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OXSHOTT MEDICAL PRACTICE
JANUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER
From the Practice and your Patient Representative
Telephone: 01372 844000
www.oxshottmedicalpractice.co.uk
Surgery hours: 08.30 – 13.00, 14.00 – 18.30
DOCTORS & STAFF
Dr. Nicholas Down, Senior Partner
Dr. Richard Draper, Partner & GP Trainer
Dr. Mark Jenkins, Partner (from 1st April 2012)
Dr. Fiona Sindall
Dr. Janet Austen
Dr. Sarah Mackay
Dr. Malagorzata Trubshaw
Dr. Richard Opoku, GP Registrar
Maureen Redington, Part Time Practice Manager
Anthea McLeish, Office manager
Rosemary Tyler, Practice Nurse
Angela Sadler, Practice Nurse
Carol Dodd, Senior Receptionist
DR. DOWN ANNOUNCES HIS RETIREMENT
In March, 2012, Dr Down will retire from the
Oxshott Medical Practice, and he shares his thoughts
with us:
“It seems a very long time since May 1985 when I
began work here at Oxshott. In those days, some of
you may remember that there were two doctors here
at the surgery - myself and Dr Richard Best. Our then
Senior Partner, Dr Glover practiced from his own
home in the village.
We had one and a ‘half’ receptionists, no computers
and a small treatment room the size of a small office.
Appointments were not bookable in advance and
surgeries were often overcrowded with patients
waiting for long periods to be seen. We were also on
duty every third night and weekends and would often
visit patients well past midnight and get up a few
hours later to start our mornings, somewhat worse
for wear.
Much has changed over the twenty six years since
then. Dr Richard Best retired in 1988 to be replaced
by Dr Richard Draper; Dr Glover retired in 1989,
and, sadly, passed away last year. Our former partner
Dr Pickin retired last year after twenty one years as a
part time partner. We’ve moved on from floppy discs
and modems to terabytes and servers. We now have
four Sessional assistant Doctors, an expanded
premises, a 24 hour blood pressure machine, an ECG,
Liquid Nitrogen, Emergency Debrillator, a Pulse
Oximeter and much more!
I decided to retire just before my 55th birthday having
thought about this for several years. It has taken a
great deal of planning to think this through, because I
will also be emigrating to the USA in June, where I will
be developing my career as a professional artist,
photographer and film maker.
I would like to express my thanks to all my patients
who have supported me over the years and who have
been patient with so many changes; to all of the staff
who have diligently helped us create a thriving family
practice; to our Sessional Doctors who have proved
invaluable; to Dr Jackie Pickin, and, of course to Dr
Richard Draper who has been a superb partner for a
quarter of a century. I have every confidence that he
will steer the practice confidently through the
turbulent waters ahead and that he and the new
Partner, Dr Mark Jenkins will continue to provide the
village with a personal and friendly style of practice for
many years to come. Thank you,” Dr Nicholas Down
CHALLENGING TIMES
“The Practice is facing an unprecedented period of
change and some major challenges. Some of these
challenges come from major changes to healthcare
and the difficult economic circumstances which prevail
and some have arisen from changes within the
Practice.
We would like to thank Maureen Redington who has
been a great help over recent months as part time
Practice Manager.
We are pleased to be able to reassure our patients
that we have an excellent group of staff and doctors
who can meet these challenges. Dr Mark Jenkins will
join us in April 2012 and we are confident that he will
make a major contribution to the future success and
development of the Practice.
We aspire to re-develop the Surgery and to take the
Practice forwards in order to offer improved services
to all our patients.
We will ask all of you to participate in a
Questionnaire soon to ascertain your views and
thoughts.
We hope that we can progress improvements to
services, premises and staffing whilst maintaining high
quality personal medical care. Such care is an
important tradition in the Practice and has been
maintained by one of the longest running unchanged
partnerships in the country. Plans will be developed
with help from patients, but only when your views
have been carefully considered. We are developing
ways of canvassing your views and ideas with the help
of patient representatives.
We will keep you
informed of progress.
Finally, we are all very sad to see Nick retiring after so
many years of hard work and loyal service as Senior
Partner. Dr Down will continue to practise until the
end of March. We will aim to make the most of the
time left before his departure.” Dr Richard Draper
To mark Dr Down’s departure, there will be a
Farewell Drinks Reception in the Oxshott Village
Hall on his last day at work which will be held on
FRIDAY 30TH MARCH, 2012 at 12.00pm – 2.00pm.
There will also be the opportunity to meet the new
Partner, Dr Mark Jenkins.
If you would like to attend, please reply to the
Surgery in writing, with the envelope marked:
“RSVP Farewell Party”. Please include your
contact details. This will give us an idea of numbers
for catering purposes. Please note the deadline to
RSVP is Monday 5th March, 2012.
FLU VACCINATIONS
The Practice holds regular Flu Clinics, and we would
like to remind those patients who are eligible for the
flu vaccination to book an appointment with
Rosemary, the Practice Nurse. We have noticed a
poor uptake by pregnant patients and would like to
urge them to book an appointment as soon as
possible. If you are a patient who is at-risk (see
guidelines below) please make an appointment as
soon as possible, whilst stocks last. Please also ask
the Nurse about Pneumococcal vaccination.
Influenza vaccine is offered annually to:
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all those aged 65 years+
all those aged six months+ in the clinical risk
groups shown below:
Those with a chronic disease:
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kidney disease
heart disease
liver disease
diabetes
respiratory disease (including asthma)
some pregnant women
AND
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front health and social care workers
those who live in long-stay care homes
those who are the sole or main carer of an
elderly or disabled person
URGENT APPOINTMENTS
An appointment which is urgent can be made by
telephoning the Surgery at 08.00am that day. The
Receptionist may ask about the urgency of the
problem. We try to fit in as many urgent
appointments as possible that morning, and would ask
that anything of a routine nature waits until another
time or day.
