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Gosforth Valley Medical Centre,
Gorsey Brigg
Dronfield Woodhouse,
Dronfield,
Derbyshire,
S18 8UE.
Tel: 01246 419040

Click here to tell us

 
Home

Welcome to our website.

We have re-designed a range of pages to provide useful information in an easily accessible form; just click on the menu list (in the left margin).  It may be worthwhile visiting the "About this web" page first: This gives an overview of the  website and how best to make use of it.

Appointments & Repeat Prescriptions On-line:

bulletBook your GP appointment online
bulletOrder repeat prescriptions online

"News & Views"

This page is for items of interest relating to the Practice; "News & Views". Such snippets relate to what's happened and happening in the Practice. (Links are provided to direct you to more information on other pages when this is available. Entries are dated so that you can readily identify when items were posted to the website.)

bullet Patient Participation Group
bullet Private Referral Letters
bulletExtended Opening Hours (***Important news***)
bullet Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire
bullet Patient Experience Survey (PES)
bullet Improving Practice Questionnaire results
bullet NHS Care Record Spine (CRS or "Data Spine")
bulletNew links: Making Sense of Health & Health at Work
bullet New Doctors @ Gosforth Valley Medical Centre
bullet F2 doctors
bulletChronic Kidney Disease
bullet Sentinel Practice for Flu (& other illnesses)
bulletInternet Access
bulletQOF league tables
bullet STDs (Sexually Transmitted Infections)
bulletMinor Injuries
bullet Quality & Outcome Framework (QOF) results

The next Patient Participation Group: Wednesday 24/09/08 (7:15pm for a 7:30pm start; finish time ~9:00+pm) at the Gosforth Valley Medical Centre.

On the agenda: -

bullet Refining plans for the next Open Health Education event on Prostate Problems.
bulletPlans for further Open Health Education meetings.
bullet Review of funding of the PPG.
bullet Practice news.
bullet PPG news
bulletAOB.

See the PPG page for more details.

I hope to see you there!

Private Referral Letters:

Where patients want private referral letters at short notice, (thus expecting their letter to take precedence over other letters), the Practice will do these according to the following priorities: -

bulletClinical urgency
bulletChronological order

Extended Opening Hours:

Since 1/04/2008, in line with Government directives, the Gosforth Valley Medical Centre is now open from 08:00 - 18:30hrs.

This includes reception at lunchtime from 12:30 - 13:30hrs.

In addition, the Practice is open late on Tuesday evenings from 18:30 - 20:30hrs for GP consultations only.

Home visit requests made after 18:30hrs should be referred to the Derbyshire Health United Out-Of-Hours service, and not the practice.

These consultation slots are particularly provided for people who work and find attending the practice difficult during working hours, but can be used by anyone (although if you can attend during the day, we would appreciate being able to keep the late evening appointments open for those who need them).

These appointments are available only to patients registered with the practice, including those registering for the first time during one of these sessions.

Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire:

The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) that was undertaken in January/February based on 400 responses, is now available to read. Click here. Thanks to all who contributed to this piece of work: Your feedback is both valuable & appreciated!

The Patient Experience Survey (PES):

You may be aware through the press, TV, radio and internet that the government has published details of a survey it organised into patients’ experience of GP servicesAs a practice which values communicating with you – our registered patients – we thought you might like to have some information about this survey.  

The survey questions

Overall, around two and a quarter million patients in England responded to a questionnaire asking how easy it is to:

bullet contact the practice by telephone
bullet consult a GP within two working days
bullet book ahead for non-urgent appointments
bullet make an appointment with a particular GP

Patients were also asked for their views on their practice’s opening hours.  A separate postcard questionnaire asked patients who had been referred to hospital whether a choice of hospital had been offered at the point of referral.

