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Too many changes

Story from nhs.uk

"Too many changes"

About: St. Andrews Surgery

This surgery seems to be in a state of long-term trying to establish what its place in healthcare is.

The new website fronted by Foundry Healthcare today sums it up for me.

Going from essentially a three GP and a nurse practice to a cramped multi-GP mini health hub without the means to provide health hub facilities.

There is much fine talk of a Foundry Healthcare All-in-one facility, but realistically this is a long way off.

4-months and probably longer, of closed doors thanks to the virus has done nothing to give me confidence to think that healthcare will return to anything like it used to be.

Regarding changes, several stand out for me. There was an initiative to improve male health by having a Well Man Clinic - that quietly disappeared. Annual medication reviews by the GP, which was often the only time you saw them, was replaced by an in-house Pharmacist review. That seems to have disappeared, not that I miss it. The annual sort of nurse health check has now become a 10-minute blood test, blood pressure appointment.

Nothing to do with the surgery, but the closing of certain clinics at the Victoria hasn’t helped together with cancelled out-patient appointments elsewhere with no prospect of a new appointment adds to the gloomy picture.

The emphasis seems to be on something that might happen in the future with woolly phrases of Patient Navigators and the like. All I need is someone to check out the aches, pains and worries.

Right now, the surgery is at a low point.

After the last attempt to speak to a GP which was pretty much "triaged" - horrible word - to go somewhere else, by the receptionist, I have pretty much given up with the surgery and hope that nothing serious happens this side of a viable vaccine against Coronavirus.

The Urgent Treatment Centre at the Victoria Hospital, the overworked Pharmacy and NHS 111, can't be expected to do the job of a proper GP surgery.

Yes, the virus has been difficult for everyone, some have found innovative ways to continue, but St Andrews seem to have just closed the doors.

I hope things do work out and we get a patient friendly health centre

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Responses

Response from St. Andrews Surgery 4 years ago
St. Andrews Surgery

Submitted on 11/08/2020 at 08:47
Published on nhs.uk at 08:48

Now that St Andrew's Surgery has merged with the two other Lewes Practices we are able to employ more GPs & Nurses to meet the evolving health needs of our growing population, as well as welcoming additional roles. These include Social Prescribers, Frailty & Dementia Coordinators, in-house Pharmacists, Paramedics, and in the very near future direct access Physiotherapists.

Foundry Healthcare Lewes is also working alongside the newly re-opened Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at Lewes Victoria Hospital, providing additional medical support to their excellent team of Advanced Nurse & Paramedic practitioners.

Our ‘urgent or on-the-day’ GP service is now based at the Victoria Hospital to provide phone advice and face-to-face appointments if your problem requires it. However, if you have an ongoing condition, or you need a follow-up appointment, you will usually go to your existing surgery.

To improve continuity of care we are creating 8 GP teams of 4 GPs each; these will look after a smaller number of patients (approximately 3,500 per team). This way, if you have an ongoing problem, you are more likely to get to see your usual GP, or a doctor in their team if they are not available that day. Annual medication reviews are much better placed with Clinical Pharmacists but all other chronic disease reviews continue as before with either the Nurse or GP or both as appropriate.

We are still excited at the prospect of a new, purpose built surgery in the heart of Lewes. This will be a great community resource for the people of Lewes, Ringmer and surrounding area, allowing healthcare to work alongside social care, district nurses, midwifery, health visitors, mental health services, social enterprise, educational links, art & creativity and more.

Lewes District Council are working on the next steps in this exciting development. Realistically this may take another 2 years or so to complete. Until then we will continue to use our 3 sites across Lewes, alongside Anchor Field which will remain as part of Foundry Healthcare once the new building is complete.

We have put a lot of thought into re-designing the way we run our appointments system, to make it better able to direct patients to the best person to deal with their problem - the right GP or Nurse, or the most appropriate other member of our team.

In the near future the 3 existing surgery websites will move to the new Foundry Healthcare Lewes website, and website content will be revised. This has been a busy time and we are still catching up after first wave of Covid-19, but we have plans to increase our communications activities via a variety of avenues

All of our GPs, Nurses and team are working at maximum capacity. To minimise Coronavirus transmission risks to staff and patients, especially those in vulnerable groups, the majority of contact is by telephone. Many routine services are being reviewed to work out how and when they can be safely re-introduced.

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