Important! May bank holidays: make sure you don't run out of your medicines
This year there are 3 bank holidays in May. Our practice will be closed on Monday 1st May 2023, Monday 8th May 2023 and Monday 29th May 2023.
Please make sure that you order and collect your repeat medicines in plenty of time so that you do not run out. If your medication is due on one of those dates please order on the Tuesday before the Bank Holiday and you can then collect on the Friday instead of the Monday..
If you are staying away from home, remember to take your medicines with you.
If you need to locate your nearest open pharmacy, it is easy to do by simply entering your postcode on the NHS Find a Pharmacy search tool.
NHS vaccine programme
In the UK, we are incredibly fortunate to be able to offer our children the best protection against serious and life-threatening infections through our routine childhood immunisations. The immunisation programme is designed to offer us the best protection throughout our lives, with more vaccines such as shingles and flu offered to our elderly population now.
The NHS vaccination programme is a world-leader and designed to protect us throughout our lives, for free.
When you have a baby, keeping them safe and well is a priority. Vaccination is one of the most important things we can do to protect their health, and shortly after they are born, you’ll be given information about their first immunisations, which take place when the baby is 8 weeks old.
These first jabs protect against a number of infections that can cause pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis. The vaccines offered to babies and toddlers protect them from serious illness such as whooping cough and diphtheria that used to cause so much suffering to families, but thanks to immunisation are now rare.
As your child gets older, they’ll be offered more appointments to get vaccinated, right up until they are teenagers. When they are little, these tend to be done at their GP surgery, but as they grow up some vaccines will be offered at school. It’s important to look out for and return consent forms for vaccines that are given at school.
The full childhood immunisation programme protects your child against many different illnesses. It’s best to have vaccines on time, but you can still catch up on most vaccines if you miss them. If you are concerned that your child, or any family member, has missed out on certain vaccines, you can speak to your GP practice about catching up. You can also use your child’s red book to look back at which vaccines they have received and if there are any gaps.
YOUR FEEDBACK is helpful to us for monitoring the quality of our services provided to all our patients. There is a form from the Care Quality Commission where you can give your feedback in a few short steps and we would much appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete this regarding your own experiences. Please visit: https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care ....and thank you.
Spring Covid Booster Vaccines: Our COVID Booster clinic in May is now fully booked. If you are eligble you can still book via gov.uk or by calling NHS 119. There are clinics being held in the region.
If you are struggling with sleep problems, please visit https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/ for further information on registering with this helpful app and learn how to improve your sleep
ACUTE PRESSURES ON SERVICES : With the various planned strikes we would ask patients to be aware that urgent only requests are being prioritised if the current concern about acute respiratory illness remains high........Cornwall 111 continues to work on two hubs to respond to Strep A : we await further news and updates
NHS NUMBERS: if you do not know yours, there is a new on-line service to find this - www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/what-is-an-nhs-number/
KLINIK is our new online consulting system for routine questions and went live on 3rd January 2023. We aim to respond at the earliest opportunity, usually within 48 hours. NB. It will not be available for part of 14/1/23 due to maintenance work
WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE: This has been built upon over many years and is full of useful information, including various on-line services - please see links below and Nos. 2 and 3 under the "Further information" heading. May we suggest looking through the site to start with. By registering as a member of the patient group you will be kept up-to-date with the quarterly newsletters and are invited to update contact details and records via the generic e-mail address below which is also used for repeat prescription requests. Your comments on any topic can be recorded here - please see the "Contact Details" section. If you are new to the area, have a look at our opening times , download a registration form and come and see us.
E-MAIL FOR GENERAL INFORMATION or PRESCRIPTION REQUESTS: We have now changed our e-mail to ciosicb.lostenq@nhs.net as at 26/4/23 Please note that the Enq part of our generic e-mail ends in a Q not a G. All Cornish practices had their e-mails changed to start with ciosicb some time ago but this caused problems for our patients when ordering prescriptions - we are hoping these problems have now been solved!
We are a small and dedicated team and we aim to provide you with friendly, helpful and efficient services to the very best of our collective abilities. With discretion and confidentiality guaranteed, your health and welfare is safe, secure and in good hands. We are a GP training practice aligned to the South West Peninsula Postgraduate Deanery; we train up-and-coming doctors wishing to make general practice their career. We also have attachments from medical students and will let patients know when registrars/students are participating in our services and it is always patient choice to be seen or not by attached clinicians - you just need to tell the receptionist on arrival for your appointment if you prefer not to see a registrar
APPOINTMENTS: There is a daily morning triage system for all requests for a same-day appointment run by the GPs - if it is felt your request is "soon" rather than "urgent", you will be advised and booked in accordingly. Any request for a child under the age of 5 years is automatically given an appointment by the receptionist, bypassing triage. Routine appointments are available upon request - please speak to the receptionist who will be pleased to help. See the separate "Appointments" section above.
INCREASING ACCESS TO GENERAL PRACTICE (IAGP) : We started this in 2018 and for the first few months offered additional late evening appointments and Saturday morning surgeries in collaboration with the Fowey and Middleway practices by an agreed rota. This proved very successful, particularly for patients who work long hours, and as a consequence we extended the pilot to include both Saturdays (opening hours 8.00am to 12 noon) and Sundays (opening hours 8.00am to 11.00 am) for October 2018 through to March 2019 and now beyond. IAGP is here to stay and we believe our patients will greatly benefit by increasing continuity of their care. Routine appointments for Lostwithiel can be booked through reception as usual - urgent appointments will be booked through the triage system run by the doctors. Opening for longer hours has also addressed the issue we have with limited clinical accommodation. Friday to 8.00pm is now included within "The Three Harbours" rota as is a slightly later finish on Sundays to 11.30am. The format of IAGP requirements are to change in October 2022 but at the moment specific details are not available to us - as soon as we know then we will let patients know.
With many people working we appreciate that lunchtimes may be the only time you have to contact us or pop in which is why we do not close during the day. If you have a specific request and find it difficult to get in touch at any time then send an e-mail to KCCG.LostEnq@nhs.net and someone will come back to you.
CQC INSPECTION - SEE 1 FOR PREVIOUS REPORTS AND LINKS
Annual Report: The practice attained 97.6% April 2018 - March 2019 for the Quality and Outcomes Framework; this was the same as the previous year and we are delighted to retain our high standards; during Covid-19 there have been different measures in place. The annual patient survey 2021 showed the practice to be well supported by our patients who recognised the hard work and good outcomes we always strive to achieve. We were even more delighted that in 2022 we have been voted the best in Cornwall and 24th in the country! Thank you to everyone who completed the survey and supporting us............full details can be found on the link gp-patient.co.uk and type in "Lostwithiel Surgery"
(Site updated 18/05/2023)