As of today, Monday 3rd February, we will be using a communication software to contact our patients via SMS text messaging or email, via a platform called Accurx.

We are using Accurx so we can contact our patients in a way that is simpler and quicker - we will still be operating and contacting patients in the usual manner, but Accurx allows us to open up a new communication channel with our patients.

They meet the highest security standards set by the NHS, and government bodies. You can find out more about your data & security with Accurx here: https://www.accurx.com/security-for-patients

As a starting point, we will be using Accurx to send SMS text messages and emails to patients, as well as sending documents and questionnaires. Once we migrate over to our new clinical system at the end of April, we will be able to start using Accurx to send appointment reminders and self-booking links for appointments.

It is really important that we have your up-to-date contact details to allow us to contact you via this method. It's also equally imporant that we record your preference to being contacted by SMS, whether you consent or decline. If you do not decline, the system works off implied consent and will allow us to send you a text message.

To ensure that we have your most up-to-date details and record your SMS preferences, please complete the following form: https://forms.office.com/e/qFXWfCYJTH

We will continue to keep our patients up-to-date with Accurx and its features. To find out more about Accurx, please visit: https://www.accurx.com/patient

Please note, Accurx works completely separately to Titan, our new dispensing software. We still require you to give your consent to receive prescription collection notifications via Titan.

As we head into the Winter months the colder weather often brings a spike in seasonal illnesses, particularly those that spread easily in enclosed, heated spaces. Among the most common are:

• Colds & Flu: The transition from autumn to winter sees a rise in respiratory illnesses such as the cold and flu. The flu virus is particularly concerning as it can lead to more serious complications for vulnerable groups. The elderly, pregnant women, and individuals with chronic conditions need to be extra vigilant in autumn and winter.

• Norovirus: Known as the winter vomiting bug, norovirus is highly contagious and causes vomiting and diarrhoea. It often spreads in schools, hospitals, and care homes.

• COVID-19: Although the immediate threat of COVID-19 has diminished, it remains a risk during colder months when people spend more time indoors, allowing viruses to spread more easily.

Vaccines play a key role in preventing serious illness during the colder months, please see our practice website www.llanfyllingp.co.uk for up-to-date information on our practice vaccination campaigns.

To help ensure we minimise the risk of illness to our staff, patients (some of whom are extremely vulnerable) and to visitors to the practice we need your help. What can you do?

1. Making an Appointment:

We are increasingly having patients attend the surgery to make an appointment in person. To make an appointment we request that patients or their representatives contact the practice reception team by telephone - 01691 648054 to request an appointment.

This allows us to ensure we are limiting patient footfall in our waiting room area and ensures confidentiality for patients when our reception team are asking questions of the patient to assist them in directing the patient to the most appropriate source of care.

2. Attending for a Pre-booked Appointment:

Unless you have spoken to a clinician that day and discussed your symptoms, please DO NOT attend the practice for a pre booked appointment if you have two or more of the following symptoms and/ or have travelled to or from Africa in the last 3 weeks:

• Breathlessness
• Flu like symptoms
• Extreme tiredness
• A rash

If you are experiencing two or more of these symptoms, please call the practice on 01691 648 054 to ask for advice. Please DO NOT attend the practice as you will be asked to wait outside or in your car until we have assessed the safety of your entering our premises.

3. Infection Control Measures:

• Hand Hygeine: We ask all patients to make use of the hand sanitizers when entering any of our practice premises and ensure they wash their hands after attending the toilet at the practice.

• Face Masks: There is no requirement for patients to wear a face mask when attending our practice premises, should you wish to wear one they are available at each of our surgery entrances.

• Clinically Vulnerable Patients: Please let us know if you have any concerns about attending the practice for an appointment and waiting in the waiting room. We would be very happy to support you by offering to give you a call in your car when the clinician is ready to see you or offering you a room to wait in away from the waiting room if we have one available in advance of your appointment. Please talk to our reception team by giving them a call on 01691 648054 and they will do their best to help you.

Thank you for respecting the health and safety of our patients, staff and visitors, your help and support as always is greatly appreciated.

𝓛𝓵𝓪𝓷𝓯𝔂𝓵𝓵𝓲𝓷 𝓖𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓹 𝓟𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓬𝓮

We wish to inform our patients that Dr Lale Tuncer has left the practice. We wish her all the best for the future.

We are today launching our practice fundraising campaign to help support and improve our dispensing service to our patients. Our aim is to raise enough funds to purchase a prescription collection unit for each of our three surgeries. The collection units provide a safe, quick, and secure way for patients to collect their pre ordered medication from the surgery of their choice, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Why are we fundraising?

There is only one pharmacy in our 600 square mile practice area. As with many rural areas, this means that GP practices not only prescribe necessary medication for patients but also dispense the medication to the patient. We are unique in that we dispense to the vast majority of our patients. Given our list size of 11,200 patients this means we dispense up to 1000 items a day from our three surgeries (almost double what a large city pharmacy would dispense). This workload is continuing to rise and becoming increasingly more complex. This causes issues not only for our patients, but for our practice team working under increased pressure.

