MAJOR OAK MEDICAL PRACTICE
Spring News letter
Contents
Practice News
Shared Consent
Comments & Answers
Carers Champion
20th – 26th April National Depression week (do you know the signs and
symptoms)?
PPG (Patient Participation Group) News Page
Voluntary Transport Scheme
The Mediterranean Diet and its Health Benefits
Kiddies Corner
PRACTICE NEWS
The practice is very pleased to announce that we have now appointed three permanent
GP’s onto the team – Dr Stephen Wormall, Dr Opeyemi Familusi (lady Doctor) and Dr
Gopinath Singaravel (better known as Dr Gopi)!! We would like to say a very big
WELCOME!!
Practice Opening Hours:
 Monday …………….. 8.00am – 6.30pm
 Tuesday …………….. 7.00am – 6.30pm
 Wednesday ……….. 8.00am – 6.30pm
 Thursday……………. 8.00am - 6.30pm
 Friday ……………….. 8.00am – 6.30pm
Saturday …………….. One Sat morning per month
In the event that the surgery is closed you can seek advice by phoning NHS 111 for non-emergency
symptoms, or by contacting your pharmacist. If these services suggest you need to seek urgent care
then Primary Care 24, right next to the Emergency Department at King's Mill Hospital, provides a 24
hour walk in service. Out of Hours operates when the GP Surgery closes to the time it opens in the
morning. If you require urgent attention during these hours, appointments are made through 111
and you will be seen at your local Out of Hours Service provider.”
Closure for Compulsory Staff Training
The surgery will be closed from 12.00 noon on the following Wednesdays for compulsory
staff training:



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13th May 2015
10th June 2015
8th July 2015
9th September 2015
11th November 2015
The practice has been awarded a Certificate of Achievement (Gold Award) By
PENINSULAR BUSINESS SERVICES – FOR COMMITMENT TO A HIGH STANDARD OF
EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES!! … All down to the hard work and commitment of Jacquie our
Practice Manager who continues to work tirelessly in order to keep everything running
smoothly!!
John Eastwood Hospice – The practice made a donation of £40.00 to the hospice in lieu of
Christmas Cards
SHARED CONSENT
Shared Consent … better information = better care
Your heath record includes your medical history, details about your medication and any
allergies you may have. You can now choose whether to share these full medical details. We
use a secure electronic health records system called SystmOne. With your permission, this
system can allow clinicians to share your full record held here with other healthcare services
who are providing care for you. These other services will ask your permission to view your
record. Many organisations may use SystmOne including some out of hour’s services,
children’s services, community services and some hospitals. Sharing your health record will
help us deliver the best level of care for you. You have two choices which allow you to
control how your record is shared. You can change these choices at any time by letting the
practice or relevant service know.
Sharing OUT - This controls whether your information recorded at this practice or service
can be shared with other healthcare services.
Sharing IN - This determines whether or not this practice or service can view information in
your record that has been entered by other services who are providing care for you, or who
may provide care for you in the future
MIG stands for Medical Interoperability Gateway and is an interface which enables health
organisations to safely and securely view predefined datasets of patient information from
the GP patient record held in the SystmOne GP clinical system. This enables clinicians
without access to a SystmOne unit to have real time and appropriate information about the
patient, to help inform their clinical decisions.
MIG is being implemented across the whole of Nottinghamshire to all the providers to help
support improvements in unplanned and urgent care. Within Newark and Sherwood it is
intended to enable the MIG facility with all the local providers as detailed in the Information
Sharing Agreement
This means that if any of our patients uses 111, EMAS, CNCS, other non-SystemOne Acute
departments or providers, then MIG will give the clinician involved in their care (with the
patient’s permission) the ability to view a predefined dataset of the patient’s information.
This is the read coded data already held in your SystmOne GP clinical system. This facility
will undoubtedly improve collaborative working across the locality and improve patient care
and experience.
Friends & Family Feedback
We would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete an NHS Friends and
Family Feedback Form.
Between January 2015 and March 2015 a total of 214 patients completed a Friends and
Family Feedback Form the results are shown in the table below:
Extremely Likely
Likely
Neither likely nor
unlikely
Unlikely
Extremely Unlikely
Don’t know
75
108
22
7
2
0
Comments & Answers
Please see below a comment selected from March:
Comment: “Normally good service, however frustrated when I have to leave the surgery in
order to book an appointment on-line”.
Our Response: The practice tries to cater for all of its patients, however this can sometimes
be difficult to achieve due the variation in peoples lifestyle. We try to take a range of
different circumstances into account when arranging the appointment rotas, for example a
certain number of appointments will be allocated to the on-line booking system, these are
to be booked by patients on line only. Such appointments are reserved for patients who
are unable to contact the surgery during normal working hours or for whatever reason,
prefer to use this facility. On-line appointments may only be used by the receptionist if the
appointment is about to expire (having not been booked) and would therefore be wasted.
Whilst the practice can appreciate the frustration of a convenient appointment not being
available to book over the counter, we hope that this clarifies the reasoning behind it.
Thank you for your understanding.
Carers Champion
Are you a carer?.......
Care in the future will be much more integrated – doctors nurses and social care staff will
work even closer to support the needs of patients, their familes and carers.
Plans are being developed to change the way in which health and social care services will be
delivered in the future across Mansfield and Ashfield and Newark and Sherwood. This is
being delivered through a programme called Better Together.
Simone is now the Carers Champion for the practice and will be more than happy to answer
any questions and provide information to carers.
