Patients
First
The newsletter for patients of
The Grange Practice
List Size 11,896
Autumn/Winter 2014
STAFF NEWS
We are pleased to announce that we have two new GP’s joining us as
Partners. Dr Suzie Marsden will be working all day on Monday and
Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Some patients previously
registered with Dr Richardson will be moved to her list. She joined us
on the 1st October 2014.
Dr Fraser Newton joins us on the 1st November 2014. He will be
working all day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Friday
morning. He will have the remainder of Dr Richardson’s old list
transferred to his care.
DR WARD LEAVING
Dr Ward is leaving the practice at the end of January 2015. He has
been a partner at the Grange Practice since 1990 when he joined Drs
Stowe, Beale and Kitchener. He worked for a brief time at the original
premises on Grange Road before the practice moved to West Cliff
Road opposite Ramsgate Hospital. The surgery has grown from a four
doctor practice with under 7,000 patients to a seven doctor practice
with 12,000 patients. The surgery moved to purpose built premises in
2006 at the Montefiore Medical Centre. Dr Ward became senior
partner in 2011 when Dr Kitchener retired. He is going on to work for
the Care Quality Commission as a GP inspector. He will be continuing
as a sessional (locum) GP in various practices in the area. He may be
returning to the Grange Practice on an occasional basis as a locum.
NEW PATIENT REGISTRATIONS
PAGE 2
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
As we move ever closer to the list size of 12,000 patients agreed with
the ‘old’ Primary Care Trust in 2006, we will now be closing our list to
new patients on a regular basis each month to ensure that we can
safely provide care for our existing patients.
FLU CLINICS
Thank you to everyone that attended the flu clinics in October for their
vaccination, between us we raised £1,592.93 for the Pancreatic
Cancer Research Fund. We will be running the Saturday Flu clinics
on the first 2 Saturday’s in October again in 2015 so put it in your
diary! Eligible patients that have not yet received their vaccination
may make an appointment at reception.
ULTRASOUND
As some of you will be aware, the surgery provides an Ultrasound
Scanning service to local surgeries in Thanet. We have been
providing this service since 2008 and are pleased to announce that we
have ordered a new machine that will provide better quality images
and allow us to expand the service, should we wish to in the future.
We expect the machine to arrive in December.
MEDICATION
Once again, all practices across Thanet have been set some target to
improve the prescribing practices of certain drugs. There are many
drugs being looked at again this year to ensure that patients are
receiving the most appropriate drug according to current guidelines
and prescribing policy. In some cases, this is a simple switch to a
generic drug from a branded drug – this will provide the same
medicine and equivalent dose but because it is not a specific
manufacturer (branded), it is cheaper for the NHS. The majority of the
time this will not present a problem to the patient as the ‘ingredient’ is
the same. There are some medicines that are not safe to prescribe
generically (such as epileptic medication), so only those safe to switch
will be and the doctors at the Grange, review each patient individually
before apply any changes to medication to ensure that they feel itPAGE
will3
not cause any harm to the patient.
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
FRIENDS AND FAMILY TEST
From the 1st December 2014, it is a contractual requirement that the
surgery continually provides patients the opportunity to provide
feedback on the service they receive from the Doctor’s and the
practice in general. To fulfill this obligation, we have signed up to a
website called iwantgreatcare.org for patients to answer a few
questions regarding the service. The information is then available ‘real
time’ for the practice to access, analyze and respond to accordingly. If
you do not have internet access, we will be providing a manual
method of leaving feedback, in addition to feedback via text
messaging. Please provide us with your feedback so that we can
ensure we proactively manage any issues.
We will no longer have the annual questionnaires for patients to
complete.
Both the Practice Manager and the Deputy Practice Manager are
available should patients wish to discuss any issues or give positive
feedback regarding any staff members or Doctors.
NEWS FROM THE GRANGE PATIENTS’ REFERENCE GROUP
Chairman’s Jottings
There are still concerns being expressed regarding the making of
appointments and the telephone system. Certainly this has been a
topic foremost in our minds and to this end patients have been
encouraged to ‘sign up’ for the ‘on line’ service for both appointments
and to have your prescriptions repeated….literally 24/7 at any time of
day or night! However many patients have done so (most at the flu
days which is a limited age group) but for some apparent reason do
not use the service, which does concern us. Apart from being a
brilliant and user friendly facility the object is to take the pressure off
the reception staff which will give more free telephone lines to those of
NEWSLETTER
you without the convenience of a computer. More detailsEMPLOYEE
how to
sign
up to the service can be obtained from the Reception Staff so do not
delay, do it today!
