Following on from last month’s newsletter, we are gradually resolving a lot of the technical issues that plagued the new telephone system, with most callers now not experiencing the frustration of being cut off.   We are told that the information on our last newsletter was very helpful regarding other ways to contact us so here it is again.

For all details and advice regarding the phone system, please see the Stokewood Newsletter (Issue no.77) at the top of this page.

We are very hopeful that planning permission will shortly be given for one Portakabin, containing two clinical consulting rooms.  The Portakabin will be placed on the grass area behind the surgery.  We had hoped initially to have two portakabins and four rooms but sadly the rising costs have required us to scale our plans back. 

We have been advised that the categories for eligibility for the flu & Covid vaccination this year will be:

• Over 65s,
• patients aged 6 months to 64 in an at-risk group
• children aged 2 and 3.

The majority of patients eligible for vaccinations have now had them or been invited to book an appointment.  If you have not had an invite and believe you are eligible, please contact the surgery to book your vaccination now.  Housebound patients should also have been visited but if you have missed your visit, please contact the surgery to arrange this.  Please do not call the Community Nurse Team, the Practice is responsible now for organising your vaccination.

We would like to thank all our patients who attended on our mass vaccination days, unfortunately due to some technical issues, we had longer queues than we would have liked, but thank you for your patience if you were stuck in the queue.  We managed to give over 3,000 vaccinations in one day, giving a large proportion of patients protection from both flu and covid early on in the winter season.

Stokewood Surgery is a training practice.  We will be offering appointments with fully qualified doctors who are doing further training to become experienced GPs.  These doctors are called Registrars. We currently have two working at Stokewood, Dr Hannah Balhaj and Dr Vincy Koshy.  Our surgery trainers are Dr Lloyd and Dr Jacobs.

With the removal of many covid restrictions, we are returning to offering more face-to-face appointments.  Patients will be also be given an actual time for a telephone consultation in future however please allow up to an hour after the appointment time in case the GP is running late. 

For patients who require to take home blood pressure readings, we have a new calculator tool has been set up using an excel spreadsheet.  This will enable patients to record their readings onto the spreadsheet which will then calculate their average BP.  You can find the excel spreadsheet here on our website, which also includes the standard printable sheet.
Please return the excel spreadsheet via email to our generic email box: hiowicb-hsi.stokewoodsurgery@nhs.net. 

Please email or ask a member of the Care Navigation Team if you would like a copy of the excel spreadsheet sent to you.

Blood pressure monitors are also available to purchase from the Surgery at the front desk.

We are delighted to report that Stokewood (and Old Anchor) Surgery has been accredited by our CCG as a Dementia Friendly Practice.  To achieve this all staff have received training in Dementia Awareness and the practice has been engaging with our PPG to get feedback on how we may improve communication with patients suffering from dementia.  The practice is also in the process of getting accreditation from the Dementia Action Alliance.  We always more feedback and input from all patients, have your say by joining our PPG or passing your comments onto us using our feedback form.

From now on, it is no longer mandatory to wear a face mask at Stokewood and Old Anchor Surgery. Wearing a mask will be personal preference, however we do advise that symptomatic patients (especially if you are coughing or sneezing) to please wear a mask if possible to avoid spread of infection.

Vulnerable patients may request to wait in their car or ask to sit in a quieter area if they feel more comfortable to do so.

To minimise the risk of contamination, and decrease visitors to the surgery, we are no longer giving out repeat prescriptions in paper. You should nominate a pharmacy to receive the repeat and go directly to them to collect your medication.  If you have internet or email access, please register for our online service or email your request to:  hiowicb-hsi.stokewoodsurgery-prescriptions@nhs.net.   If you decide to have your medication from a different pharmacy than your nominated one, please let us know and this can be amended but please do not change this without good reason to avoid confusion and extra workload for our staff.