October 2021 Newsletter

 

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Practice Development

The practice continues to grow and with this, an increasing range of health care professionals are becoming part of the team here at Greenway.

Many of you will be familiar with our Social prescriber (Sharon), Care coordinator (Amy) and our two Pharmacists (Luke and Kirsty). Each one of these team members have been fantastic additions to the team. They are involved in lots of aspects of patient care and are experts in a number of areas. Moving forwards you may be directed to these team members if appropriate.

As the practice develops we have increasing opportunities to appoint new roles working in collaboration with other local practices. We will soon have access to a new pharmacy technician, Physiotherapist, Mental health worker and possibly even a paramedic. We are excited by this as they add so much value to the team and patient care. We will keep you updated on developments.

 

Research

STREAM Trial

Over the Summer we have enrolled in a trial called the STREAM TRIAL.

STREAM is a trial for patients aged 75 and over, who live in their own homes and who may be at risk of malnutrition.

We will be using a study designed intervention called "Eat well, feel well, stay well" to advise patients regarding nutrition and in a small minority of patients, will be providing a nutritional supplement. Patients in the study will have an initial appointment with our research nurse, Clare Shah.

This intervention will be compared with other GP practices just using standard care to see what effect it has on patients' quality of life and infections over 18 months.

Eligible patients are being invited by mail to join the trial.

 

Sustainability

Have you ever thought what happens to your recycled food waste?

Bristol’s food waste is taken to GENeco in Avonmouth where it is processed by an ‘anaerobic digester’. This is a bit of kit which acts like a giant stomach and turns the food waste into methane-rich biogas which is used to generate electricity and gas for 6,500 homes in Bristol.

Remember "The Four R's" - Reduce, Reuse, Repair and lastly Recycle.

 

Looking after your mental health

We all experience difficult times when we feel we cannot cope, especially in light of the challenges of the current pandemic. If you are suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, excessive worry or low mood, then Vitaminds can help. VitaMinds works in partnership with the NHS to offer a range of short-term psychological therapies known as IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) to adults 16 years and over, who live and are registered with a GP in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

You can self-refer for this free and confidential service online or by calling 03332001893. The website also has self-help resources available.

 

Reducing the climate change impact of inhalers

How big a problem is it?

  • It has been estimated that the impact of the HFCs released each year in England from inhaler use is equivalent to around 850,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
  • That is equivalent to the carbon emissions from all NHS road mileage in England, including business travel and emergency vehicles.
  • A typical pMDI with 10g of propellant can have a carbon footprint of 13-33kg depending on the type of propellant. This is equivalent to driving an average car 45- 115 miles.
  • Used inhalers typically have 30% of the original propellant remaining in the canister.

What is being done about this?

  • The NHS wants to increase the frequency of the greener disposal of used inhalers.
  • While residual propellant gases in inhalers can be extracted, cleaned and reused in industrial equipment, such as air conditioning systems, they are being phased out of use in most applications because of their environmental impacts.
  • Inhalers returned to pharmacies for safe disposal will be incinerated at high temperature by NHS England and NHS Improvement’s waste contractor. This process destroys the propellant gases, so they don’t escape into the atmosphere. Steel and aluminium from inhaler canisters may be recovered and recycled at some incinerators.
  • The NHS is also taking other actions, such as offering patients alternative, lower carbon inhalers, where clinically appropriate and supporting people to use their inhalers properly.
  • The pharmaceutical industry is developing new propellants with less impact on climate change.

How to dispose of unwanted and used inhalers

  • Inhalers returned to pharmacies for safe disposal can be disposed of with other medicines waste. This is then thermally treated to destroy the greenhouse gases.
  • Please return all used inhalers to a pharmacy to be disposed of Safely
 

Care Navigation

As with most GP surgeries across the country at present, the Practice is experiencing a very high volume of calls. In the past few months, the number of calls we are receiving per week has risen by over 25% from last year.

During the month of September, our Care Navigation team dealt with around 2000 calls on average per week- this is a record number for this time of year. Please be assured that the team are working hard to answer your call as soon as possible.

In response to this increase in volume of work, the Practice is currently recruiting a new Care Navigator, and will be adding more hours into the team to help deal with the increase in telephone calls. In the meantime, please be patient with the team and they will help you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your continued understanding.

 

Self Care

Practice Self Care for Life

15th-21st November 2021

is Self Care Week.

Keep an Eye on our Social Media channels for more information on this.

Locally Pharmacies have being running an advanced service to deal with Urinary Tract Infections for female patients (16-64yo), Impetigo, conjunctivitis and eczema. The Pharmacist will be able to issue a prescription if appropriate or refer you to your GP.

"Take control of your health- be in control of your life"

"Make self care a life-long habit"

"Stay healthy in body and mind by eating well and being active"

"Activity is key to long term physical health and mental wellbeing"

 

Diabetes UK

There are more than 20 leg, foot or toe amputations each day due to diabetes. This is shocking, especially as four out of five of these amputations are preventable. This is where the Putting Feet First campaign comes in. We want to bring an end to the thousands of potentially preventable amputations affecting people with diabetes.

 

Meet our Team

Hi, I’m Sarah one of the Care Navigators.

I joined the practice in June of this year and am really enjoying it so far, all the staff are very friendly and helpful. Previously I worked as a Rota Co-ordinator for a domiciliary care provider for 7 years and prior to that work in the NHS. I am a busy Mum of three grown up children and in my spare time I like to ride my horse and take our puppy on long walks.

 

Patient Participation Group (PPG)

We are a group of patients who are volunteers working closely with the practice to improve health care services for local people. The group is open to all patients to join. We believe that one of the reasons the Practice is so good, is because they listen to patient feedback. You can find out more about the PPG by contacting Alex & Norma, through the PPG page of the practice website.

Here are just some examples of how the PPG gets involved with Greenway Practice.

During PPG Awareness week we worked with Jade, the practice’s Marketing and Communications Coordinator who arranged for digital resources to be displeyed in the waiting room and social media channels. The next digital display will be for national Self Care Week which runs from 15th – 21st November. Self care advice is also available through the practice website’s self-help centre.

Also on the digital front, we were on hand to provide feedback on the new practice website before it went live. By providing feedback from a patient perspective. The new website is now up and running. If you haven’t seen it yet it is worth having a look.

National NHS Digital Data - Many patients were concerned about the government’s plan to collect and potentially share your NHS data with third parties. This was widely publicised earlier this year and was not an “opt in” process, but instead your data would be automatically shared unless you actively opted out. There was a lot of public opposition to this and the original date for rolling the project out was put back until September 2021 but has now been put on hold further. The PPG is keeping an eye on this, as is the Practice itself. Do keep a look out in the national press and TV news for latest developments over the coming months.

The PPG is also supporting the practice’s call to patients to take up their flu vaccination through the practice rather than a pharmacy. This helps ensure that flu vaccination funding is directed by the NHS to your GP Practice to support you as patients. If you haven’t yet booked your flu vaccination and are eligible for one on the NHS please contact the Practice to make an appointment.

Published: Sep 30, 2021