MID DOWNS MEDICAL PRACTICE
Newick Health Centre and Chailey Surgery
PRACTICE NEWSLETTER
February 2015
 Online Appointment Booking and Prescription Ordering
You can now book an appointment with your doctor online by signing up for the Patient
Access service. You can also order your repeat prescriptions online too. The online
system will be developed even further over the next few months and patients will also be
able to access a summary of their medical records on line (medications and allergies).
Please ask at reception for details of how to register for this service. You will need to
provide ID to register.
 Friends of Newick Health Centre – Public Defibrillators
Mr Peter Todd, Secretary for the Friends of Newick Health Centre has arranged for several
defibrillators to be available in and around Newick. There is now a public defibrillator
mounted near the front doors of Newick Health Centre which is accessible at any time for
emergencies – whilst waiting for the emergency services to arrive. Our thanks go to the
Friends of Newick Health Centre for their generous contribution to the safety and welfare
of our patients.
 Congratulations to Dr McGuire and Dr Sheppard
Dr McGuire had a baby boy just before Christmas and Dr Sheppard’s wife has just had a
little baby girl. Our congratulations to both families. Dr McGuire will be on Maternity
leave until after the summer and Dr Amy Nunn will continue to look after her patients in
the meantime.
 Local Alzheimers Patient Support Group
Mr David Kirby is forming a small group in Newick for carers of patients with Alzheimers
or other forms of dementia. He is hoping to arrange regular meetings and will invite along
experts to talk about finance, Powers of Attorney and various other relevant subjects. If
you are a carer of somebody with Alzheimers and feel you would benefit from attending
this support group, please contact David Kirby on 01825 723449 for further information.
 NHS Health Checks
The NHS Health Check programme is for adults in England aged between 40 and 74.
If you're invited for an NHS Health Check you'll be offered a series of routine tests that
will help identify your risk of developing heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and type
2 diabetes. You'll then be given advice on what action you can take to lower your risk
and improve your chances of a healthier life. For example, making changes to your diet
or becoming more active. We will be inviting eligible patients over the next few
months but if you are interested in attending for a check please speak to the reception
team to book an appointment.
 Patient Survey
Friends and Family Test – NHS England have asked us to conduct a simple survey in
which we will ask patients if they would feel happy to recommend our surgery to their
friends and family (to be answered with the assumption that they live locally). We will
also be asking for any additional comments or suggestions regarding our services and any
improvements we could make. This survey is available both online and within the
surgeries and we appreciate all feedback .
 Training Practice
We are a Training practice and we undertake the training of GP Registrars who are
hoping to become GPs of the future. GP Registrars are fully qualified hospital doctors
who are now specialising in General Practice. We also have undergraduate medical
students placed with us. You will be asked if you are comfortable with seeing a
trainee or student before your consultation and you may request that you are only
seen by a GP.
 Friends of Newick Health Centre – Car Driving Service
Are you interested in volunteering for the Car Driving Service? This is a service run by
the Friends of Newick Health Centre to bring less mobile patients into the practice for
their appointments. If you have a few hours to spare one day each month and feel you
would like to help please contact Julia Beard – Practice Manager for more details.
 Suggestions, Comments, Complaints and Compliments
We welcome feedback from all of our patients regarding the services we provide and how
we may improve upon them. Let us know what you feel is or isn’t working well. We
welcome constructive criticism and it is also nice to know when we have got it right.
Please contact the surgery with your feedback – either via the reception team or directly
to the Practice Manager - Julia Beard Tel: 01825 722272
Email address: julia.beard@nhs.net
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