The results: patient satisfaction with access according to the survey

The survey revealed the following results for England:

bullet

86 per cent of people reported that they were satisfied with their ability to get through to their doctor's surgery on the phone.

bullet

86 per cent of people who tried to get a quick appointment with a GP said they were able to do so within 48 hours.

bullet

75 per cent of people who wanted to book ahead for an appointment with a doctor reported that they were able to do so.

bullet

88 per cent of people who wanted an appointment with a particular doctor at their GP surgery thought they could do this.

bullet

84 per cent of people said they were satisfied with the current opening hours in their practice.

bullet

94 per cent of people who were referred by a GP discussed choice of hospital.

 

 This practice’s results

We are happy to report that this practice’s results were as follows:

bullet

98% of people reported that they were satisfied with their ability to get through to their doctor's surgery on the phone.

bullet

95% of people who tried to get a quick appointment with a GP said they were able to do so within 48 hours.

bullet

98% of people who wanted to book ahead for an appointment with a doctor reported that they were able to do so.

bullet

94% of people who wanted an appointment with a particular doctor at their GP surgery thought they could do this.

bullet

91% of people said they were satisfied with the current opening hours in their practice.

bullet

17/17 = 100% of people who were referred by a GP discussed choice of hospital.

 

We welcome opportunities for patients to have their say about the service our practice provides and that includes the ability to access our services.  We are however concerned that this national survey, which cost the government around £11 million pounds, was a bad use of money which could have been much better spent on patient care. 

If you wish to see the results of for this or other practices in Derbyshire County PCT, please click here.

If you wish to see the results for surgeries in other parts of the country, please click here.

 

Improving Practice Questionnaire (IPQ) results: The results of the latest quality questionnaire can be read and/or down-loaded here. They make excellent reading!

NHS Care Record Spine (CRS or "Data Spine"): The practice is becoming increasingly concerned Re. the implications of the sharing of personal clinical data when the CRS goes live.

We had hoped that the system would be one of patient "opt-in", but instead, the Department of Health (DH) have decreed that it will be patient "opt-out". In other words, if you do not want your records shared, you need to tell us.

Please see the following from the Guardian:

Wednesday November 1, 2006
The Guardian

 
Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, believes that patients do have legal rights over their medical records: "Write and insist that you are not put on the NHS data spine," Prof Anderson says. "If enough people boycott having centralised NHS records, with a bit of luck the service will be abandoned."

If you are concerned, you should discuss it with your GP. You can put a block on your own data by writing to:

The Secretary of State for Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall Terrace
London SW1A 2NS

And send the same letter to your GP.

It should say:

"Dear Sir/ Madam

I require you not to begin processing my sensitive personal data to the proposed NHS Summary Care Record on the Spine. It is likely to cause me substantial unwarranted distress because:

1. No 'sealed envelopes' yet exist to limit access

2. No online patient system yet exists to correct errors

3. Data uploaded may include genetic, psychological or sexual information

4. It is intended to make my data available to social workers, researchers and commercial firms

5. My consent will not be asked before beginning processing

6. Adequate criminal penalties against abuse do not yet exist

7. Police and other agencies can gain access to a potentially unlimited range of information about me. There is abundant evidence that computer databases - including police, vehicle licensing and banking computers - are routinely penetrated by private investigators on behalf of clients, including media organisations

8. 250,000 smart cards have been issued granting access to the Spine

9. The department threatens to withhold appropriate medical care to objectors

10. Doctors say there is no necessity to design the Spine in this way

For these reasons, among others, I strongly fear that I am in danger of having false or damaging health information fall into the wrong hands. My privacy is being unnecessarily violated.

Yours faithfully"

 
 Related articles

30.11.2005: Patients fear safety risk from electronic notes
14.11.2005: NHS computer chief in line for reprimand
26.11.2004: Crash landings - government IT disasters
19.01.2005: NHS e-booking plan runs into trouble
14.01.2005: Patients can stay off NHS database

 

 The Glossary

A-Z guide to public services and voluntary sector speak
 

 Useful sites

Department of Health: information policy unit
NHS information authority
 

Making Sense of Health: A website funded by the Department of Health that aims to help school children take control of their health: See the Self Help page or  www.makingsenseofhealth.org.uk

Health at Work: A work-based health education initiative from Developing Patient Partnerships: See the Self Help page or www.dpphealthatwork.org.uk

New Doctors @ Gosforth Valley Medical Centre: We currently have two new faces at the Medical Centre!

