St James Medical Practice

Just a reminder that we are closed this upcoming Monday 27th May - Spring Bank Holiday.
We will re-open as usual on Tuesday 28th May.
If you require urgent medical attention over the long weekend please call 111 and speak to the Out Of Hours service.

The new Facebook page of our endoscopy unit!
https://www.facebook.com/StNicholasEndosc opyUnit/

Just a reminder that we are closed this upcoming Monday 6th May - May Day Bank Holiday.
We will re-open as usual on Tuesday 7th May.
If you require urgent medical attention over the long weekend please call 111 and speak to the Out Of Hours service.

Over the weekend our Dr Robertson competed in a Powerlifting competition in Horncastle. She won her age/weight class and achieved 3 personal bests! We are sure you will all join us in giving her our congratulations

Are you feeling inspired by the London marathon?

Dr Antonia finished Boston Lincs marathon! 3rd medal for Cystic Fibrosis!

Loads of questions about home visits recently. Please find here the NHS visit policy that we had to adopt as per our contract.
This policy is based on the GMS/PMS contract and BMA guidelines.
Due to an increase patient numbers and demand, we are no longer able to provide a service which is over and above that which we are contracted to provide, ie providing home visits for patients who do meet the contractual requirements as set out by NHS England. ... Home visits are extremely time consuming, in the time taken to carry out one home visit, 3 -4 patients can be seen at the practice. Home Visits are strictly for patients who fall into the following categories: • Terminally ill • Housebound • Patients who are severely ill in bed All requests for visits must be received by 10.30am. The following ARE NOT reasons for the practice to provide a home visit: • Transport issues for the patient – it is not the responsibility of the practice to arrange transport, or to provide a home visit because the patient has difficulty arranging transport. In these circumstances patients should seek transport help from relatives, friends or taxi firms. This is non-clinical • Childcare issues for a patient – if a patient has difficulty arranging for someone to care for their children whilst attending appointments, the patients are welcome to bring their children with them to the practice. This is non-clinical • Poor mobility – Whilst it is understood and recognised that having poor mobility is inconvenient and unpleasant, GP practices are designed with this in mind, having lift access and disabled toilets . If patients are able to attend appointments with other healthcare providers, e.g. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, opticians etc., they are expected to attend the practice for their GP appointment. • An unwell child – It is in the best interest for the child to attend the surgery where they can be properly assessed and treated. The GP can make a more informed clinical judgement when seeing the child in surgery. • Residents of Care homes – Care home residents are no different to patients in their own homes. The need to visit should be based upon clinical need, not the availability of transport or staff to attend with the patient. It is the responsibility of the care home to make transport available for residents to enable them to travel to their medical and non-medical appointments. Routine visits can be requested, however these will be deferred until it is reasonably practicable for the GP to attend.
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"Why are you running late doc / nurse?" Is a frequent and absolutely valid question. Because.... it could be that:
1) the patient before was late 2) the patient before had a list and as he is elderly we couldn't let him go and come back. He made such an effort to come today... 4) the patient before had a list and although she is coming back we needed to go though the list so as not to miss something important 5) the patient before needed admission and the hospital took ages to answer the phone 6) the patient before was seriously ill and needed to do heart tracings, give meds, call an ambulance 7) the lady across the street walked in bleeding so we had to quickly squeeze her in and assess her 8)the relative of the patient before is not our patient but became acutely ill so we had to deal with that 9) the paramedics were on the phone about a patient 10) a colleague needed help with a patient 11) had to rush out on an emergency visit 12) the nurses asked the doctor to review someone's heart tracing and he was having a heart attack 13) The mother before you came with one of her children but then the other one became ill on the way and she cannot come back later as there is the school run/ had got another one at home / the child looks ill 14) the lab called and we need to act on these results ASAP 15) there is an upset patient on the phone
The list goes on... And some people need a bit longer with their doctor / nurse for whatever reason. The only thing we can certainly say is that they are not running late because of chatting or coffee/tea breaks. Most of the times these are missed so as to allow doctors or nurses to catch up. So please bear with us as we are trying hard to help as much as we can. Thank you
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Last week we had 120 unattended appointments. This is equal to 29 hours of wasted time across all our clinics. It also includes 7 Emergency on the day appointments!
If you cannot attend your appointment please cancel it - you can speak to a member of our Reception Team over the the phone (774221 option 1) or in person at the surgery. Alternatively you can use our automated telephone service to cancel & make appointments - call 01553 774221 and follow the instructions.

Dr Antonia is running the Boston Lincs Full Marathon this Sunday! If she manages to complete it it will be the 3rd Medal for CF!

As you all know we are a very busy practice with a large number of patients. Because of this we have been assigned a Clinical Pharmacist by our CCG. Teresa Ogungbeson started with us at the end of March and will be doing Medication Reviews in morning clinics on Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays. All patients will be sent an appointment for a review of their medication. Please note that this does not mean that your medication will be stopped or withheld. We are just ensuring that the medications being prescribed are the most appropriate.

*IMPORTANT* We have no GPs in surgery after 12pm this afternoon. This is due to training arranged for all West Norfolk GPs by the CCG as per the directive from NHS England.
If you require an urgent appointment or home visit for today please call 111 and speak to the Out Of Hours service.
... Our Nurse clinics and all other services are unaffected.
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Update for last week dated 25/03-30/03: Appointments booked: 1847 Patients did not attend: 103 Home Visits made: 72