PAGE 4
You may not have noticed that The Grange Patient Reference Group
(GPRG) have their own notice board in the surgery waiting room. In
order that the committee remain as transparent and informative as
possible, minutes and notices of our meeting are always on view for
you to update yourselves. John Gibbs, our Hon. Secretary keeps the
notices up to date and displays any other literature that may be of
interest to patients. The board can be found on the wall adjacent to the
magazine table. Do therefore please make a point of checking it out
while you are waiting.
Patients without their own means of transport, and who live away from
the practice do find public transport a problem. The surgery is not on a
direct route of the current bus ‘loop’ (the nearest bus stop point
being in Hereson Road) and is served very poorly by an infrequent out
of town service not covering all the areas served by the Grange
Practice. Your committee are seeking a meeting with Stagecoach
management on the issue in the hopes that the matter be addressed
sympathetically, noting that the practice serves some 12,000 patients
across our catchment area. We are not hopeful but watch this space.
The last issue saw interesting and thought provoking articles
submitted by the practice professional staff and I am assured this will
continue in future News Letters. Generally matters will concern health
issues of interest to most patients in the hope that the advice will be
‘taken on board’, and if relevant acted upon. If however you are
concerned about your own health issues do not hesitate to seek
further advice from your doctor or our nursing staff.
If you have thoughts or suggestions on any of these issues or any
matter that concerns you please write to The Hon. Secretary, GPRG
care of The Grange Practice Reception or by using our dedicated
email address at gprg@live.co.uk
Robin T.Hills, Chairman GPRG.
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
PAGE 5
On “Flu Days”
Meet GPRG Committee Members and Support a Cancer Charity
Members of the GPRG Committee, as has been the case for the past
2 years, were present on the two “Flu Days”, Saturday 4 th and 11th
October.
Whilst the main reason for our presence was to meet Patients and
hopefully, for those not already signed up, to add them to our mailing
list, Committee Members also sought Patients’ views on the Practice
performance overall and asked for suggestions for improvements
which GPRG can address. This year Patients comments were also
sought on specific topic areas such as:
 The level of use of the on-line facility for doctor appointments and
repeat prescriptions
 Experiences of those who have been involved with Telephone
Consultation with their Doctor
 Use of the self-booking in service
 Is information on delayed appointments adequate
 General telephone access experience.
A summary of Patient responses to these questions, and other
comments made to GPRG Committee Members over the two “Flu
Days”, will be fed back to the Practice Management. For now a
Summary of Responses appears in this Newsletter
This face to face contact with Patients is key in enabling GPRG to
focus on issues that really matter to them.
Committee Members were also present to support fund raising for the
Practice Charity of the Year one very close to the hearts of GPRG –
the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund in memory of Ken Bailey.
Ken was a Committee Member who died just over a year ago just 11
weeks after being diagnosed with the disease. Ken was, as well as a
valued Committee Member, an exceptionally public spirited character
with some 30 years in St Johns Ambulance services where he became
Divisional Superintendent and received the Serving Brother and
Officer Brother Awards. He was also Chairman of Age Concern and
was involved in many others public support activities
EMPLOYEEMember,
NEWSLETTER
Since his death his wife Yasmin, a current GPRG Committee
has dedicated her leisure hours, to the admiration of her fellow
Committee Members, to fund raising for research into this little known
cancer. Single handed Yasmin has raised the profile in Thanet of
pancreatic cancer and the need for life saving research; she has now
established a committed supporter group.
Yasmin was present, together with Charity Mascot Ramsden, through
the two Flu Days to both promote the fund raising raffle and talk to
Patients about the disease and her charitable efforts.
GPRG were delighted that the fund raising was again supported by the
wonderful cakes made by ex Senior Receptionist Lynda’s daughter
Sally. Those of you who experienced Sally’s array of cakes had a real
treat. Tea and coffee was also available.
The 2014 fund raising target was to equal if possible the exception
figure of last year for Help for the Heroes, we did not quite make it but
the marvellous sum of £1592.93 was raised.
