The ElliottEar The Newsletter Published by the Patients'
Association of the Elliott Hall Medical Centre Number 22 Reg Charity No: 1048910 APRIL 2004
Contents.
1.
Chairman’s Report.
2. Cessation of Saturday Morning Emergency
Surgeries at EHMC.
3. Annual General Meeting Notice for 11
May.
4. Fish and Chip Quiz Supper
5. Hon. Treasurer
report.
6. “Goodbye and Thank You, Alan”.
7. Transport Service Notice.
8. Blue Badges For
Disabled Parking.
9. Old Mobile Phone, Printer or other
Cartridges.
10. Babble and Chat.
11. Advance Notice for your Diary.
12. Editor’s Note.
13. Carer’s
Group.
14. “Another Very Big Thanks”.
15. Protect Yourself and Your Home.
16. Famous Names In Medicine
: Marie Curie.
17. Staff Changes at EHMC.
18. Teaching at EHMC.
19. Clinical Audit Awards.
20. To All Wool Gathers.
21. FAREWELL! By Alan Byers.
22. Financial Thoughts.
23. Expert Patients.
24. PREVENTING FALLS AND HOW TO AVOID
SLIPS,
TRIPS AND BROKEN HIPS (Help The Aged).
25. New Faces and New Ways Off Helping Our Patients With
Medical problems.
26. Community Oriented Primary Care
(COPC).
Most of you will know by now that Dr Alan Byers is to retire from the practice at the end of June 2004. He has worked as a doctor and earned the respect and thanks of many patients over the years not only by his medical skills but also through his caring for patients and always being prepared to listen to patients’ problems. He will be greatly missed by us all, and on behalf of you all I say a big THANK YOU!
I am delighted to tell you that he
has agreed to be the guest speaker at our AGM on Tuesday 11 May – for details
see page 2.
Talking of The ElliottEar, it is great to see it
thriving again under its new editor and her loyal team of supporters, including
the deliverers, without whom you would not receive your copy. Thank you everyone.
As a result of my recent requests for new volunteers it is pleasing to note that a number of patients have become volunteers on our various support groups – welcome and thank you to them. However, anyone else wishing to help in any way will be welcomed, so don’t be shy.
As we come to the end of my fifth
year in the chair, I must thank all members of the Committee for their hard
work and loyal support of the Association, for without their commitment nothing
would happen. My thanks also go to the
doctors and all the staff at the Medical Centre for their support of the Association. Remember, it is a team effort and we all
work together.
Cyril Flood, Chairman
***IMPORTANT INFORMATION***
SATURDAY
MORNING EMERGENCY SURGERIES AT EHMC WILL STOP FROM
In line with other practices locally, we will no longer run
an emergency surgery on Saturday mornings.
This reflects changes in General Practice with the new GP contract and
new ways of working across the country.
The last
Saturday emergency surgery will be on
If you have an urgent medical problem that will not wait
until the Medical Centre reopens, please contact (020) 8428 4019 in the usual
way.
Many people collect prescriptions on a Saturday
morning. This will no longer be
possible, so please make sure that you allow sufficient time for your
prescription to be ready.
Notice is hereby given under Rule 6 of the Rules
of the
Elliott
Hall Patients’ Association that the
Annual
General Meeting
of the said
Association will be held at
Guide Headquarters,
on
AGENDA
1. Apologies for absence
2. Chairman’s Annual Report
3. Hon.
Treasurer’s Report
Presentation of Statement of Accounts and
Adoption of same
4. Election of Officers
5. Election of Independent Examiner of
Accounts
6. Any other business
Hon. Secretary:
:Mrs Janice
Berry,
The three present Officers are
eligible for re-election and all have agreed to stand again. Any other nominations for the positions of
Chairman, Vice Chairman, Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Secretary, must be proposed
and seconded by members of the Patients’Association,
and sent in writing to the Hon. Secretary by
After the formal AGM Dr Alan Byers will
speak on
“24.5 years as a doctor in Hatch
End”
FISH AND
CHIP QUIZ SUPPER
We are
organizing another Quiz Supper
for Saturday 8 May at
at the Guide Headquarters,
Hatch End
Tickets £8.50
To book places for this very popular event ring Pam Bertolotti :
8428 4109 or Helen Wright : 8933 6630
And so, another financial year of
the Patients’ Association has finished.
The donations from patients and others, the fund raising and the
advertising revenue have gone down slightly while the income
from transport and bank interest have gone up.
