Botley patient engagement even - 18th September 2023

The following issues were addressed by three doctors, two nurses, two practice managers and a receptionist from 19 Beaumont Street. Most had been at practice for 20 years and more and none were going to retire any time soon.
There are 6 GP Partners, 7 salaried doctors, and three new doctors will be joining the practice from January. Until they arrive long term locums will be joining the team to cope with the extra 6000 patients now being added to their current list of 17,000.
The new practice will be known as the Beaumont Elms Practice, with sites at 19 Beaumont Street and Elms Road Medical Centre ( at the former Botley Medical Practice).  The closure of the station bridge on Botley Road till October 2024 means that many patients already registered at Beaumont Street will be able to be seen at Elms Road.
Patients who call for appointments will be offered either a face to face appointment or a phone call.  Urgent requests can be made for same-day appointments any time of the day, ending the current 8.00 scramble. Patients can ask to see a particular doctor, for whom they may need to wait longer to see. Urgent requests will be handled by the duty doctors. Appointments can only be made over the phone or at the surgeries. We do not do online appointments. There is a large team of receptionists to handle the incoming calls. People can phone any time of day, the earlier the better. But we are obliged to deal with any urgent problem presenting to us.

 Prescriptions:  can be ordered online, by email to info.nbs@nhs.net,  through the box at reception, or through local pharmacies. They cannot be requested over the phone. Current arrangements that patients have with pharmacies and suppliers of medicine will continue uninterrupted.

Test results: Through the NHS App or over the phone, preferably in the afternoon.

 Long term conditions: Patients will be invited for an annual review in their birth month. Those with particularly vulnerable conditions will be prioritized at the start.  Within 12 months all patients should be covered.

 Vaccine clinics A vaccine clinic is planned for Saturday October 7th. This has yet to be confirmed due to uncertainty about supplies of the vaccine. Patients will be invited by text message. There will be a Saturday vaccine clinic  on 7th October at Elms Road Surgery (formerly known as Botley Medical Centre). This will be open to all current 19 Beaumont Street patients and patients who have been transferred to us from Botley Medical Centre. We anticipate being able to offer both flu and covid vaccines at this clinic. Invites will be sent nearer to the time, booking is not yet open.
In addition to these clinics from October there will be midweek vaccine clinics at both 19 Beaumont Street and Elms Road in October and further Saturday clinics later in the Autumn. These will have both flu and covid vaccines.

Questions

Patients outside the catchment boundary - those not allocated to the Elms Road Centre are requested to contact the Integrated Care Board (ICB) who manage these allocations. The doctors realized that their situation was very difficult but explained that since the doctors did home visits for the housebound by bicycle ( to save time), their own previous experience showed it was not possible to do this beyond a certain distance. While people may not need house visits now there will come a time when they will, and transferring practices at such a time is not wise. So they do not want to agree to provide a service which they cannot deliver.

Is there space at Abingdon for new patients? That is a question for the ICB.

Eyes: Those with eye conditions can be seen at the surgeries who cover everything. For minor eye conditions people will be encouraged to use the Minor Eye Conditions Service Minor Eye Conditions Service – Oxfordshire LOC. Opticians are more expert than doctors in these conditions, so it provides patients with eye problems with better care, whilst simultaneously freeing up GP appointments for patients specifically needing GP services. They will no longer be told to go to opticians who are not part of MECS, or for eye conditions that are more appropriately managed by a GP

Reactivating the NHS App and Online Patient Access. A leaflet has been produced explaining the process.  There is a tutorial on the website. It can also be done at the surgery for patients.  This does not affect the current 19 Beaumont Street patients.

Updating pharmacies and hospitals: The NHS Spine will ensure all relevant bodies will be informed at what practice patients are registered. There is no need to inform them of the change of name of the Botley Medical Centre.

Appreciation expressed: Loud applause greeted the appreciation which Councillor Judy Roberts expressed for the new practice coming to Botley.The alternative would have been a series of doctors parachuted in short term. Another patient later thanked the practice for coming to Botley.

Will you be seeing everyone for a first time meeting? They plan to see the people they need to see sooner rather than later. If people have urgent needs they should get in touch. But everyone should not play that card.

Can those registered already at 19 Beaumont Street come to the Elms Road Medical Centre? Yes, and the continued closure of the Botley Railway Bridge makes that all the more sensible.  We are one organisation working on two sites.

Are you taking new patients? It depends where you live. We are not planning to close our lists. So the answer is yes.

Dosset Boxes  All these have been cancelled and will all be reissued.

Will we have a named GP? Our NHS registration requires that everyone has a named GP. That does not mean that that is the GP you have to see. You can see whomsoever you like provided they are available. While we settle in the new doctors following the locums we will need to adjust the usual GP allocations as the new doctors arrive in January 2024.

Do you have the paperwork to assure us that all the doctors are properly qualified? It had been mislaid at the Botley Medical Centre. Yes. We do have trainees and medical students but all these work under supervision of a qualified doctor.

Can you visit housebound patients? Yes. That is the reason for the geographical limitations.

Can appointments be made for a future date? Yes. Talk to the receptionist or submit an email  to info.nbs@nhs.net, or econsult found as ‘How do I contact my doctor online’ in the ‘How do I…’ section of our website. Please give as much detail as possible as to why you want the appointment, if you have a preferred member of the team to see, and which site you would prefer to be seen at, the GP will review the request. You will get a call that day, or the next day for requests made in the afternoon about the appointment to be booked in a week to 3 weeks.

Can patients be seen at either site?  Yes

Have you set lengths of time for appointments? We allow 15 minutes for the consultation and writing up the notes. There is no requirement to raise only one problem in an appointment. If the appointment needs to run over for an urgent or serious problem, we will do so, but if the appointment is running over for routine matters we will ask you to book a future appointment to discuss the remaining matters to ensure we can give them our proper attention with sufficient time, and to reduce inconvenience to patients waiting to be seen. Our priority is to give the best to the patient at the time. This may sometimes mean our clinicians run late, for which we apologise. Please give the receptionist as much information as possible in case two appointments need to be made. 

Other points:
The same number for both sites: 01865 240501
There is a section for Botley patients on the practice website www.19beaumontstreet.com

At the close of the meeting one patient said: “You seem a very nice bunch of people”. Afterwards one patient emailed: “This evening’s meeting was so encouraging.”

Another emailed: “ The new team are very impressive and I was  amazed at how many of them turned up on a horrid night”.