www.whitecliffpractice.co.uk
Whitecliff Surgery, Whitecliff Mill Street
Blandford Forum, Dorset, DT11 7BH
Dr Evans,
Dr Ford, Dr Nixon,
Dr Berry, Dr Slater,
Dr Sword, Dr Nankervis
& Mrs. C. Tilley
Child Okeford Surgery, Upper Street
Child Okeford, Dorset, DT11 8EF
WHITECLIFF GROUP SURGERY NEWSLETTER – AUTUMN 2015
CHANGES TO OUR TEAM

Dr Slater is on maternity until August 2016; her maternity leave is being covered by Dr
Stephanie Martindale.

Dr Purcell is on maternity leave until June 2016; her maternity leave is being covered by Dr
Catherine Hill.

Dr Tracey Wall and Dr Lara Wear joined us in August.
JOINT WORKING - THE SURGERY & BLANDFORD HOSPITAL
The Whitecliff Group Practice GPs are now working with Blandford Hospital to undertake daily
weekday ward rounds at the community hospital. The ward rounds will usually be conducted
by Dr Wear and Dr Jones, who will also meet with the lead consultant on a weekly basis.
This is excellent news for patients and the GP team. This is a significant step to improving the
continuity of care for our patients who spend time on the wards.
DO I NEED TO SEE THE DOCTOR OR THE NURSE PRACTITIONER?
Nurse Practitioners are trained specialist nurses who have undertaken additional education in
order to provide advanced nursing care and they can prescribe some medication.
Our Nurse Practitioner (Nicola Bennett) can provide treatment and advice for many problems
for which you may have seen a doctor for in the past. Her main areas of expertise are in the
management of common illnesses.
Same day Nurse Practitioner appointments are available every weekday for common illnesses.
Routine appointments are also available if you prefer to book in advance.
Our Nurse Practitioner can assess and examine you, make a diagnosis and provide advice and
treatment including a prescription if required. They can make referrals to hospital doctors or
other health care professionals, and admit patients into hospital when necessary.
Unfortunately, they are unable legally to sign a sick certificate, so you will need to see your own
GP for this.
They work closely with your GP and liaise frequently with her/him about your care.
Our Nurse Practitioner can provide same day appointments for:

Wounds, scalds, burns, rashes

Acute back pain, joint sprains

Shingles

Oral thrush

Acute chest infection

Dizziness, giddiness, unusual headache

Conjunctivitis, sticky discharging eye, sty

Diarrhoea, constipation, piles

Vomiting

Urinary tract infections, cystitis

Vaginal thrush soreness, lump or discharge

Tonsillitis, earache, cough, swollen glands, sinusitis, sore throat, colds and flu-like
illnesses, raised temperature that show no improvement after one week of pharmacists’
advice and home treatment. NB. a cough may persist for up to three or four weeks
after other cold/flu symptoms have gone.
VACCINATIONS
FLU VACCINATIONS: Flu vaccinations are available to all patients over the age of 65, pregnant
women and patients over six months of age with a long term illness such as diabetes, heart
disease, lung disease, or Kidney disease. We will be inviting these groups of patients to attend,
but if you already know you are entitled to a flu vaccine, please contact the surgery to make an
appointment. Children under the age of 18 do not need an injection, but the vaccine is
administered by a nasal spray which is effective more quickly, and lessens distress to children.
Injected flu vaccines take two to three weeks to be fully effective. So we aim to complete our
flu campaign early in the winter.
SHINGLES VACCINATION: A vaccine to prevent shingles, a common, painful skin disease is
available on the NHS to certain people in their 70’s. The shingles vaccination is given as a single
injection, you only need to have the vaccination once and you can have it any time of the year.
The shingles vaccine is offered routinely as part of the NHS vaccination programme for patients
aged 70, 78 or 79. But from September 1st 2015, the shingles vaccine will be offered routinely
to patients aged 70, 71, 72 or 78.
Men ACWY VACCINATION: Young teenagers, sixth formers and university freshers students are
now routinely offered a vaccination to prevent meningitis ACWY disease. The Men ACWY
vaccine protects against four different causes of meningitis and septicaemia – meningococcal
(Men ACWY diseases.) All 17 – and 18- year olds in school year 13 and first-time university
students up to the age of 25 are eligible for the Men ACWY vaccine this autumn.
MEN B VACCINATION: The Men B vaccine will prevent your baby against infection by
meningococcal group B bacteria, which can cause meningitis and septicaemia (blood
poisoning). Men B is a new vaccine to prevent meningitis will be offered to babies as part of the
routine NHS childhood vaccination programme from September 1st 2015. The Men B will be
offered to babies aged 2 months, followed by a second dose at 4 months, and a booster at 12
months. There will also be a temporary catch-up programme for babies who are due their 3 and
4 month vaccinations in September 2015, to protect them when they are most at risk from
infection. The vaccine is given as a single injection in into the baby’s thigh.
PLEASE CONTACT RECEPTION TO BOOK YOUR VACCINATIONS
SMOKING IN VEHICLES
Update on new law on smoking in cars and other vehicles with someone under 18.