In 2003 we have been able to
purchase equipment for the practice amounting to more than £2,600, compared
with less than £500 in 2002. Otherwise,
expenditure in total compares with that in 2002. Naturally, from what I have said, our bank
deposit account has suffered, but one of the purposes of our existence is to
help provide equipment for our doctors, and this we have done.
As the Patients’ Association is a
registered charity, we can recover Income Tax in Gift Aid donations from
taxpayers. If you are a taxpayer and
wish to donate money for our funds, please ask me for a Gift Aid form at the
address or the phone number on the inside back cover of The ElliottEar.
Victor
Davis, Hon. Treasurer
Goodbye
and Thank You, Alan!
We,
like our patients, are very sorry that Alan is leaving. Some of us have known for some time that Alan
planned “to retire” early, but nevertheless the sadness we feel at his
departure is none the easier.
Alan
has impacted on so many of us in different ways. His conscientiousness is second to
none. He is often the first in and the
last home, and many of you will have been contacted at either end of the day as
Alan ensures that all his patients are given a very personal service.
As
a model health professional he also practises what he preaches. He stopped smoking when he joined the
practice nearly twenty-five years ago.
Between 1993 and 1998 he set up one of the first local stop-smoking
groups, and many of you still reflect on those! More recently, his diet and fitness programme
has been the envy of many as he trimmed himself down, with many a patient
failing to recognize him (especially as the moustache came off!).
Alan’s
surgical skills are renowned. Somewhere
I am sure he will have a statistic for this, but there are very few lumps he
will not attempt if the patient prefers a Medical Centre approach. Then there’s his dexterity (not a word
usually associated with Alan!), but armed with the operating microscope Alan
will comfortably perform minor ear operations usually reserved for specialist
out-patient clinics.
Finally, the hallmark of all the best doctors is their
ability to be self-directed in their learning and reflective in their
practice. Alan has helped EHMC
educationally lead over the past ten years, and his legacy to the practice will
be the many learning systems and programmes in place … but who will now take
the minutes?
We all wish Alan well with his new-found freedom. We will be keeping you, the readers, in
touch with his life beyond EHMC.
Chris
Jenner and The Team
A ten-year success story
Ten years ago last January I became
a volunteer for the newly-formed “Patients’ Association”, working at the
surgery for “Transport”, in conjunction with the co-ordinators, Pat and David
James, who worked from their home. After
ten years we thought it would be a good idea to let patients know how
successful it has been.
In 1994, our first year, we
arranged 277 “lifts”. This jumped up
enormously in 1996 to 351. For the
following two years the numbers dropped slightly, but were still over 300. Since then the numbers have fluctuated but
are still between 245 and 290. In our
first ten years we arranged a total of 2,895 rides, averaging 289 a year. Taking into account 52 weekends and an
average number of Bank Holidays, we arrived at the total of 252 weekdays each
year. This works out at more than one
ride a day for every Monday – Friday for the past ten years.
A big THANK YOU to all
our drivers, past and present.
Rita Brown
The last ElliottEar ran an article on who is entitled to receive and how to apply for
a Blue Badge. The Badge is issued to a
named person and not to a specific car, so you need not be a car driver to hold
a Blue Badge.
To enable our drivers to park more
easily on journeys to the Medical Centre or hospitals, any patient holding a Blue Badge should take it with them when using
our transport. (See also page 24.)
Many thanks to all who have brought any of the above
to the surgery in the past year for recycling in aid of Carers’
Unfortunately
we have now been informed that only a very limited number of cartridges etc., are suitable for their recycling, and some of the most
commonly used makes such as Epson are not required at all. It does not seem practicable for us to sort
out the appropriate ones for return, and we have therefore reluctantly decided
to discontinue the project.
We
do thank you very much for your past efforts in this regard but please do NOT bring any more to the Medical
Centre. However, there are
other schemes operating on behalf of charities, which supply a special envelope
for posting your used cartridge, so keep an eye out for these when next you buy
cartridges.
Babble and Chat provides activities
and play for pre-school age children and the opportunity for adults to get together to make new friends and
have a chat over a cup of tea or coffee.
The Group
owns a large selection of toys for babies, crawlers and toddlers, including soft
toys, rattles, bricks, sit-and-ride toys, pretend play items, books and
puzzles. Each week we try to arrange craft sessions for the older children and
usually end the session by singing a few popular nursery songs with our
children.
Babble
and Chat
meets every Tuesday afternoon, 12.45 to 2.45, in The Clubhouse, situated in
Saddler’s Mead Park, off Clonard Way, Hatch End.
