Our April edition of the newsletter is available here

The weekly get together for the singers start again on 14th April at 7.00pm in the Education Room.

Come along and enjoy an hour of fun and singing.

To conform with the Health & Social Care Information Centre requirements can we ask you to verify your mobile number and email address so we are able to contact you with news, appointment reminders etc. You can do this at reception or email us at cwsccg.stlawrencesurgery@nhs.net adding your name and address as well as your mobile number and email address.

Thank You

Dr Corney has had a little girl.  Jessica Kate Gilchrist arrived safe and sound on 5th April at 8pm, weighing 7.13lbs.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Hardly a day goes past without the media referring to the crisis facing the NHS. The pressure on our doctors and nurses is exceptional and recently Worthing Hospital buckled under the exceptional demand and had to close its doors. If we want to continue to receive the excellent care we have come to expect from the NHS we have to do things differently.

The Patients Participation Group has therefore begun to work with the surgery and Clinical Commissioning Group to look at ways of making better use of our valued health professionals’ time. We are not doing this in isolation. NHS England and groups all over the country are looking at ways to manage the unprecedented, increasing and unsustainable demand on the NHS.

In many cases we can take care of our own minor ailments and injuries, reducing the number of GP consultations and enabling our GPs to focus on caring for higher risk patients such as those with complex conditions.

The following diagram provides a helpful illustration

 

This shows the sliding scale of self care starting with making daily choices about our lifestyle, such as eating healthily or choosing to do exercise, to times when we can often take care of ourselves, when we have common symptoms such as sore throats, coughs etc, for example by using over-the-counter medicines.  The same is true for long-term conditions where we can often self-manage, without help from a health professional. Interestingly figures from the Department of Health show that people with long term conditions spend on average 4 hours a year with a health professional, which means the remaining 8756 hours are spent self-managing.

At the opposite end of the continuum is major trauma where responsibility for care is entirely in the hands of the healthcare professionals, until the start of recovery when self-care can begin again.

Empowering patients with the confidence and information to look after themselves when they can, and visit the GP when they need to, gives people greater control of their own health and encourages healthy behaviours that help prevent ill health in the long-term.

There is no doubt that increased personal responsibility around healthcare helps improve people’s health and wellbeing and better manage long-term conditions when they do develop. This will ultimately ensure the long-term sustainability of our NHS, which is something we surely all want.

If you have any ideas on how we can reduce demand on our doctors and nurses we would like to hear from you. Contact Chris Moon-Willems Self Care Champion for St Lawrence surgery on 07505103955

More Self Care help can be found here.