PAGE 6
NOT ONLY DID YOU HAVE YOUR “JABS” BUT YOU
CONTRIBUTED MOST GENEROUSLY TO VERY DESERVING
CAUSE - THANK YOU
John Gibbs
Hon. Secretary
Grange Patients’ Reference Group
Summary of Responses to Grange Patients’ Reference Group
(GPRG) Questions
During their presence at the two Flu Days on 4th and 11th October
members of the GPRG Committee sought answers from attending
Patients to five question. Whilst the response list to these was in some
cases extensive the Tabulation below provides a summary of the most
frequent answers
Question 1 – Level of use of the on-line facility for
appointments/repeat prescriptions
 From discussions it would appear c. 50% patients
attending did not have a “computers”
 For those with “computers” a large percentage
 Do not know how to use the on-line system and need
help
 Had not picked up from the Summer Newsletter the
0700 hours booking opportunity
 Some did not realise the repeat prescription opportunity
existed
 A small percentage of Patients expressed views like “on
line is brilliant“; “love on line”
Question 2 - Experience of those who have been involved
with telephone consultation
 With the two exceptions who wanted to see their GP “face
to face” those who have been involved welcomed and
supported the move.
 Those who had no experience expressed their views that
it was a good move
 A small criticism was that if the GP call is missed, and they
will always make three attempts to contact, the procedure
has to start all over again i.e. ring Reception.
Question 3 – Experience with use of the “booking in”
screen
 The majority who use the touch screen, even those who
are not computer literate, said they found no difficulty
using the screen
Question 4 – Information provided on delayed
appointments – is it adequately
 A large number of Patients had not been informed when
doctors are running late. Example comments were:
 Not told how long was the delay
 Just sat and waited, never told how long was the delay
 Not told of delay

The majority view is that delays, where they occur, are
not excessive but there is little prior information provided
Question 5 – Telephone access experience
 The responses to this question were almost unanimous,
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
PAGE 7
EMPLOYEE
the system is poor and appears to have got worse in
the NEWSLETTER
last two years. c. 50% of the Flu Days comments were on
this inadequacy
 A selection of specific comments are
 Puts you off making an appointment
 I never use the telephone, I present myself at
Reception at 8 am
 Tends to “cut off” after a short while, no messages on
queue
 Gave up after 1½ hours and came in at 9.30 to try and
book all same day appointments
gone
 By the time you get through all “that day slots” have
gone
 Went to A & E as could not book for that day
It is accepted that there are a wide range of issues, the
GPRG Committee are to prepare a brief on their
expectations of the telephone system for the Practice to
discuss with the external provider
PAGE 8
Other comments made by Patients interviewed
 Flu Day publicity very poor – not high profile on the
Website, text facility not used to advise Patients.
 E-mailed Prescriptions are getting lost
 No doctor identified for them, seeing different doctors
each time which loses the “patient/doctor” connection
 Just presented with anew GP without prior warning
 When seeking to make an appointment Receptionists ask
questions about my medical condition/clinical symptoms
which is not right.
 There is need for appointment bookings to consider a
Patient’s transport difficulties (if made known to Reception
they will do all possible to accommodate transport timings)
9
So the above issues raised by Patients, real as they are, does notPAGE
lead
to the conclusion that the Grange Practice is poorly rated by Patients
the following are some of the observations made to GPRG Committee
Members
 Doctors are brilliant
 Have always found the Practice wonderful
 No complaints very happy with doctors
 In 32 years with the Practice all has been fine
 Very good Practice, no problem
 A lovely Practice better than most
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
Overall the great majority of Patients interviewed had, despite the
criticism of the telephone systems etc., nothing but praise for the
Practice and its staff at all levels.
Grange Patients’ Reference Group Positions’ Vacant
Honorary Treasurer wanted on the GPRG committee. Very little
commitment, with only minimum attendance at meetings required
throughout the year. Would suit any Grange Practice patient
acquainted with simple keeping of accounts and dealing with
bank matters. Apply in the first instant by writing to Mr.J.Gibbs,
Hon. Secretary GPRG at gprg@live.co.uk or for more information
and informal chat by telephoning (01843) 603340.
Training Afternoon Closures
The Practice will be closed on Wednesday 19th November 2014 from
1pm for training. We will reopen at 8am on Thursday 20th November
2014. If you require medical services whilst we are closed, please
contact NHS111 by dialing 111.
CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR OPENING
Monday 22nd December 8am – 6:30pm
Tuesday 23rd December 8am – 6:30pm
Wednesday 24th December 8am – 6:30pm
PAGE 10
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
Thursday 25th December CLOSED
Friday 26th December CLOSED
Saturday 27th December CLOSED
Sunday 28th December CLOSED
Monday 29th December 8am – 6:30pm
Tuesday 30th December 8am – 6:30pm
Wednesday 31st December 8am – 6:30pm
Thursday 1st January 2015 CLOSED
Friday 2nd January 2015 8am – 6:30pm
Saturday 3rd January 2015 CLOSED
Sunday 4th January 2015 CLOSED
Monday 5th January 2015 NORMAL SERVICE RESUMES.