First, Dr.Kathryn Boothroyd (started 2/8/06), an "F2 doctor". F2s will be attached to the practice for a period of just 4 months each before moving on in their training rotations back into the hospital.

Second, Dr.Julie Robinson, a GP Registrar (started 1/9/06), who will be with us for just 6 months before moving to another practice to finish her GP training.

We wish them both well in their educational journeys!

New "F2" Doctor arrives at Gosforth Valley Medical Centre: We have just started our training programme for the new "F2" (Foundation year 2) doctors. They have completed their "housejobs" (F1 year) and are embarking on 3 further jobs of 4 months each to provide newly qualified doctors with an all-round education across many specialities.

Only 50% of F2 doctors will manage a placement in General Practice in 2006/7, increasing to 80% in 2007/8 and hopefully 100% thereafter, as more training placements come "on-line".

So let me introduce Drs. Kathryn Boothroyd (Aug-Nov), Nanditha George (Dec-Mar) and Yasser Chaudhry (Apr-July).

Chronic Kidney Disease: From 1/4/06, the Government have been encouraging GPs to detect patients with the very earliest stages of kidney problems, and after assessment, start patients on a form of blood pressure treatment known as ACE-Inhibitors. This lowers the blood pressure and offers some protection to the kidneys. This will help to prevent the progression of early problems to perhaps more serious kidney disease in later years.

The practice has developed a protocol of care which explains the treatment in more depth. This can be accessed in Protocols & Audits, in the Miscellaneous section.

Sentinel Practice for Flu (& other illnesses):

The practice has joined forces with the Birmingham Research Unit of the Royal College of General Practitioners to provide daily information on the incidence and prevalence of a number of conditions, but most notably Flu and Flu-like illness. This function helps the Department of Health track emerging trends.

To this end, we now have a limited capacity to send nose and throat swabs on suitable patients for viral testing.

EMIS Access:

Internet access is now available for a number of functions: See the EMIS Access page for more details.

14/9/05: QOF League Tables:

The Government have decided to publish "league tables" (or rather spreadsheets) of practice "Quality & Outcome Framework" scores.

We were delighted to have scored 1048.9 / 1050 points, but now we can compare our achievement against all other practices in England, and so can you!

Check out: http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/qof/data/gptables/

Select "Eastern England" in the Region box, and select which Domain(s) you'd like to view.

Then open the spreadsheet, and select the "Trent" SHA tab (worksheet) at the bottom. Find "North Eastern Derbyshire" PCT, and we are practice "C81627".

16/05/05: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs):

The Practice has been expanding its services to those with Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). We have been training up the team to manage STIs without the need to go to one of the local GUM (Genito-Urinary Medicine) clinics at either CNDRH or RHH. With waits of up to 3 weeks for a routine appointment at either, why wait? 

16/05/05: Minor Injuries:

Ordinarily, most patients with injuries would perhaps think of attending A&E with Minor Injuries, but we want to try and provide the same service here in the community... without the journey, without the wait! Just walk in and explain your problem to the Receptionist who will fit you in with the most appropriate member of the team.

04/04/05: Quality & Outcome Framework (QOF) results:

We have just completed the first year of the "new" GP Contract. Part of the contract is a "Quality & Outcome Framework", intended to reward practices for achieving higher standards of care in Chronic Disease Management (e.g. Diabetes, BP, Strokes, IHD, Heart Failure, Asthma, COPD, Thyroid monitoring, Mental Health, Cancer care), administration and other targets.

A total of 1050 points are available. We aspired for top marks (1050 points), whilst the Government's expectation was for practices to achieve 770 points (average) by 1/4/05.

We actually scored 1048.9 points! This represents a tremendous achievement by all of our staff. Naturally, this year, we hope to hit the full 1050 points.

 

 

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