland Young Carers inviting me to their conference I put the pen down, shut off the computer and went along.

No-one warned me to take a hanky.

The conference was held in the Sandhill Centre and was open to all professionals organised by the Young Carers themselves. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together all relevant agencies, to raise awareness and share ways of working together.

I must say it got me thinking all weekend and I’ve put this on to the monthly practice agenda.

Young carers are young people aged 5 (yes 5) – 25 who help to look after a family member due to a long term illness, disability, mental health illness or addiction. Young carers may take on extra responsibilities at home such as cooking, cleaning or often they may worry about the person they care for.

You may be surprised at how many of our young children are Carers.  The Carers Centre say the numbers could be 2/3rds more than is registered with the centre.

Some children who are carers cannot get their homework in on time, some need to keep their phone on whilst in school in case they need to go home, whilst some are late every day.  If the school is aware of this they can give the young carer a school card.  The card helps teachers make allowances. There is so much support and if you think your child or someone you know is a young carer I would encourage you to point them in the direction of Sunderland Young Carers 0191 5493768.

The practice is actively asking patients if they are a carer or care for someone.  We are not being nosey,  all we want to do is direct you to those who can support and help you.

Same with the young carers, we need to do more to identify them. I’m looking for idea’s on what more we can do as a practice. If you come up with something then please get in touch with me by email. 

If you are a mother/father and worried about letting others know, please don’t be.  There is so much support for you all. 

Thank you Sunderland Young Carers, you are amazing and its young people like you that make this City and the world a better place J 

Photograph Sunderland Young Carers and Sharon Hodgson MP

Stop and Think just for a minute.

I wonder how many of your have been watching BBC2 ‘An hour to save a life’. For those of you have have not I must say you are missing out at just how fantastic our emergency services are.

After watching you realise this is what A&E is all about. Life threatening situations with only an hour to save a life.    I do hope people see A&E for just that, Accidents and Emergencies and when using the services stop to think just for a minute....

Stop and think can this be dealt with by other means.. self care, GP, Pharmacies.  Some people are quick to say they went to A&E because they couldn’t get an appointment. I am beginning to challenge this back.  I am looking at our reports coming in, looking at the times of the visits, our capacity in the practice and calculating  the cost.  I am even actively contacting patients.  I have some good examples of patients having an appointment with the GP yet still going the same day to A&E. Dental problems going to A&E.  I’m not sure if others know that all Dentists have an emergency out of hours service just like the GP’s. As some of you may know I work voluntary for the Ambulance Service as a first responder and hey ho my bleep has just gone off alerting me to ‘high demand’ and at full stretch. 

On a positive note it’s nice to see some of our health service providers being put forward for the ‘best of health awards’ that’s being run by the Sunderland Echo.  It seems a long time since we were winners of the GP Practice of the Year Award.  Here at Westbourne we would like to wish everyone who’s nominated good luck and you should be proud of your achievement.  Its also good to see one of our local pharmacies up for an award.  Well done to Jaz and the team at Penshaw Pharmacy.

Wembley Fever (the right kind of course)

I wonder how quiet our A&E departments will be this weekend.. very I hope.

With 32,000 people with tickets going to Wembley and who knows how many just going for a trip to London I do think this will have an impact.

Then there is the Monday morning feeling...  just to say if you go on the sick you will need to self certify. I’m not saying this will happen but I am preparing you for the answer!

There’s a lot to be said for the feel good factor.  Those niggles that usually gets us down have gone for the time being.  The sore throat and cold (man flu) is soon cured with two paracetamols. 

Take my son for example, “Mam I have the flu”...( strange that your still walking around)  “What should I do”.  My answer take two paracetamols.. and don’t go to the match at the weekend.  I can guarantee there will not be a sniffle in sight. 

When I was little my grandma was the one who taught us how to look after ourselves.  You only ever went to the Doctors if grandma could not make you better.  You would never ever dare go to A&E.  Ambulances only were allowed to go there with very poorly people (or that is what I thought).   Today I’m still not sure why people still go to A&E when it’s not an Accident or an Emergency!  

 

And on that note all I have left to say to those of you travelling to London, stay safe, dont drink and drive. Have a lovely time and take a packet of paracetamols with you ! Oh yes, bring back the cup! 

The Voice

Your Voice

Everywhere we turn everyone is looking seeking opinions and the voice of the patient.

Ourselves we have consulted with the patient group and will be gathering information on our services and then feeding back (as we all should do).