Current challenges:

• A major challenge for the practice is being able to turn around patients’ medication orders from the point of order to dispensing due to the well-known challenges of sourcing medication that is increasingly affecting pharmacies and dispensing doctors.
• We also have a very elderly patient population who tend to rely on family or friends to collect their medication. Those people are increasingly working away from the area and hence struggle to get back by 6pm to collect their family member’s medication.
• Limitations of our IT system also mean we cannot currently confirm to our volume of dispensing patients via text message or email that their medication is ready to collect which we know causes frustration to many of our patients.
• Staffing recruitment and retention can be an issue in a rural area such as ours, the use of technology would support our team and boost resilience.

Whilst we do generate income from dispensing (as a community pharmacy would), in our practice, the dispensing income has always been used to support the provision of medical care across our rural area and three surgeries.  Our funding covers our main site in Llanfyllin only. With the increasing pressures and underfunding of general practice as a whole, that entire income is now needed to support funding the dispensary staff and primary care team. For more information on primary care funding issues, please visit: Wales save our surgeries campaign (bma.org.uk)

What are we proposing?

We want to bring in a prescription collection unit for each of our sites. These units will allow our patients to collect their medication at a convenient time for them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They will also help us future proof our practice, manage increased demand on our services, improve our services, and support staff retention and moral.

We have spoken with other practices that are using these machines and they have seen a huge positive effect on both their patients and staff.

For those patients who choose to sign up to collecting their medication from the collection unit they will receive a text informing them that their medication is ready to collect at their chosen site.

This text will also contain a unique code which will allow them to collect their medication from the collection machine at a time convenient them, either inside or outside our core opening hours.

By patients using this service, this will allow our dispensing staff to give more support to patients who need more help with their medication, medication queries and explanations of how to take medications and relay messages from the Doctors about changes.

Patients who just need to pick up medication, working people and those collecting for relatives would not have to wait in the surgery to collect, hence saving their time.  The medication dispensing machines will be an added service at the practice and will be very much patient choice as to whether they wish to collect their medication in this way as dispensary counters will remain manned during opening hours.

These machines cost in the region of £35,000 per machine, hence this fundraiser is a huge request for our population as we will need three. If you would like to know more about these units and how they will benefit our patients and practice, please visit the following links:

Pharmaself24 Automated Prescription-Collection Solution (omnicell.co.uk)

MedPoint: Automated Prescription Collection | 24/7 Medicine Collection (medpointuk.com)

Benefits:

• By purchasing a dispensing collection unit for each surgery, we aim to provide a safe and secure way for patients to collect their pre ordered medication at a time convenient to them.
• To reduce queues at peak times for patients collecting their medication
• To give patients the confidence that their medication is ready for collection without making a lengthy journey when it may not be ready.
• To allow our dispensary team more time to spend with those patients who would still need to collect their medication via the dispensary during working hours to discuss their medications or to ask for advice.
• To support our dispensing team in performing their daily tasks and support staff retention and morale.

We are asking if anyone can support us in the way of a donation to our fundraiser however big or small.

If you would like to find out more information about the campaign or make a contribution towards our medication collection please contact Juliet Sagar, our Managing Partner via email - Practice.Manager.w96012@wales.nhs.uk

We thank you again for your support in helping us to provide a better service for our patients and support our team.

You may be aware through the press that measles cases are rising in the UK. Updated infection prevention control guidelines have been provided to practices which we have reviewed, as a result it is necessary for us to put a number of actions into place.

These actions are necessary to ensure we can protect our patients, some of whom are extremely vulnerable, our staff and visitors to the practice and to safely manage any identified cases of measles in our community.

Effective immediately:

• If you think you, or a family member, have been infected by measles, please DO NOT COME TO THE SURGERY. 
• Please telephone the practice in the first instance and give the reception team as much information as you can to give us the best chance of identifying whether you have measles.
• Symptoms of measles are a rash and feeling unwell (which may include cold-like symptoms or small white spots in the mouth) Further information from the NHS can be found here: Measles - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
• You will initially be booked for a triage telephone call with one of the clinical team.
• If the clinician requests that you visit the surgery you will be asked to wait in your car until a member of the team calls you into an isolation room.
• If you are unsure of your child’s measles vaccination status then please contact the practice for advice.

The number of people in Wales having the MMR vaccine has dropped since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that children who have not been vaccinated, or are only partially vaccinated, are unprotected. This increases the risk of measles outbreaks happening in nurseries or schools.  

Even a small drop in the number of people having the MMR vaccination can lead to an increase in measles cases. As there is more international travel since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, there is a higher chance of measles being brought back from countries where it is common.  

Having two doses of the MMR vaccine is the best way to protect you and your child from measles, mumps and rubella.  

You can find more information on the vaccine and diseases at Vaccinations - NHS (www.nhs.uk)