Leaflets with more information
about the Group are available in the waiting room at the surgery, or from
reception and also from the health visitor.
Carole and I look forward to
meeting you.
Lisa
Harvey
Advance
Notice for your Diary
There
will be our usual Christmas Coffee
Morning
on Saturday
20 November
Please book
it in your diary now –
More details in the October issue
Sadly, Sharon Castledine
had to withdraw as our designer, but many thanks for all her efforts in
redesigning The ElliottEar. As there is a lot of copy for the
current issue we’ve reverted to the old style, but I hope to be more
adventurous next time. If you have
strong feelings over two columns or full-out text, do let me know.
Operation: The system is operated by volunteers at the
Medical Centre on Tuesday
and Friday
mornings from
Medical Centre on 8428 4019 at this time to book their
journeys. Drivers do
not
take bookings. In the event of emergency appointments, patients
should
contact
David & Pat James. The service
operates Monday to Friday.
Carers’ Support Group
The
Carers’ Support Group exists to help those members of the Elliott Hall Medical
Centre who are full- or part-time carers.
We aim to give them relief from their caring by our monthly meetings in
members’ homes; these
meetings are held on the third Thursday morning each month from
If
you are a carer but cannot attend our gatherings, please let either Beryl or
Anne know and we will try to arrange to visit you at home. We try to help with all aspects of caring,
from form filling to services available to you – we are only a phone call away.
Full
details of meetings up until December are displayed on the Patients’
Association notice board at EHMC.
Dates
of future meetings are: Thursdays 15
April; 20
May; 17 June; 15 July;
19 August; 16 September; 21 October;
18 November and 16 December.
Do
you ever wonder …… when dog food is “new and improved” who tastes it?
Another very big THANKS!
In
the October issue I said that I would “be waiting for the phone to ring and
hoped I wouldn’t be disappointed!”
Well, I wasn’t – it rang and rang and rang! A truly great response. So a very big thanks to all of you who picked
up your phones. It was marvellous to
hear from so many.
Some
of you were immediately thrown in at the deep end, and helped straight away to
fill gaps on my list and deliver some of the October newsletters. For others of you this April issue will be
your first delivery. I hope you find
the task not too arduous and perhaps even enjoyable!
Having
more deliverers has enabled me to spread the load and reduce some of the larger
rounds, to the benefit of everyone. I
am very grateful to you. Without you
this task would not be possible.
Although now not in the desperate situation I was in prior to my
appeal, please don’t feel you are not wanted!
I’m sure a little route can be found for everyone, so if you feel the
urge to be a deliverer, ring me. And
thanks again.
Hilary N.
Morgan
Protect yourself and your home!
I am
writing this as the newly-appointed Community Involvement Officer, based at
Harrow Police Station, where my duties include the co-ordination and
maintenance of the Harrow Neighbourhood Watch (HNW) Database and the Harrow
Police Ringmaster System (a computerized messaging system). I am also responsible for ordering crime
prevention literature from the Home Office.
For
the past four years I have worked for the Harrow Crime Prevention Panel (HCPP)
on a voluntary basis, helping vulnerable residents in Harrow feel safer by
fitting additional security to their homes.
I have also been a Neighbourhood Watch Street Co-ordinator for nearly
five years, and will continue to assist HNW to flourish and grow in Harrow.
Neighbourhood Watch (HNW) is about looking out for each other. Neighbours uniting and acting together means
that dozens of eyes and ears are ready to pick up on anything happening in your
neighbourhood that could cause worry or concern. It’s not about being nosy or interfering,
but about being a good neighbour and caring about your community. Some insurance companies offer a discount on
your home insurance if you are a member of Neighbourhood Watch. HNW members are also entitled to receive
up-to-date information about crime trends by signing up to the Ringmaster
messaging system, a free service which delivers a voice message over the phone,
at a time and day convenient to you.
If
you are in need of help and are ill, elderly or on benefits, the Harrow Crime Prevention Panel (HCPP) may
be able to assist you. They can supply
and fit basic locks, bolts, door chains and door viewers, etc., at a discounted
rate. To get help from the HCPP please
contact the Police Crime Reduction Unit on 8733 3465, and they will refer you.
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is now offering a free service to help the elderly and
infirm, this coincides with their current advertising campaign. They will supply and install smoke alarms
free of charge where needed. Ring 08000
284428 if you or someone you know needs a smoke alarm.
