Seaford Medical Practice

01323 490022

Information and update messages for our patients

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Improvements to your Services

There have been recent communications regarding the pending retirement of two of our GPs and another who is taking up a career opportunity. We fully understand the concern this may well have given to our patients.
We have been busy behind the scenes looking at how best we can offer our patients the best service and care.
High levels of demand on our service has continued, and we are really keen to ensure that we find new ways of working to ensure those receiving and those delivering the service are getting the best experience possible.
We have, therefore, decided to improve access by creating an “on the day” service for those health issues that are more urgent. We will be slowly introducing this new service in the coming weeks. There will also continue to be a service available for patients with more long-term and on-going conditions.
We are delighted to announce we have employed an amazing team of highly experienced and excellent advanced clinical practitioners to support and help with providing this new service.
Patients contacting the practice will be asked a series of questions to ensure they are directed to the most appropriate healthcare appointment.
As with all changes, we’re sure there will be a few hiccups – please bear with us, we will do everything we can to minimise these.
We hope you will find this new service a beneficial addition to your Practice.
Feedback is always welcome.

 

Update 28 April 2022

  • If you contact Reception asking for an appointment, the Reception staff are authorised by GPs to ask for a brief reason and may advise you accordingly. This can include recommending that you phone 111 for advice.

 

  • If you have a GP appointment, this will generally be a telephone call to begin with.

 

  • If the GP needs to see you in person after speaking with you, they will arrange this with you.

 

  • All healthcare is still under extreme pressure due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic and this is likely to continue.

 

  • Even with all doctors, nurses and staff working flat out, it is not possible to provide an identical service to the service that existed before the pandemic.

 

  • Your understanding and courtesy towards our staff is appreciated. We are continually working on ensuring the best service possible is provided to our community.

 

 

Archive

Posted: 27th January 2022

Despite new rules being announced by Government today, please be aware that how we continue to provide services to you remains unchanged and the protection of our patients and staff remains paramount.

Please be reminded:

  • Do not come to the surgery if you have any symptoms of corona virus – high temperature, a new continuous cough and loss or change to your sense of smell and taste.
  • Please continue to wear a mask when visiting the surgery for appointments.
  • Please only attend if you have an appointment and don’t arrive earlier than required.

We appreciate that there are difficulties with waiting times and services throughout the NHS and especially within hospitals. Everyone in the NHS is working hard to provide the best care they can, we thank you for your patience.

 

 

Posted: 28th October 2021

Following all recent media campaigns re: GP Access and the government’s response of a £250m support package, we thought it was a good opportunity to provide you an update with Seaford Medical Practice’s response. Obviously, we know there are national variations to GP access, but would like to speak for ourselves and be clear;

 

  • We are seeing more and more patients face to face– Our GP team continue to prioritise face-to-face appointments for those patients who need to be seen, following an initial telephone consultation.
  • Patient demand is higher than ever – and a key reason why it is proving difficult to get an appointment. Our full time GP Partners now have over 2000 patients on each of their lists.
  • Getting more GPs is not simple – We have 18 GPs at Seaford Medical Practice and that is still not enough Doctors to meet demand. There is a national shortage of GPs and more importantly, we have no room for any more staff. SMP is bursting at the seams and exactly why Seaford desperately requires a new or expanded GP Practice.
  • A balance between calls and face to face appointments is still necessary– Not only is it the most efficient way to manage current patient demand, many of our patients prefer for matters to be dealt with quickly and effectively over the telephone. In addition, many have embraced video consultations via the LIVI GP service.
  • Don’t believe everything you read in the papers– The media is plagued with misinformation and does not represent what is happening in reality within your local GP surgery.
  • COVID remains a massive problem, it has not disappeared– and, together with Flu & other winter viruses circulating, is why we continue to take infection control seriously. This is to protect both staff and patients. If all of our doctors, nurses and other health care workers move back to seeing everyone face to face, the waiting room will contain up to 60 people, including our most vulnerable patients, which would be irresponsible.
  • GP/Nurse workload – our GPs are working at least 12 hour days, dealing with current demand and the work that our hospitals cannot cope with. Our Nursing Team are working 6 days per week to provide our patients with their flu vaccinations in addition to routine care. To suggest they are “doing nothing”, “cowering in the shadows”, ”refusing care”, or “putting barriers to healthcare” is not true.

