Welcome to the team…
After the departure of some GPs at the end of last year we are pleased to announce that we have been able to recruit some wonderful GPs to join the dedicated team we have at Beaumont Elms.  Dr Imogen Mabey is settling in after joining the practice in November.  You may also have met Dr Clare Pritchard and Dr Louise Bradbury who have joined us from local practices at the beginning of January and Dr Cathy Scott at the beginning of February.  We look forward to welcoming Drs Nikki Handley and Mel Phillips early in March.  One of our pharmacy team left at the end of the year to travel in Asia and whilst we were sorry to see her go we hope she has a fantastic time and look forward to welcoming Adina Josephs to the pharmacy team at the beginning of March.

A plea from your GP surgery….
At the most recent PPG meeting (summary to follow next month) we discussed an increase in patients contacting the practice, especially on a Monday morning.  In the 20 working days in December we received approaching 8000 calls, that is 400 per day.  Using the average call length the practice spent 290 hours in total/ 14.5 hours a day answering the phone.  That is a lot of time spent on the phone!  We need patients to be able to contact us when they need us but at busy times this can be difficult for the practice and patients.  Looking in a bit more detail at daily average incoming calls in December;

We know that some reasons for calling the surgery are time sensitive and we encourage patients to call as soon as they can with those issues.  But to enable us to provide the best possible service to those patients please try to call on less busy days at less busy times for more routine matters.  You can also contact us by completing an eConsult (accessed via our website and the How Do I? tab), sending an email to info.nbs@nhs.net or popping in and see us in the surgery. 

A day in the life of a practice pharmacist
Also please remember that GPs aren’t the only practitioner who can help you with medical matters in the practice.  We have a wide range of staff making up our healthcare team.  Eu Jin Chai, Kieran Watts and (soon to be) Adina Josephs provide support by ensuring the safe and effective supply of medication. They have broad and varied roles within the practice, but their day to day activities include conducting medication reviews, providing advice on drug interactions and dosages and helping manage long-term conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma. Clinical pharmacists can work closely with patients and GPs to optimise treatment plans, reconcile medication following hospital discharges, promote safe prescribing and undertake clinical audits to make sure the practice complies with national guidelines. All our clinical pharmacists are prescribers and run pharmacist-led clinics to help manage chronic diseases and improve patients’ overall health outcomes. 

Green Impact Award 
Did you know: inhalers have a significantly higher environmental impact if they go into landfill? Instead of binning your empty inhalers hand in to the local pharmacies, where they can be disposed of appropriately?  Over the last year Beaumont Elms Practice has been working towards a Green Impact Award for Sustainable Healthcare. This is a national award that GP surgeries can target. It covers a range of aspects of sustainable health and healthcare including waste and recycling, energy saving, travel and exercise, and prescribing– to name but a few of the many areas. We assessed our current ways of working and made small but significant changes in many areas, and at both sites (Botley and Beaumont Street). We were delighted to find out this autumn that we’ve been awarded the Bronze Award. Our Green Impact team are continuing to meet and are targeting a Silver Award next – watch this space!