Please
feel free to contact me, David Prowse, on 8733 3416 if I can be of any help
regarding any of the above, and hopefully I will be able to answer your
questions. In the event that I am not
there, please leave a message and I will return your call.
David Prowse, Community Involvement
Officer, Harrow
Police Borough
Do
you ever wonder why …. apartments
are called that when they are all stuck together?
Famous
Names in Medicine : Marie Curie
Marie
Sklodowska was born in Warsaw in 1867. She had a grounding
in chemistry at her gymnasium but there was no hope of attending university in
what was then the Russian part of a divided
In
1896, soon after the discovery of X-rays, Henri Becquerel, also in Paris,
discovered that uranium salts emitted rays, which, like X-rays, penetrated
matter. This interested Marie. She began studying uranium compounds and
found that pitchblende (uranium oxide ore) was four times as radioactive as
uranium. She thought that a new
radioactive element might exist. With
Pierre she worked hard at refining pitchblende, and in 1898 they isolated a new
element, polonium (named after Marie’s Poland). Then they found that the liquid left over
from pitchblende after the removal of polonium was highly radioactive, and
later they isolated a substance that was 900 times more radioactive than
uranium. They named it radium.
Marie’s Ph.D. thesis was awarded the same year.
After
it was found that radium would destroy cells, it was used in the treatment of
cancer and other diseases. Nowadays
radium has given place to substances such as radioactive cobalt – easier to
obtain and to handle. Sufficient
radiotherapy to suppress a cancer may have ill effects on the body as a whole,
but some surface cancers can be cured by radiotherapy without harming the
patient at all.
Marie
shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Henri Becquerel in 1903, for the
discovery of radioactivity (a term which she herself introduced) and she was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911 for the discovery of polonium and
radium – the only woman to be awarded two Nobel Prizes.
Pierre
would have shared the second Nobel Prize with Marie but he was dead, and the
Prize is never awarded posthumously. In
April 1906 Pierre Curie slipped under a cart in a Paris street and was
killed. It is thought that he had a
dizzy spell brought on by what we now know as radiation sickness. Marie died in 1934 of leukaemia, also a
victim of exposure to radioactive radiation material. Her laboratory notebooks are still so radioactive
that they are kept in a lead-lined safe.
Leslie Morton
Since this article was written, Leslie
Morton suffered a stroke from which he subsequently died. He was a great contributor to the life of
the Elliott Hall Medical Centre, and will be sadly missed. A tribute to him will appear in the October
issue of The ElliottEar.
ST STAFF CHANGES AT EHMC
Once again, there are a few changes to report.
Dr
Botly left us in November as her husband was due to
move to France – she is brushing up on her language skills so that she can
practise medicine over there when they move later this year.
Sister
Lewis left us in September, when her family relocated to the Midlands. We miss her hard work and sense of fun.
Pinaki Ondhia left the reception team and has settled happily into
another medical centre nearer to her home.
There
are a couple of new faces: Dr Debbie Jacobs is the PRHO, joining
us at the beginning of December for her four-month placement.
Helen Gordon joined the reception team from a practice in Wembley,
and has settled in well.
We
have just interviewed for practice nurses and hope that Mary Taylor and Sally Pople will be joining the team very soon. Mary has worked in practice nursing for a
number of years, and Sally has been working locally with the Residential Homes
team in Pinner.
Denise Lavey
It
is now seven years since I wrote about us starting medical student teaching at
EHMC, and many of you have contributed enormously to the education of
students. We teach a variety of aspects
to them and I will list these, which might clarify why you are approached in
different settings.
We
teach final-year medical students from GKT (medical school of Guy’s, King’s and
Thomas’s), who come for eight weeks at a time and learn what general practice
involves, alongside seeing patients themselves under supervision. A group of students from different practices
also meet once a week at EHMC for a group session facilitated either by Dr Jenner or Dr Kleinberg.
We
also have medical students from Imperial College, who come to do a general
practice attachment for three weeks, learning about what general practice
involves. There are third-year students
who come to be taught clinical method skills in a group that is history-taking
or examination techniques. These groups
are taught in turn by all four partners, and patients are invited in to share
their experience/history with the students or to be used as living
“models”. Students also study one
patient in depth – often someone who is housebound – to learn how people with
disabilities manage to live independently and which services or expert help
they use. It is the best way to
understand the complexities of community care.