We know there is a lot of frustration regarding access to the practice and long wait times on the telephone. We are taking over 4000 calls a week and still cannot keep up with demand.  So, in an effort to alleviate this;

 

  1. We are installing a new telephone system – This should go live late November.
  2. We are opening reception– From Monday 1st November, we will be opening one of our reception desk between 09:00 and 16:00, to answer patient’s queries and make appointments.  Please note this will entail a queuing system inside (maximum 9) and outside, as we continue to limit the number of patients in the waiting room.

 

Please note that whilst the above will provide an alternative form of contact from our telephone system, it does not guarantee an appointment. Please continue to be understanding and polite to our receptionists, who are doing their best to support you.

THANK YOU for being great patients who we all love looking after.

 

Posted: 16th July 2021

It has always been our intention to open up the Practice, in line with the easing of current government restrictions. However, with increasing corona virus infection rates and cases rising in our communities, protection of our patients and staff remains paramount.

How we continue to provide services to you remains unchanged. Please be reminded:

  • Do not come to the surgery if you have any symptoms of corona virus – high temperature, a new continuous cough and loss or change to your sense of smell and taste.
  • Please continue to wear a mask when visiting the surgery for appointments.
  • Please do not come to the surgery if your query can be dealt with by the telephone.
  • Please only attend if you have an appointment and don’t arrive earlier than required.

With the exception of ear micro suction, NHS Health checks and travel vaccinations, we have restored the full range of our services to pre-pandemic levels and we continue to work hard on increasing the volume of these services.

We appreciate that there are difficulties with waiting times and services throughout the NHS and especially within hospitals. Everyone in the NHS is working hard to provide the best care they can, we thank you for your patience.

 

Posted: 18th June 2021

Following the recent Government announcement to delay the lifting of Covid restrictions to the 19th July, we wanted to share our revised plan for the restoration of Patient Services at Seaford Medical Practice (SMP). We shared this with you back in May. The main change is the need to delay the opening of our front reception. We will now reluctantly delay this until 19th July. Just as a reminder, here is our plan for the restoration of patient service;

  • Telephone GP Appointments – As planned, from 21st June, SMP will reintroduce pre-bookable phone appointments, available up to two weeks in advance. In addition, phone appointments will continue to be available on the day. If, following phone consultation the GP feels a face-to-face appointment is needed, the GP will invite the patient in for an appointment that day.
  • Appointments with our Nursing Team (Nurses, Health Care Assistants & Phlebotomists) – The Nursing team commenced seeing patients face-to-face from April for diabetes, asthma and COPD reviews. In addition we are now pleased to offer 24 Hr Average Blood Pressure monitoring and Ear Syringing. Looking forward we will re-introduce the following services;
  • Self-test Blood Pressure – The machine will be back in the waiting room from 19th
  • Ear Micro Suction – From 1st August
  • Travel Vaccinations – From 1st August
  • Annual Health Checks – From 1st October
  • New ways of working & use of other health care professionals – Throughout the pandemic our clinical staff and patients have worked differently using telephone, texts and internet resources and we will continue to promote these methods to provide best care.  Our receptionists have been trained to help direct you to an appropriate member of a wider community of clinicians. For example; you can use LIVI to book a video consultation with GP’s, who are commissioned to work for us. Mental health issues can be directed to Health in Mind, a self-referral service and Physiotherapists, are able to see patients with muscle and bone problems. When our receptionists advise you of these services, we appreciate you following their suggestion, so that you can get the relevant help as soon as possible.
  •  Front Door, Waiting Room & Reception Desks – From the 19th July, our reception and registration desks will be open, subject to any further government announcement.

 Additional Information & Support;

Patient Back Log – This continues to be a huge issue and challenge for our patients, admin staff, GPs and Nursing team alike. We will do our best to catch up with this huge backlog, but the reality is that it will take many months. This is far from ideal, but we are limited by the number of GPs, nursing team, other clinicians and space in our premises. We are sorry about the current situation, which is not what SMP want, but we feel it is important that we are open and honest with our patients. To support you further please see following helpful links,

Please Be Kind:

We are very grateful for the support and understanding we have had from the majority of our patients through the COVID period and the challenges we have faced in providing health services. Please remain supportive of us as we look to restore our services and then gradually catch up with the huge backlogs. Please be kind and polite to all our staff as we do this. We really are trying to do the best for our patients. Please also have in mind that we have a zero-tolerance policy on verbal or physical abuse towards our GPs, Nursing team and Reception / Administration staff.

Thank you for your support.

The Partners at Seaford Medical Practice

18th June 2021