Pangbourne Medical Practice
A regular newsletter for the Patients of the Practice
Please let us have your comments and suggestions to improve the newsletter
Pangbourne M edical Practice, W hitchurch road, Pangbourne, Berkshire RG8 7DP
Telephone: 0118 9842234
Out of hours please call NHS 111
Opening Hours: 08.00 to 18.30 hours Monday – Friday except on Wednesdays 07.00 am
Practice W ebsite: www.pangbournesurgery.co.uk
Email for Patient Participation Group: [email protected]
Email for repeat prescriptions: [email protected]
Spring 2015
Issue 29
New Website
We have a new website and would like to remind you that you can register to use this
for booking appointments and ordering medications on line.
Please let us have your comments about the new website and how we can make it more
helpful to your needs.
We have a number of links to other services on the website to help you access other
services locally and nationally for health and care needs.
Friends & Family Test
As part of the GP contract the practice is required to ask patients using our service 2
questions.
1. “W ould you recommend the practice to your friends and family”.
2. A question of our choice - so we are asking “W hy did you answer as you did
to the first question”
We need to submit 50 of these forms each month and would be very grateful for your
help. Copies of the form are available in the GPs rooms, in the waiting room and on the
front desk. You do not have to have seen a doctor or nurse for an appointment to fill out
a questionnaire.
Tri-Walkers donation
Brian Groom has made a very kind donation to the patients of our practice from his
company DRIVE. He has given the practice 6 walking frames called tri-walkers.
If you are interested in having one of these please ask at reception.
Patient Participation Group (PPG) Report and Questionnaire
A full report on the activities of the PPG over the last year and this year’s questionnaire
and the results of this are on the practice website.
The PPG questionnaire for this year looked at patient’s views and knowledge about the
recent changes the practice had made to improving access to GP appointments.
We have two new types of increased access to the surgery both supported by the North
and West Reading CCG.
We are now open on Saturday mornings for pre booked and urgent appointments with
one Doctor only. On Monday we are running extra surgeries until the end of April to
ensure that people who have been unwell over the weekend are seen promptly and to
avoid their attendance at A+E. We are hoping that this will continue after this time.
We asked the following questions.
 Are you aware that Pangbourne Surgery is open every Saturday morning for pre booked and book on the day appointments?
 How do find out about changes and improvements in the service offered by
Pangbourne Medical practice?
 We can offer pre-bookable appointments or book on the day appointments on
Saturday mornings, which would be more useful for you?
 Do you find it difficult to come to the Surgery during the week, what is the reason
for this?
 We offer early appointments on Monday and Wednesday mornings; have you used
these, did you do so to avoid missing work, did you use the appointment as it was
the only one available with your GP that week?
 Any suggestions to improve the service we offer.
The PPG suggested a number of ways of making further improvements to the
practice based on the responses to the questionnaire at the PPG evening meeting which
we will discuss and implement. These included
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SMS alert to advise patients to look at website when the website is updated
The Practice should use email and text when possible
Email practice newsletters to patients
Consider using emails instead of appointments for some problems
Look into providing early appointments for blood tests
Consider opening the surgery in the evening
Provide information about immunisations on the website
Here are some of the comments passed on to us through the PPG Questionnaire:
“The early morning GP is brilliant. It would be brilliant to have early morning bloods say
once a week. But I think the service is excellent and has become much friendlier”
“Saturday surgery is perfect for me as working up to 13hrs a day and sometimes away 2 3 days makes it difficult. Please keep up Saturday surgery”
“This surgery offers excellent service and standard of care that should be shown as an
example to other GP practices”
“Always impressed by service”
“I find the service to be generally very good - Reception helpf ul. Haven't checked the
website - but is there some email/web chat forums for things that may not require a
proper appointment”.
Practice Nurses travel to Nepal to volunteer
You will probably be aware that Caroline Sykes and Gill Keep travelled to Nepal at the
end of February where they worked in a pop-up clinic in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The pop-up clinics are designed to give much needed medical assistance to the Gurkha
Veterans who have limited access to healthcare. The pop up clinics provide them with a
chance to see a Doctor, Dentist or Nurse for their various health needs. Not only have
Caroline and Gill given up their time to work in this project but they will also be raising
money to help fund further pop up clinics.
If you would like to donate to help them there is a box for donations in the surgery.
They ran a very successful cake stall before they went to raise funds for the project.
An Amazing Sentence in English
“I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing
handwriting: nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical
intellectuality counterbalancing indecipherability transcendentalises
intercommunication’s incomprehensibleness.”
This is a sentence in which the first work is one letter long the second word is two
letters long, the third is three letters long ….. the eighth word is eight letters long and
so on …. the twentieth word is twenty letters long!!
Contributed by a patient
Dementia
Dementia is an increasingly common condition that affects 800,000 people in the
UK and usually occurs in people over the age of 65. One in three people over the
age of 65 will develop dementia and 2/3 of these will be women. The main reason
for this increase is that people are living longer
The common symptoms of dementia include:
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memory loss, especially problems with memory for recent events, such
as forgetting messages, remembering routes or names, and asking
questions repetitively
increasing difficulties with tasks and activities that require organisation
and planning
becoming confused in unfamiliar environments
difficulty finding the right words
difficulty with numbers and/or handling money in shops
changes in personality and mood
depression
Early symptoms of dementia are often mild and may get worse only very
gradually. This means that the person with dementia and those around them
may not notice these signs or take them seriously for some time. Also, people
with dementia sometimes do not recognise that they have any symptoms.
Dementia is progressive and their symptoms will tend to change and become
more severe with time.
For this reason, it is important to talk to your GP or our Practice Nurses for
an assessment sooner rather than later if you are worried that you may have
problems with your memory. Early diagnosis will enable you to get the right
treatment and support and help you and your relatives plan for the future.
Your GP will ask about your symptoms, organise some blood tests for you
and do some simple tests in the surgery to assess your memory and your
ability to think clearly.
If your GP thinks you could have dementia they will refer you to the memory
clinic where you will see a psychiatrist and his team who are experts in
diagnosing, caring for and advising people with dementia and their families.
The specialist may organise further tests, which may include brain scans.
While a diagnosis of dementia can be devastating news, an explanation of
what the problem is and what can be done about it can help reduce the
worry caused by uncertainty. Most people find it helpful to discuss how the
dementia may affect them or their loved one in the future, and there is advice
available about how to stay independent and live well with dementia.