Winter Newsletter 2023

We remain extremely busy and thank you to everyone for bearing with us during these very pressured times. 

Your GP is not the only health care professional who can help you. We have joint specialists who can help with any musculoskeletal problem. Sore hips, backs, wrists, shoulders etc. They can organise scans, give steroid joint injections and refer on for physiotherapy. Clinical Pharmacists can help with any medication query, manage high blood pressure and HRT. Social Prescribers can help with any social issues such as debt, grief, mental health problems and loneliness. We can also provide gardening therapy if you fancy getting your wellies on. Our receptionists are trainined in pointing patients in the right direction so please do take full advantage. 

Our Therapy garden has won a highly commended award at the Kent Mental Wellbeing  Awards

We may ask you to attend a Same Day GP service that is running out of Sevenoaks Hospital. This service has been set up to help alleviate winter pressures in GP surgeries so please be prepared to travel if asked.

Autumn Covid Booster Vaccinations

Those eligible are:

• Residents in care homes for older adults
• Frontline health and social care staff
• All adults aged 65 and over
• Those aged 6 months to 64 in clinical at risk groups, including pregnant women
• Those aged 12 to 64 who are household contacts of immunosuppressed people
• Carers aged 16-64

To book your Covid booster please call 119 or book online.

We are unable to book these appointments at the surgery

Staff Changes

We were sorry to see Dr Parkinson leave earlier in the year but we are very excited to have Dr Ismail Ozsoykal  join us as a salaried GP towards the end of the year. Dr Ozsoykal has been a registrar with us under the supervision of Dr Turner and Dr Whillier so many of you may well have come across him already.

Prescriptions

Please remember we do not take prescription requests over the phone. Our prescription query line is open between 11-12 and 3-4. We only take prescription requests over the phone if you are housebound

Referrals

If you have a query regarding a referral please speak to our team between 10-11 and 2-3

Results

We have extended our opening times to obtain results from 12-3 to 11-3.

Patient Participation Group (PPG)

Our group meets four times a year to discuss all issues surrounding the surgery. It gives a platform for patients to make positive suggestions about the practice, and to be an advocate for patient preferences when appropriate. It provides a means for practice staff to inform patients about the reality of running a General Practice. Our PPG represents the whole practice population, not personal or individual views. If you would like to get involved please speak to the practice manager, Sarah Baker or simply turn up to the next meeting. This is at 6pm on the Wednesday 17th January 2024.

You can see the minutes of previous meetings on our website

A synopsis is also displayed in the waiting room and will shortly be posted on our Facebook page.

Car Parking

As many of you know we have engaged with a car park management company to help us with unscrupulous members of the public who use our car parks as free public car parks. Patients and staff were struggling to park and we received many complaints. We felt we had no option but to introduce these measures. Please do not forget to register your number plate on the tablet, either on the ground floor, or first floor waiting room. 

Patient Survey

Thank you to all those who responded to our patient survey. We are pleased to say 66% of comments were positive.

One of the main themes that came out of the survey is face to face GP appointments. Due to the sheer volume of patients that need medical attention we are not at this time able to offer routine face to face appointments with a GP. If we were to reintroduce GP face to face appointments the wait for an appointment could be weeks as it would be impossible to see as many patients as they phone in one day.

For routine GP appointments we try wherever possible to keep the waiting time to less than 2 weeks. We regularly meet this target.

The total number of GP appointments has increased by 35% since 2019 so please consider any signposting that is offered to you, freeing up GPs to manage those problems that only GPs can manage.

Immunisations

It is important to ensure you and your children are up to date with all immunisations. There has been a decline in the MMR vaccine over the last few years which has led to a resurgence of mumps and measles.

Please see these links for all the information you require regarding MMR and vaccinations-when to have them

• MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine
• NHS vaccinations and when to have them

Carers

Carers are defined as people who look after a relative or friend who needs support because of age, physical or learning disability or illness including mental illness. If you are a carer please ask reception for a carers pack.

Personal List System

As many of you will be aware we operate a personal list system which means each of our doctors has a list of patients that they take care of. This provides continuity of care, reduces the need for patients to repeat their problems and statistically patients who have their own doctor live longer. We try to keep families together so the GP has an overview of what is going on in the family unit. This does sometimes mean patients may have to wait until their own GP is in surgery. Of course if the problem is medically urgent for that day and the GP is not in surgery the patient will be contacted by the duty doctor. 

Facebook

We now have a Facebook page which we use to promote campaigns and keep patients updated with any issues we are experiencing and updates. Search Woodlands Health Centre. We would be very grateful if you could “share” any items we post.

Contacting the Practice

Telephoning us is not the only way to contact us. Sending an eConsult is a quick and easy way to get in touch

If you do need to ring us please avoid Monday mornings if you can. This is our most busy time of the week, so if your query is not urgent please ring us at a different time. If you find there is a long wait for your call to be answered you can always book a “call back” when prompted. The system will then call you back when you are number 1 in the queue. If you do book a call back please be aware that if you ring in again the system recognises this and assumes you have spoken to us. Your call back will then be cancelled

Up and Coming Bank Holidays

We will be closed on Monday 25th, Tuesday 26th December and Monday 1st January. If you require medical help during this time please ring 111, or a medical emergency 999. We will publish details of chemists that are open over the festive period nearer the time.

Tonbridge Primary Care Network

Some of you may be aware were part of the Tonbridge Primary Care Network. We work collaboratively with four other surgeries in the local area, Warders, Tonbridge Medical Group, Hadlow Medical Centre and Hlidenborough and Tonbridge Medical group.

We have been working hard on setting up an award winning frailty service for house bound patients. We have two paramedics who visit frail, housebound patients who have an acute problem and then discuss their findings with a GP.   

Our Therapy garden has also won a highly commended award at the Kent Mental Wellbeing  Awards. 
The Tonbridge PCN is setting up a Patient Participation Group and would like at least one representative from each practice. If you feel you could give up a few hours a year and would like to join this group complete our online form.

Find out more about the Tonbridge PCN

Woodlands Mailing List

And finally if you would like to sign up to our mailing list and receive our newsletters and other useful information via email please complete the form below. 

Published: Dec 6, 2023