But looking to the wider group how do we collect information, how do we know it’s a good cross section of people and the right questions are being asked. 

This week on twitter I have come across patient experience matters time and again but I ask ‘what matters’   what matters to me may not be what matters to Joanne.  I can attend meetings to voice my opinion at any time, Joanne can’t. Joanne cant drive so in itself can be an obstacle.  Yet Joanne has an opinion as we all know !

So how do we communicate effectively?  Now if we were talking football, especially this weekend with the Derby I dare say easily over 100,000 would have an opinion.  Maybe that’s the answer, relate health to local sport !!! Or if we wish to target ‘the young ones’ why don’t we just gatecrash an event (before they get too excited). Just a thought.

As a CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) we are looking at lots of methods of how we communicate with the people of Sunderland. I can confirm that patients and public are invited to an engagement event on

Tuesday 25^th February 2014, 10.15am – 2.00pm

The Quayside Exchange

197 High St East, Sunderland, SR1 2AX

The workshop is being held to seek your views on how Sunderland CCG currently engages with patients and members of the public and to share information on new initiatives for engagement covering

·         The CCG engagement  model

·         Locality Patient Groups

·         Introduction to Sunderland Healthwatch

·         The new CCG website and ‘My NHS’

And guess what, you might see me there.

All in a days work

The world as we see it…

Saturday was match day so although I got a lift in I knew I had to find my own way home so booked a taxi.

“How come you working a Saturday” said the taxi driver

After explaining that all surgeries were a business and cheques had to be paid. Also it was the best time and quietest time to look at targets etc see how we are performing as well as many other things we do.One thing I did look at was how many patients had gone to A&E and walk-in centres that could have used another service, and how much had come out of the practice budget this week.   After all………..

‘A&E is for Accidents and Emergencies and not for Anything and Everything. ‘

After a nice chat about the work that we all do, he admitted himself he had no idea that’s what happens in a Doctors Surgery. He did believe that people came in got seen by someone and that was it.  He was surprised when I told him how much it cost every time someone went to the walk-in or A&E .  I’m sure it would be a topic of conversation when he gets home.

I think we all work in our own area’s without really giving that much thought to how others operate. Maybe if we did we might see things differently.

Now I’m going to try and be diplomatic here, like I say try…. Wouldn’t it be nice

when we switch on the news its not all doom and gloom, wouldn’t it be nice when something is not to our standard we stop just for a moment and wonder why or give the benefit of the doubt, wouldn’t it be nice if everyone made a conscious effort just to smile at the person we don’t know who normally we would not smile at…  it could make all the difference, Wouldn’t it be nice to think about our emergency services and ask our selves is this an emergency or an accident? Just a thought.

Another thought for the day… do you think that patients will stop going to A&E for sore throats etc when its renamed ED Emergency Department ?

Well back to the day job… and the lunch time weigh in.

If you have anything you would like to add to the blog please do get in touch.

Gloria

Dawn's Inspiration

Well the first week of the diet has gone really well for us all.  I was the biggest loser so

very happy, having said that it just goes to show how much rubbish I must have been eating. 

I had a boost from one of our patients Dawn who sent me this email (I do have her consent to publish this)

“Hi Gloria

Just want to wish you luck with the weight loss.

I know you don't have as much weight to lose but In the words of Max Bygraves 'I wanna tell you a story'.....

 In November last year I was despondent at being seriously obese.  I bought an exercise bike for my 50th birthday but Exercising made me breathless, gave me shin splints and pains in my chest.

Out of desperation I made an appointment with Dr Hubbard who advised me to go swimming at least three times a week and reduce my calories to 1500 a day.

I followed his instructions religiously and by the end of April I had lost sufficient weight to start exercising at the gym - hard work but it continues to pay off.  I am now over 5 stones lighter than when I started 13 months ago and boy can I feel the difference- I can honestly say it has not been difficult -my message to you is it can be done - all it takes is determination”

Thank you so much Dawn.

I have gone back to Dr Hubbard and asked for advice regarding the men… oh yes you don’t escape that easily.  Dr Hubbard said there are about 200 calories in a pint of lager/beer.  If you consider the daily calorie allowance for men this could mean that almost one extra’s days calories could be taken by those men who drink 10 pints a week.  So if you drink, by  reducing alcohol is a good way to start loosing weight.

Another weigh (that should be way) to change what we eat is by reading/watching some of the helpful tips that Change4Life are promoting.  Leaflets are in the surgery. 

Gloria