First-year
students also visit during their patient contact course. This allows them to interview patients to
try to understand how common symptoms are and what people do about them. They also look at the issues of
doctor/patient communication and patient satisfaction with the health service
Teaching
also includes post-graduate education with teaching of PRHO (pre-registration
house officers) who do part of their internship in general practice along with
registrars training to be general practitioners. More details about this can be found on the
website.
Teaching
also includes nurse training under Helen’s leadership, and passing on expert
skills of Ann, Carol, Laura and Denise to staff both within and in neighbouring
practices.
WE
THANK ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HELP US FULFIL OUR TEACHING COMMITMENTS – VOLUNTEERS
ARE ALWAYS WELCOME !
Reena Majus
CONGRATULATIONS!
The Clinical Audit Awards were an opportunity for the Harrow Primary
Care Trust to celebrate some great achievements, and amongst the entries –
whose quality was “extremely high” - Dr Chris Jenner
shared a second prize for an audit of hypothyroid management at the Elliott
Hall Medical Centre. As a result, it was agreed that a new template developed
by EHMC following their audit should be shared with all Harrow GPs.
To All Wool-Gatherers
We have a lot of industrious patients at
Elliott Hall, and one of them who knits hats and
scarves for homeless people is running out of wool. If you find any oddments of wool when you’re
spring-cleaning Mrs Hazel Richman could put them to good use.
Farewell!
My 24.5 years at Elliott
Hall Medical Centre (EHMC) span a generation and I have loved doctoring here.
The people of Hatch End and adjacent areas are, I believe, one of the nicest groups
of people in the world, and it has been a great privilege to have been among
you all for so many years.
However,
the time has come for me to take a break (2-3 months I hope), and look for less
strenuous work even though still in the medical profession. It has been
wonderful meeting so many good people from many different backgrounds, and I
have had a great team to work with at the surgery where we all get on
extraordinarily well with each other.
I
feel sad (and a little guilty!) to be leaving EHMC and will be keeping in touch
with our brilliant Patients’ Association. I thank you for all the marvellous
support that I have had from so many of you, and from our surgery
colleagues/staff.
Fat
and us
And now for the sermon …
this week it’s NOT stop smoking, nor avoid drug addiction, nor avoid alcohol to
excess (just thought I’d slip those in!). Today’s sermon is about “If you weigh
too much, Why not diet a touch?”
We
have all heard frightening statistics of the increasing epidemic of obesity in
the Western World, as led by the
|
Ages |
Men |
Women |
|
25-49 |
13% |
14% |
|
50-74 |
18% |
22% |
|
75 + |
12% |
13% |
|
All Ages over 25 |
14.6% |
16.9% |
Our
data for our under-25s is not complete, so I have not quoted it.
(BMI = Weight in kg, divided
by the square of the Height in metres, and is “normally” above 20, but not more
than 25 in men and 27 in women.)
Like some of our appetites,
we have a bottomless pit of aspects of nutrition and special diets we could
talk about. When I did a search on DIET on the computer, it came up with 4.5
million entries – and I’m still working through them!
Obtaining
evidence about our food and what its ultimate effects are is tremendously
difficult. Who wants to stick to any special diet strictly for years on end as
part of a research trial? It takes years and large numbers of participants to
get meaningful answers to some research questions about the long-term effects
of various diets, and even the researchers themselves want to get results
fairly quickly. They need to get on with it and publish! So some of what is
said about nutrition cannot be as rigorously evidence-based as one would like.
This includes RDAs (Recommended Daily Allowances) of
individual nutrients in our diets. In any case it appears that the minimum RDAs vary widely in different people.
There
are also lots of hidden market forces operating in the media where money seems
to affect some of the dietary advice we are being given. Dietitians,
nutritionalists, nurses and doctors were trained in
their own way at university, and when diets come along that seem to contradict
what they were taught, they sometimes have a gut instinct to oppose them. Thus
we do see much confusing advice being given about different diets, and it is
sometimes difficult to sort out the true from the false.
Our
sedentary life-styles are a major cause of obesity, as are some of the fast
foods. There is no doubt that some
people get fatter than others on the same amounts of food, and there are big
genetic influences on that. In fact, a genetic tendency to fatness is a
“survival of the fittest” quality that enabled some people to survive through
the years in conditions of food deprivation, such as in the Ice Age. What is a
genetic advantage when food is scarce becomes a genetic disadvantage when food
is plentiful. The list of health
hazards of obesity is legion. Although I consider myself a well person
generally (I only missed one day of work in all my time at our surgery), I was
able to list 12 minor ailments of mine (including indigestion) which
disappeared when I lost 3 stone in six months on a low carbohydrate diet in
2002.
