News

Patient Online Access to Medical Records

(26 Sep 2023)

The NHS wants to give people better ways to see their personal health information online. Therefore, GP surgeries have been instructed to let patients see all new information entered into their GP medical record. The British Medical Association has raised concerns about this project repeatedly, & their latest letter to the Secretary of State for Health can be found by clicking here.

If you are over 16 and have an online account, such as through the NHS App, from 4th October 2023, most patients will be able to see all new notes & health records from The Corner Surgery automatically. This also includes results of tests that we have requested & hospital letters that we have received. Some patients can already access this feature & this won’t change for you.

A clinician may need to talk to you to discuss test results before you are able to see this information online. One of our GPs may also need to talk to you before your full records access is given to make sure that having access is of benefit to you. There might be some sensitive information on your record, so you should contact the Surgery if you have any concerns. If you do not want to see your GP medical record online please contact our reception.

Please note, the Corner Surgery no longer provides the option of patients being able to request access to their historic GP medical record. When these requests are made, one of our GPs has to screen the patient's record for sensitive, harmful or third party information, reducing the GPs' availability to offer patient consultations. Also, the redaction software that we were promised to help us do this screening has not been made available.

We will continue to review this situation regularly.

Armed Forces Veteran Support & Information

(05 Jul 2023)

The Corner Surgery is proud to be an Armed Forces Veteran Friendly accredited GP practice.

More than half of veterans (52%) have a long-term illness, disability or mental health problems including PTSD, yet research suggests that many may be reluctant to seek support for their issues, particularly if they feel they may not be understood.

With an estimated 2.4 million veterans in the UK, The Corner Surgery may consult with a veteran patient every day on average. Being able to identify and support veteran patients is crucial to ensuring best outcomes, as research shows that some veteran patients may face different health challenges to the general population.

How We Identify Military Veterans

When registering at The Corner Surgery, it is important that you let us know if you are a military veteran. Details on how to register with the surgery can be found here and it is something we ask as part of our new patient questionnaire when registering.

It is important to tell us that you are a military veteran so we can make sure this is included in your medical records. We are then able to ask for your military health records if you wish.

Being flagged as a veteran in your NHS medical notes will help to ensure that you are able to access specific veteran's health services, such as those for mental health, hearing loss, limb amputation & wheelchairs. It also means that where you have an illness or medical condition that has been caused by your time in service or occurred whilst you were in the military, you may be entitled to a shorter hospital waiting list. This is part of the health commitments of the Armed Forces Covenant.

With your consent, sometimes, it may be helpful for your doctor to refer you to specific service charities, such as SSAFA, Royal British Legion, BLESMA or Help for Heroes. They can often offer significant help and support, even if they do not all deliver health care.

If you are already registered at The Corner Surgery and you are not sure if it is flagged on your medical record, please let us know by contacting Reception on 01704 506055 so this can be added if necessary.

Support For Military Veterans

Please see below services dedicated to supporting military veterans:

OpCOURAGE - mental health support for veterans - Mental Health & Wellbeing Service

Benefits and concessions for the armed forces, veterans and their families - Citizens Advice

Southport Armed Forces & Veterans Breakfast Club - Local Social Support Event

Online Services For Military Veterans

If you are a veteran, you may find it useful to sign up to online services to manage your appointments, request your repeat medications & access your GP medical records. Please click here to find out more about signing up to use online services via the NHS App. You can also submit an online consultation during our opening hours by clicking the pop-up link that appears at the bottom of our website homepage.

Repeat Medications - Policy Change

(29 Mar 2023)

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have relaxed our rules around the requesting of repeat medications. However, from Monday 10th April 2023, we are returning to our policy of NOT accepting prescription requests by telephone, for safety reasons.

The only exception to this is where a patient is housebound, has dementia or has a learning disability, & they do not have a carer who can request their prescriptions for them. Please note that we permit community pharmacies to request prescriptions for such patients in writing.

We encourage as many patients as possible to request their repeat prescriptions via the NHS App or Patient Online. For everybody else, the request must be made in writing using the tick slip that is provided, & not via a community pharmacy please.

We require two complete working days' notice to process repeat prescription requests - for example, a repeat prescription requested on a Friday afternoon will usually be ready by a Wednesday morning. However, this is only if any essential medication monitoring is up to date.

If a patient requires a repeat prescription more urgently than this, then the patient or their carer should contact NHS 111, either online or by telephone. However, the following essential medications may be requested urgently via our reception:

Insulins
Long-term steroid tablets: e.g. prednisolone, hydrocortisone, budesonide
Reliever inhalers: e.g. salbutamol, terbutaline
Adrenaline pens
Epilepsy medications: e.g. lamotrigine, carbamazepine, topiramate, sodium valproate, levetiracetam
Anticoagulants ("blood thinners"): e.g. warfarin, edoxaban, apixaban, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, dalteparin, enoxaparin
Injectable medications being administered at the end of life
Lithium

All of the above information relates to repeat prescriptions. However, GP surgeries also issue acute medications - these are a ‘one-off’ prescription, for example, a short course of treatment or until a patient has been stabilised on a new medication.