ROUTINE APPOINTMENTS
A routine appointment might be treatment of an ongoing condition, something with no urgency or time
limit, medication reviews, or a follow up as requested
by the G.P. These appointments can be made in
advance.
HOME VISITS
TRAINING PRACTICE
A request for a home visit should be made prior to
11.00am that morning. Please bear in mind that a G.P.
can see 3 or 4 patients in the same time it takes for a
home visit, so please do request these only when very
urgent.
We are pleased to announce that last year, we
achieved “Training Practice” status. This means that
the practice and the designated GP Trainer are
accredited for the higher Postgraduate training of
Doctors to become GPs. The Practice and the
designated GP trainer have had to achieve a number
of standards. Those Doctors training to become GPs
are called GP Registrars and are employed by the
Practice. The GP Registrar is a fully qualified Doctor
who is likely to have a lot of experience of hospital
medicine. If you are seeing a GP Registrar, you can
expect to receive the quality of service you would
receive from your own GP.
OUT OF HOURS
Please telephone 0300 130 1305 outside Surgery
hours. Outside normal Surgery hours, calls made to
the Surgery on 01372 844000 are automatically
diverted to Thamesdoc.
Alternatively, you can telephone NHS Direct on 0845
4647 to speak to a Triage Nurse.
In an emergency, such as chest pains or shortness of
breath or any other emergency, please telephone
999.
TRAVEL VACCINES
Most travel vaccines are on a private prescription and
these incur a charge over and above the normal prescription charge because travel vaccination is not in-
REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS
cluded in the services provided by the NHS. If you
We offer a repeat prescription service within 48
require any vaccinations relating to foreign travel,
hours from the time of receipt at the Surgery during
please visit our website and then make an appoint-
opening hours. Please note this does not include
ment with the Practice Nurse to discuss your travel
weekends or bank holidays. You should endeavour to
arrangements, to determine which vaccinations are
order further supplies of your medication in good
required. You are advised to make this appointment
time to be sure you do not run out, particularly when
at least 6 weeks before you travel.
the surgery is closed over Bank Holidays etc.
vaccines should be given at least 2 weeks before
Requests can also be made via ‘Lloyds Pharmacy’ on
you travel to allow the vaccinations to work. We
the High Street in Oxshott, or if you prefer they can
have plans to improve this service with a new Travel
be collected by arrangement.
Clinic, and we will inform patients when this service is
Whenever possible
please use the printed repeat prescription sheet is-
Generally
available.
sued with your last prescription and complete by ticking only the items required.
REMINDERS OF APPOINTMENT
In our last Newsletter, we asked that any patients
TEST RESULTS
Please telephone the Surgery between 3.00pm –
5.00pm to receive the results of any tests. Results
cannot be given out at any other time, as the telephone lines are very busy.
wishing to be reminded of their appointment by text
or email to register their details at Reception. If you
are interested in this service for the future, please do
ensure that your details (mobile number and email
address) are registered at Reception.
WEBSITE
Our website covers many Q&A, so please do take a
look, as this could save you time rather than
telephoning the Surgery.
www.oxshottmedicalpractice.co.uk
PRIVATE PATIENTS
Some patients wish to register as private patients, and
the Practice welcomes new private patients. Not all
patients are eligible for NHS care and some patients
have insurance which covers primary care. There is a
private patient website which outlines this service.
This will be developed and improved.
Much has changed in healthcare and the wider world,
and we do face challenging times. However, this
Practice is enthusiastic about the opportunities to
improve and develop medical services for patients in
Oxshott. Considerable progress has already been
made with these improvements. We look forward to
a bright future with exciting changes in 2012 and
beyond!
A Questionnaire will be ready very soon to gather
views from as many patients as possible to ensure that
their thoughts and wishes are known. Informed by
this, we continue to progress the re-development of
the Surgery building itself, and the expansion of the
Practice. The Practice aims to deliver the best
personal medical care to all patients and we look
forward to moving forwards together.
Drs Draper, Down and Jenkins
THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Oxshott Medical Practice has its origins in the middle
of the last Century when Dr ‘Ginger’ Berridge came
from St. Thomas’s Hospital to set up a Practice in
Oxshott. He was joined some years later by Dr John
Lytle and D Richard Glover, as referred to earlier in
Dr Down’s article. All the Doctors practised from
their homes but joined together to cover holidays and
out of hours care. When Dr Richard Best joined the
Practice, he was granted the opportunity to practice
from the Village Centre, which was owned by the
Oxshott Village Trust, and in 1985 and 1989, further
extensions were built to accommodate both Dr Nick
Down and Dr Richard Draper on the retirement of
Drs Lytle and Best respectively. Soon after this, Dr
Jackie Pickin was appointed to replace Dr Glover on
his retirement.
After this time, the tradition of practising from home
ended and the advantage of shared premises and
group practice was realised.
Practice Nurses,
Community Midwives, Health Visitors and others also
then joined the Primary Health Care Team. The
teaching of medical students then began and
continued with Dr Draper’s appointment as G.P.
Tutor at St. George’s Hospital Medical School. Drs
Down and Draper carried out regular minor surgery
sessions at Cobham Cottage Hospital and had inpatient responsibilities.
HEALTH INFORMATION FOR PATIENTS
There is a reliable Patient Health Information
website available at: www.patient.co.uk which may
be able to offer you information or advice out of
hours.