It's illegal to smoke in a vehicle with anyone under 18

It is illegal to smoke in a car (or other vehicle) with anyone under 18. The law changed
on 1 October 2015, to protect children and young people from the dangers of secondhand smoke.
Both the driver and the smoker could be fined £50. The law applies to every driver in England
and Wales, including those aged 17 and those with a provisional driving licence.
The law applies:

to any private vehicle that is enclosed wholly or partly by a roof

when people have the windows or sunroof open, or the air conditioning on

when someone sits smoking in the open doorway of a vehicle
The law does not apply to:

e-cigarettes (vaping)

a driver who is 17 years old if they are on their own in the car

a convertible car with the roof completely down
Every time a child breathes in second-hand smoke, they breathe in thousands of chemicals.
This puts them at risk of serious conditions including meningitis, cancer, bronchitis and
pneumonia. It can also make asthma worse.
NEWS FROM THE PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP
UPDATE FROM THE CHAIR
The next meeting of the patient Group takes place on Tuesday 27 October and the committee
would be pleased to hear from any patients who have issues they’d like us to discuss with the
partners who attend the meeting on behalf of the practice, or indeed any comment on this
report or any aspect of our activities. Please email me at gwyn.bates@hotmail.co.uk, or write
to me care of one of the surgeries. Meanwhile, here’s an update on current activity.
Working with the Surgery
The practice continues to invite a member of our group to be involved in interviews for new
staff at the practice to give a patient perspective on the candidates. 2 new experienced nurses
have been recently appointed to make a great addition to the team, one to cover maternity
leave.
At our last meeting we discussed recent local press comment about pharmacies in Blandford
and also the fact that there is only cover to 6.30pm at one branch of Boots.We were reassured
that it is possible for the Whitecliff pharmacy to issue emergency supplies of urgent medicines
prescribed after 6.30pm and we were told that NHS England Commissioning are aware of these
local issues.We have asked the practice to continue to raise our concerns with Dorset Clinical
Commissioning Group. Meanwhile, we believe the staff at the 3 branches of Boots in the town
work hard to provide a great service sometimes under difficult circumstances and staff
shortages.
We continue to talk to the practice about facilities at the surgeries and we are pleased to see
our suggestion about providing more mobility friendly seating has been taken up and we hope
this helps make life a little easier for our less mobile patients.
Finally, well done to everyone at the surgery for making everything work like clockwork this
year at the first Whitecliff flu clinic on 10 Oct. Members of the group attended to speak to
patients to ensure email and mobile phone number details were up to date and adding people
to the mailing list for info and newsletters issued by the surgery.We also had a stand providing
info to anyone who might be classed as a carer. It's very important for the surgery to know
which of it's patients do act as carers for family or friends and so ,If you are a carer and are not
aware that the surgery knows this, do please get in touch with Debbie Collins at Whitecliff . She
maintains these records for both surgeries. We will be attending the flu clinic on 24 October too
so come and talk to us! We are sorry we can't cover at the Child Okeford clinic this time.
Working with the Community
As Chair of our group I was invited to attend a recent workshop aimed at local healthcare
workers. GPs, Nurses, Occupational Health Workers, Social Services, etc. The aim was to
explore how to further improve the way in which integrated care is delivered to those with
complex needs following illness and discharge from hospitals and who need on-going support.
It was great to see improvements are being made to the way in which community based
services work better together.
Also at our last committee meeting we were pleased to welcome Sue Inman from Dorset
Partnership for Older people (POPP) who explained how their wayfinders can help older people
access help and services they need. The vision of Dorset POPP is 'to build supportive
communities to enable older people to remain living in their own homes for as long as they
wish' by developing responsive, appropriate services and activities at a localised level.
Managed by Help and Care, Way Finders work flexibly, managing their own diary to suit what's
happening in their local communities. They base themselves in convenient locations such as
libraries, GP surgeries, community pharmacies or supermarkets, so you can find them easily
and ask for their help.
Visit- https://www.dorsetforyou.com/popp if you know someone who could use their help.
Working with the wider NHS
As previously reported in these newsletters, members of the patient group have been taking a
close interest in the Clinical Services Review being undertaken by Dorset Clinical Commissioning
Group (the CCG). Shortly after our last newsletter went out, the CCG took the decision to delay
the public consultation exercise which had been due to start in August to allow further work to
be done to ensure any proposals properly reflect how local health services will dovetail with the
work of the county's 3 acute hospitals. We expect the review work to continue into next year
now and the patient group will watch carefully how things develop.This review is designed to
come up with options for the future delivery of all clinical services in the County in light of the
squeeze on funding for the NHS which is currently being well publicised in the media. We
recommend you look out any news about the review. After all this will affect EVERYONE !
The current situation and recent
www.dorsetsvision.nhs.uk/news/
press
releases
can
be
found
by
visiting:
A date for your diary
Patient Participation group members from across the north and west of Dorset are organising a
networking event on Saturday 21 November at Charlton Down Village Hall near Dorchester
from 11am- 4pm. This is for anyone interested in the work of patient groups and how they can
be supported to deliver better services at GP practice level. More detail to follow as soon as
possible.
Ms Gwyn Bates
Chair, Whitecliff Group Practice Patient Participation Group
FACEBOOK:
Did you know Whitecliff Group practice now has a Facebook page? Follow it by searching for
The Whitecliff Group Practice.