THE LANGTON MEDICAL GROUP

Latest News:  Prescription Changes

Despite having much less money to spend, the government has promised to maintain front line NHS services.  This can only be done if “efficiency” savings are made within the NHS.  The cost of drugs is one area where efficiency savings can be made by using less costly but equally effective alternatives.  The Langton Medical Group have been asked to make savings of £50,000 in the year to April 2011.  20% of these savings will be retained by the practice to pay for the work involved and employment of a pharmacist.  You may notice some small changes to your prescription which we hope you will accept.  If there are very special circumstances which make this difficult please let us know.

Recent changes in doctors:

Andrew Hall has been with us since 1978 and is ready for a quieter life with his horses.  He has now reduced his commitment to two days per week (details with Reception).  However, as he will no longer be attending regularly at the Whittington Surgery or at St Giles’ Hospice, and will have less administrative work, he will be available at Langton Grange Medical Centre for about two thirds of his previous time there.

Ros Hallifax has been with the Practice since 1984 and she too will reduce to working on just two days per week and not attend the Whittington Surgery regularly.

Jeremy Duncan Brown has been with the Practice since 1973 and plans to retire during the summer of 2010, possibly at the end of May.  He may reappear occasionally after that to do a few locum sessions but will not have any continuing regular presence.

In place of the old hands there arrives new blood and fresh energy:

Dr Torquil Duncan-Brown joined the Partnership on 1 November 2009.  Torquil is a graduate of St Andrew’s and Manchester Universities, qualifying in medicine in 1999.  Since then he has gained wide experience of both hospital medicine and General Practice, both here and in Australia.  He is a Member of both the British and Australian Colleges of General Practitioners.  He will take over Dr Hallifax’s responsibilities in Paediatrics and will give a lead on matters to do with our community hospital.  Outside of medicine Torquil’s chief interests are skiing, music and travel.  It goes without saying that Dr Duncan Brown senior is extremely proud to have a son to “take over”.

Dr Ajaz Ahmed has been working for the Practice since May 2009 and joined the Partnership on 1 January 2010.  Ajaz is a graduate of Birmingham University, qualifying in medicine in 2004.  As well as medicine he has a first class honours degree in pathology. He is a Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners with distinction, an academic honour achieved by less than 5% of new General Practitioners.  Ajaz will shortly assume responsibility for teaching our doctors in training and he has taken over Dr Hall’s appointment at St Giles’ Hospice.  He is married to Nadia and they have three children.  Outside of medicine his chief interests are in the sporting arena, particularly football and badminton.

When Dr Duncan Brown senior retires in the summer it is likely that another doctor will be employed by the Practice.

As well as “regular” doctors the Practice employs doctors in training.  All these doctors have been qualified for at least a year and usually for 3 or 4 years, a few for even longer.  They do not normally spend more than a year with us and some come for only 4-6 months.

SO: Who is your doctor?

This question causes some patients a little confusion or anxiety.  All our patients are registered with the Langton Medical Group by the Primary Care Trust and your medical card will bear the name of an individual doctor.  It is helpful to both you and to us to develop a relationship with one particular doctor who will usually, but not necessarily, be the doctor named on your medical card.  If you would like your “usual doctor” to be someone different to that on your card please tell a receptionist and she will change it: this is very easy, takes only a minute and does not involve the Primary Care Trust or necessitate any changes to your card.  Of course your “usual doctor” may not be available every time you wish to see her or him, and all patients are completely free to make an appointment with any doctor, usual doctor or not.  Sometimes you will see a doctor in training or one of our Advanced Nurse Practitioners.

With regard to the recent changes in personnel:

Dr Hall will remain available to his patients on two days per week (details from Reception). At other times responsibility will devolve to Dr Duncan-Brown junior and Dr Ahmed.

Dr Hallifax’s patients will for the most part transfer to Dr Ahmed as usual doctor, but she will be available herself for some of the time.

Dr Duncan Brown senior’s patients may wish to move to Dr Duncan-Brown junior (Torquil) from the beginning of June.

There will be no change for patients of Dr Wakeman or Dr Ford.

If all that seems too complex, don’t worry.  We will look after you and you don’t need to do anything!

Nursing Staff

The Practice employs 7 nurses and in addition we have Mrs Rosie Jones who is one of our senior Partners.  There are three groups of nurses in the Practice:

Health Care Assistants carry out some medical tasks such as blood tests, electrocardiograms, breathing measurements, blood pressure measurements and a few dressings.

Practice Nurses supervise the management of chronic diseases such as heart disease, asthma, diabetes and leg ulcers, have family planning responsibilities and carry out a number of procedures including complex dressings.

Advanced Nurse Practitioners all have a Masters degree in Advanced Nursing Practice.  They undertake many of the tasks traditionally handled by doctors, including diagnosis, writing prescriptions, arranging tests, and referral.  They manage our same day appointment system.  At present we have 3 ANPs; Rosie Jones, Liz Earnshaw and Mel Hayward.  Patients can book appointments with nurses as well as with doctors.

Appointments

The demand for appointments is uneven, tending to come in waves.  Against this background we try to ensure that you can book an appointment at least 6 weeks ahead, and also be seen at short notice, either on the same day or a few days ahead.  This is not easy and we are continuously monitoring and modifying the system.  Booking well ahead is usually easy, although if you want an appointment, say only 2 days ahead, you may have to go through the same day system.  If you phone to be seen the same day you will usually be given an appointment to be seen by an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, but doctors do have a few appointments which are protected for this purpose.  Sometimes problems can be sorted out on the telephone and the receptionist answering your call may ask you a few basic questions to determine if this may be so.

Patient Participation Group (PPG)

The Practice has a Patient Participation Group (PPG).  A PPG is a sort of “friends of” group.  Through regular meetings they will develop a patient’s agenda and provide valuable feedback and support to the Practice.  This group is run by patients and not by the Practice. 

If you would like to be involved with the Group please feel free to come along to the meetings in the main surgery on:

Friday 7th May at 1.00pm, Thursday 10th June at 1.00pm, Thursday 22nd July at 1.00pm or Friday 10th September at 1.00pm.

If you cannot attend the meetings but would like to be involved we are looking at ways of having electronic discussions.  Please check this website and Practice notice boards for news of how we are progressing with this.

Practice Award

For the past 2 years the Practice has been working towards the prestigious Quality Practice Award of the Royal College of General Practitioners.  This has been very hard work, but we have now completed all the major tasks and look forward to our final accreditation visit in the spring.  Only 100 practices in England have achieved this standard, but we all felt that such splendid premises deserved a top-notch Practice.  Watch this space!

Swine Flu

The proper name is H1N1 which sounds just a little less threatening.  So far we have been fortunate in this locality to have experienced a relatively mild disease affecting not too many people.  But nevertheless we do not know what is around the corner and we urge those in risk groups, whom we are inviting, to take up the offer of immunization.  So far we have completed the immunization of most people with important chronic diseases and will shortly move on to children aged 6 months to 5 years.  Watch out for further announcements.

Some Little Reminders

PLEASE: Do phone and let us know if you are unable to keep your appointment.  There is always another eager to have it.

Request repeat prescriptions in writing (not on the phone) and give at least 2 full working day’s notice.