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April Newsletter
Welcome to the first edition of the new Waterfield House Surgery Newsletter, brought to you by the Patient Participation Group.
We hope that all the surgery’s patients will find the Newsletter informative, helpful and interesting and that you will circulate it to fellow patients.
What is the Patient Participation Group
A Patient Participation Group (PPG) is a group of volunteer patients and GP practice staff who meet regularly to discuss and support the running of their GP practice. We look at the services the practice offers, patient experience and how improvements can be made for the benefit of patients, doctors and practice staff.
Our PPG meets four times a year and is open to every patient who is registered with the Waterfield House Surgery practice.
We welcome more members, so please do come along to the next meeting, at the surgery, at 19.00 on Wednesday 17 April.
Who's Who at the Surgery
The Surgery has:
- 5 GPs
- 1 GP Registrar
- 1 GP Trainee
- 1 Paramedic Practitioner
- 1 Clinical Pharmacist
- 3 Practice Nurses (1 currently on maternity leave)
- 1 Health Care Assistant
- Administrative staff.
Please note that almost all of these staff members work part-time.
Read more about our team members
Waterfield in numbers
Total number of patients: 6467
Calls: 5337
Appointments Offered: 857
Face to Face Appointments offered: 660
Home Visits: 119
Clinical Letters processed: 1778
Prescription items issued: 187652
Did not attend booked appointment: 55
Community Catalyst Project
Funded by Kent County Council, the Community Catalyst Project aims to work with local people who want to develop, or who have developed, small enterprises and ventures offering a wide range of help and support for older and disabled people at home and in the community. Once a project is approved its details will go in a nationwide directory which currently contains projects of 90 companies.
Digital Support - Digital Kent
The surgery recently ran a Digital Support Training event with the help of members of the Digital Kent team who are working to improve digital inclusion and capabilities in Kent and to provide various useful services, including:
- Hardware Access Scheme providing digitally excluded residents with access to digital devices, provision of lap-tops, tablets or phones.
- A recycling scheme for residents, businesses, charities etc to dispose of their unwanted IT equipment easily, safely, securely and with minimum impact on the environment.
There are Digital Hubs across Kent, the nearest to Pembury being at Sherwood Library and Tonbridge North Library. Find your nearest Digital Hub
What you are all talking about: Anima! What is it?
Anima is the fastest, safest way to manage the practice's patient requests. It is a form-based online consultation & triage platform that collects your medical or administrative request and sends it through to the practice where one of the GPs will each day be assigned to continuously monitor the requests in order to triage and decide on the right care for you. Anima replaces the eConsult system (which had many drawbacks), which itself replaced the former unsatisfactory telephone booking system.
Waterfield House was the first surgery in the Tunbridge Wells Primary Care Network (PCN) to go live with the system in January this year. The feedback so far has been positive, with reports that the system is simpler to use and less time-consuming to complete. It also results in the patient getting a faster appointment than before Anima.
We are aware that not all patients can access the internet or Amina, and want to reassure you that these patients can of course still phone the surgery where a Receptionist will complete the form on the patient’s behalf.
Think Pharmacy First!
As part of a major transformation in the way the NHS delivers care, highly trained pharmacists in more than nine in 10 pharmacies across Kent and Medway (including Pembury Pharmacy) can now assess and treat patients (including the provision of prescription medicines) for seven common conditions: earache, impetigo, urinary tract infections (UTIs), infected insect bites, shingles, sinusitis and sore throat.
Community pharmacists will signpost patients to other local services where necessary.
If a patient uses Anima to request a consultation for any of the above conditions, that request will be forwarded by the surgery to Pembury Pharmacy, which will then contact the patient direct.
And some interesting information about your local pharmacy!
Pembury Pharmacy:
- offers free blood pressure checks
- offers a contraceptive advice service
- receives about 2500 prescriptions (many with multiple items) per week which have to be registered, checked and issued
Published: Apr 11, 2024