Newsletter – December 2014 edition
Introduction to Dr Palmer
One of the successes of modern healthcare
is the increased life expectancy of most of
us. As such I am committed to the practice
being responsive to the needs of our senior
citizens. I strongly believe in the value of
the personal GP as much as possible
though we are all finding the current
climate challenging.
Young people are the future of any society
and protecting them is a priority. I am the
child safeguarding lead for the practice.
I joined the West Road in 1988 after
training at Cambridge and Newcastle. I
loved the North East countryside with its
coast and hills but wanted to work in an
urban practice with a varied population. I
enjoy the variety of people who access the
West Road and over the years have worked
extensively
with
many
community
organisations including the Bangladeshi
Project, the Health and Racial Equality
Forum (HAREF) and the Health
Improvement Service for Ethnic Minorities
(HISEM) trying to ensure that everyone
gets good access to health care.
Several years ago in response to patients’
requests I developed the contraception
service in the practice (coils and implants)
and Dr Duncan now jointly runs this
valuable service.
Outside of work I swim, climb, ride, cycle
and try (sometimes unsuccessfully as some
of you are aware) to stay on my horse!
Festive Holiday Opening Hours
The practice will be closed on Christmas
Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Diabetes quickly emerged as one of the
growing health concerns (rising from 1% to
6% of the population in my time as a
doctor) and I therefore put myself forward
as the CCG Diabetes Lead for Newcastle
and I am involved in the development of
what I hope will be a more responsive
diabetes education service.
Please make sure that you order your
medication early.
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Feedback from the September Survey
Thank you to everyone who took the time
to respond to our survey in September. We
asked patients to suggest three areas that
would become part of the Practice Action
plan for the forthcoming year. It was great
to get positive feedback about our staff
team as well as your suggestions for
improvements.
Any compliments are
always shared with staff.
Introduction to Dr Palmer’s work with the
Health and Race Equality Forum (HAREF)
HAREF is a network of organisations and
individual practitioners who are focused on
reducing health and inequalities and
maximising wellbeing for people living in
black and ethnic minority communities.
Ann McNulty, chair of HAREF, wrote this
article about the work:
The Partners and the Practice Manager
reviewed every feedback item that was
received and after discussion it was agreed
that the following should form part of our
action plan:
“Over the last two years Dr Barbara Palmer
has worked closely with Dipu Ahad, HAREF,
to make sure that information about
preventing diabetes, and managing
diabetes (for those already living with it),
gets out to people across black and
minority ethnic communities. Dr Palmer's
concerns, particularly about the health of
younger
people
in
south
Asian
communities who have been diagnosed
with diabetes, and her enthusiasm for
improving people's health, was the starting
point for this productive partnership.
1. You told us that it would be better if we
opened our doors ten minutes earlier in
the mornings. We are going to review
whether we are able to provide staff to
do this and we will update you in a
forthcoming newsletter. We do want
to make visiting the surgery as
convenient as possible particularly in
the winter!
2. You asked for repeat prescriptions to
be available to order online. We will
get the facility tested and we hope it
will be available by January 2014. We
will publicise it once it is ready. You
can already book appointments on line,
just ask at reception for a password.
You need to bring photo ID in to get a
password.
3. You said it is difficult to get more than
one month’s prescription. We have just
started a new service called ‘Repeat
Dispensing’ and we would like to offer
this to many more patients in the future
if patients would like us to. It is only
suitable for certain medications at the
moment but it allows us to give the
chemist more than a month’s supply of
prescriptions to make it more
convenient for patients.
Ask at
reception for more information. We
will share future service offers in a
newsletter.
If you have any more suggestions you don’t
need to wait for the next survey, we have a
suggestions box in reception which
patients are encouraged to use. All ideas
are welcome!!
During 2013 Dr Palmer met with members
of Newcastle Bangladeshi Association,
following which a diabetes information
leaflet was produced and distributed to all
mosques, the Sikh Gurdwara, and the
Hindu Temple.
During 2014 she has been working with
HAREF, the Health Improvement Service
for Ethnic Minorities, and Newcastle
Diabetes Centre, to produce and circulate
an information leaflet about diabetes for
taxi drivers from south Asian communities.
Dr Palmer has contributed hugely to
coordinated work to improve health
outcomes for people in minority ethnic
communities. She has shared her
knowledge,
experience
and
time
generously, and inspired the HAREF team
with her passion for positive change to the
wellbeing of all of the people she serves as
a general practitioner.
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