To request a prescription for an acute medication that you have had before, or if you have misplaced your tick slip for requesting a repeat prescription, please complete this form & email it to gp.n84613@nhs.net or pass it into our reception.

The form must be completed in full, otherwise we regret that it cannot be processed safely. Please contact us after two complete working days to see if a doctor has been able to issue the prescription, based on the information provided.

Thank you very much in anticipation of your support with these changes, which are required to ensure that our medication prescribing is as safe as possible.

Autumn 2022 Newsletter

(03 Oct 2022)

Thank you very much to all of the patients who supported our 2022 flu vaccination clinics. These took place on Saturday 24th September & Sunday 2nd October & they were extremely successful, with over 1000 eligible patients vaccinated! We trust that patients continue to prefer the convenience of receiving their flu jabs in these weekend sessions. However, if you require a weekday appointment, or if you are permanently housebound so require a home visit, please contact our reception because we still have a supply of vaccines available. For those patients who do not know, flu vaccinations are a vital source of NHS income for GP surgeries & we are very grateful that so many of our eligible patients choose to have their free NHS flu vaccine at the surgery. To check your eligibility, please click here.

There are a number of new faces at the surgery. Dr John Wray has joined us on a Friday morning, Dr Stephanie Woodcock is working a regular locum session for us on a Wednesday morning, & in November, Ms Claire Snape (ANP) is increasing her sessions from two to four full days per week. We are now an accredited training practice, which means we are also hosting junior doctors including those training to become GPs. Taken together, this means we now have many more clinical appointments available every day, with a larger proportion being pre-bookable up to two weeks in advance. From November, some of our on-the-day face-to-face ANP appointments will be made available online at 8:30am too, for the assessment of urgent physical health problems.

At our last Patient Participation Group (PPG) meeting, we reflected on the results of the national GP Patient Survey & the local GP Access Survey, which have both taken place within the past 12 months. A common theme was the difficulty that some patients are experiencing in contacting the surgery by telephone, including booking on-the-day appointments. We hope that making some on-the-day appointments available to book online & the extra clinical appointments will help with this. In addition, we have arranged for another incoming call handset to be installed, we are advertising for an additional administrator to help us manage incoming calls in the mornings, & we are arranging for the telephone system to be reprogrammed. The latter will reduce the length of the opening messages & the number of options available.

We hope you can see that we are working hard alongside our colleagues across the country to make things better for our patients, & we thank you very much for your continued support. If you would like to join our PPG, please click here for further details.

Steroid Treatment Cards - Inhalers

(25 Aug 2022)

The British National Formulary (BNF) now recommends that when patients use a high dose steroid inhaler to control their asthma or COPD, a small amount of the steroid may be absorbed into the blood stream.

When this happens, the body may reduce its own production of corticosteroid. This is the body's main stress hormone so it is particularly important during periods of injury or illness.

Then, if a patient stops their high dose steroid inhaler suddenly, e.g. if they suffer an injury or illness, there is a small chance of the body not having enough corticosteroid to cope with the injury or illness.

As a result of this recommendation, we have been advised to provide all patients taking a high dose steroid inhaler with a Steroid Treatment Card (please see the photograph above), which they should carry with them at all times.

Please click here to see which steroid inhaler doses count as a high dose. Your community pharmacist can help you identify if you should carry a Steroid Treatment Card & they can provide you with one if necessary.

Some challenges for The Corner Surgery in adopting this guidance are:

Our computer system does not allow us to identify all patients using high dose steroid inhalers automatically;
A patient's dose of inhaled steroid often changes over time - indeed some patients are advised to increase & reduce the dose themselves in response to their symptoms - so our computer records may not be accurate;
We do not have an accurate record of patients who have already been provided with a Steroid Treatment Card.

Therefore, we will be identifying patients opportunistically during their asthma or COPD annual reviews & by using computer searches, & directing patients/ carers to this webpage for further information.

If you prefer to carry a Steroid Treatment Card irrespective of whether your steroid inhaler dose is high or not, that is absolutely fine - they are available to collect at your community pharmacy & at the Surgery.

We recognise that this change in national guidance may cause some patients to worry but we must stress that any risk from stopping a high dose steroid inhaler is theoretical & very small.

By comparison, steroid inhalers have been used safely for many years and they are a vital treatment for many patients with asthma or COPD - the benefits are huge so please do not stop one without taking medical advice.

If you have any questions about this matter, please discuss it with our practice nurse at your next asthma or COPD review. It may be safe for some patients to wean their steroid inhaler dose if they have a particular concern.