20th – 26th April is National Depression Week
You could be suffering from depression without realising ………
Depression is more than simply feeling unhappy or fed up for a few days: We all go
through spells of feeling down, but when you're depressed you feel persistently sad for weeks or
months, rather than just a few days. Some people still think that depression is trivial and not a
genuine health condition. They're wrong. Depression is a real illness with real symptoms, and it's not
a sign of weakness or something you can "snap out of" by "pulling yourself together".
The good news is that with the right treatment and support, most people can make a full recovery.
How to tell if you have depression: Depression affects people in different ways and can
cause a wide variety of symptoms. They range from lasting feelings of sadness and
hopelessness, to losing interest in the things you used to enjoy and feeling very tearful.
Many people with depression also suffer from anxiety.
There can be physical symptoms too, such as feeling constantly tired, sleeping
badly, having no appetite or complaining of various aches and pains. The severity of the
symptoms can vary. At its mildest, you may simply feel persistently low in spirit, while at its
most severe depression can make you feel suicidal and that life is no longer worth living.
When to see a doctor: Most people experience feelings of stress, sadness or anxiety during
difficult times. A low mood may improve after a short time, rather than being a sign of
depression. Seek help from your GP if you think you may be depressed. If you've been
feeling low for more than a few days. Many people wait a long time before seeking help
for depression, but it is best not to delay. The sooner you see a doctor, the sooner you can
be on the way to recovery.
Sometimes there is a trigger for depression. Life-changing events, such as bereavement,
losing your job or even having a baby, can bring it on. People with a family history of
depression are also more likely to experience it themselves. But you can also
become depressed for no obvious reason.
Depression is quite common and affects about one in 10 of us at some point. It affects men
and women, young and old.
Depression can also strike children. Studies have shown that about 4% of children aged five
to 16 in the UK are anxious or depressed.
Treatment: Treatment for depression involves either medication or talking treatments, or
usually a combination of the two. The kind of treatment that your doctor recommends will
be based on the type of depression you have.
Living with depression: Many people with depression benefit by making lifestyle changes
such as getting more exercise, cutting down on alcohol, stopping smoking and eating more
healthily.
PPG NEWS
We would like to say a huge thank you to our PPG members who organised and ran this
year’s Christmas Fayre which was a huge success ….. Raising a grand total of £616.96!
This will be put towards the cost of providing and installing an electronic checking in
system for the practice!!
Also ……. The “Health Watch” Talk (organised by the PPG) at Abbey Road Centre was once
again received extremely well!!
Future Events to be held at the practice ……
We hope to be organising talks on Prostate Cancer, Incontinence and Nutrition
The PPG would like to encourage patients to become members of the “Virtual PPG” (please
ask at reception for more details)
Voluntary Transport Scheme ……
This is a service provided by volunteer in private cars who take patients to medical
appointments both within and out of Nottinghamshire.
Who can use this service … Those over 60 or under 16 together with anyone with a
permanent or temporary disability which makes using public transport difficult.
How does it work ……? Patients book through their GP Surgery or other health
professionals. They are advised of the driver, pick up time and cost in advance.
How much does it cost? …. The cost depends on the length of the journey and is
paid directly to the driver.
The Mediterranean Diet and its Health Benefits
Perhaps the world’s healthiest diet, the Mediterranean Diet is abundant in fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, and olive oil. It features fish and poultry—lean sources of
protein—over red meat, which contains more saturated fat. Red wine is consumed
regularly but in moderate amounts.
Research suggests that the benefits of following a Mediterranean-style eating pattern may
be many: improved weight loss, better control of blood glucose (sugar) levels and reduced
risk of depression, to name a few. Eating like a Mediterranean has also been associated
with reduced levels of inflammation, a risk factor for heart attack, stroke and Alzheimer’s
The typical Western diet is high in animal fats and preservatives, but low in fruit and
vegetables. Scientific research has shown that this food combination is partially responsible
for triggering many chronic diseases and cancers.
Research has also shown that following a Mediterranean diet can reduce the chance of
developing conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high
cholesterol.
General Principles
The Mediterranean Diet is not a strict list of what you should not eat. Rather, the
Mediterranean Diet is a formula for healthy day-to-day eating over the long term. Here's a
quick guide for those who would like to try it:
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Maximise your intake of vegetables, peas and beans (legumes), fruits and wholegrain
cereals.
Limit your red meat intake - fish and poultry are healthy substitutes.
Where possible, use mono-unsaturated olive oil or rapeseed oil in place of animal fat
such as butter or lard.
Limit your intake of highly processed 'fast foods' and 'ready meals', where you
cannot tell saturated fat and salt intake.
Eat no more than moderate amounts of dairy products, and preferably low-fat ones.
Do not add salt to your food at the table - there is already plenty there.
Snack on fruit, dried fruit and unsalted nuts rather than cakes, crisps and biscuits.
Drink (red) wine during meals, but no more than three small glasses per day if you
are a man and no more than two small glasses per day if you are a woman.
Water is the best 'non-alcoholic beverage' (as opposed to sugary drinks).
Happy Eating!!!
Kiddies Corner
How to grow a cress head…
You will need..
A yogurt pot
Cotton wool
Kitchen roll
Cress seeds
Water
Paint
Paint brushes
1. Take the label off the yogurt pot and paint a funny face on top.
2. Put some wet kitchen roll in the bottom and put some damp
cotton wool on top of that
3. Evenly spread some cress seeds on top of the cotton wool and
press down gently.
4. Put the pot in a warm place that gets sunlight, like a windowsill
5.
Watch the cress grow!!! (This should take approximately 7 days)
Health Word Search
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As always we would like to remind patients that this
practice operates a Zero Tolerance Policy.
Please remember it is not always the receptionists
fault! They are most likely just following orders or
simply abiding by the set policies and procedures!
Thank you for your cooperation! Have a nice
day!!