The
Weight Watchers diet is the single best-known diet, and revolves around calorie
counting and “exchanges” and regular support group meetings. The trouble with
that is that most people do not like calorie counting, calorie exchanges and
meetings, and cannot keep them up indefinitely. Furthermore, how fat or thin
food makes you is not solely related to the calorie intake. Different foods,
and possibly the way they are combined, can affect the way you metabolize them.
Nuts are an example of a food that is not as fattening as you would expect from
their calorie content. Also, the Weight Watchers diet fits in better with
people who prepare most of their own food themselves –
unlike many of us! Nevertheless,
Weight Watchers is very successful for a lot of people.
With
diets in general, I see a lot of great successes amongst our patients, but
unfortunately some relapse after a while and put back again much, if not all,
of the weight they had lost. This is equally so where dieters use tablets or
special diet products to support their endeavours, and we at EHMC do not
encourage diet tablets or special diet products to help with weight loss.
The
best chance of avoiding eventual relapse is to instil into oneself new
long-term eating habits with a programme of regular exercise. Eating selectively is a more endurable policy than
simply reducing the quantity of food one eats. So when one has decided which
foods to eliminate, one gets used to simply saying “I don’t eat x, y or z” when
offered food. After all, vegetarians and those who don’t eat pork or only eat
Kosher have no difficulty in saying that they simply do not eat this, that or
the other thing, and we readily accept that.
Some
will lose weight nicely, simply by adopting “eat healthy” policies, alongside
exercise. Most of us know what we have to do to eat healthily, although I could
add the borrowed idea that when it comes to Fruit and Vegetables we should “Eat
a Rainbow”: a good mix of nutrients can be ensured by checking that your Fruit
and Vegetables have a good mix of colours:
e.g. Red - tomatoes, strawberries, red peppers; Orange - carrots, apricots, mangos; Yellow - sweet corn, bananas, pineapple, grapefruit, Green - spinach, kiwi fruit,
broccoli; Blue/Indigo/Violet -prunes, plums, blueberries, blackberries.
If
you are looking for the “adults only” diet that allowed me to lose 3 stone
fairly effortlessly in 2002 (and there has been some interest!), it was low carbohydrate
and fat, supplemented by a multivitamin with minerals too (especially calcium),
and not forgetting regular exercise.
Very
briefly, my diet is: “Eat healthily” and not too much, but with plenty of fruit
and vegetables. However, ban the
following (at least for most of the time!): bread, matzo, potatoes, pasta,
cereals, porridge, rice, crisps, noodles, croutons, sugar and all sugared and
sugary products, and cream – a piece of cake! This diet also reduces craving
for food.
However,
it is you the slimmer who must choose a diet you can stick to, and there are
lots of different good diets to choose from. For some though, simply an
eat-healthy policy (with exercise) will lose all the weight you need to lose.
Apart
from genetic causes, the commonest medically definable cause of weight loss is
an under-active thyroid gland. This can be checked by a simple blood test.
The
sorts of problems that are sometimes helped by weight loss in the overweight
include: tight clothes(!), breathlessness, exercise ability, angina, fatigue,
varicose veins, ankle swelling, cholesterol levels, diabetes, indigestion,
pains in the weight bearing joints and muscles, especially back, hips, knees,
ankles and feet. Well worth the effort!
Congratulations
to someone who must have “got it right” – Mrs Alice Milsom who was 103 on
Alan Byers
Financial Thoughts
· Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
· Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how
popular
it remains?
· A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine
for
doing right.
Information and Help with Forms
Please Note: All forms handed in at the surgery should be
addressed TO THE ADMINISTRATOR. This
allows us to log them and make sure that the form is allocated to the
appropriate clinician
Blue Badges – Taxi Cards
To find out whether you are
eligible or to get a form contact:
For Women under 60, Men under 65, who
are registered disabled
Address: Physical Disability, Harrow People First,
Youngmans 1,
Civic Centre, Tel.
8424 1694
Station Road,
Opening
Hours:
For Women over 60, Men over 65
Address: Harrow
People First, Talbot House,
Opening Hours:
Help can also be obtained on the Harrow Council
Website www.harrow.gov.uk
What to do when you have received your
form
Complete the part which
requires personal information. You will
then need to hand the form in at the surgery for the doctors to complete and
sign their part. If you have enclosed
your cheque and photographs we can send it off directly, if not then you may
collect your completed form from the reception desk – this can take up to a
week. There is no charge for the
doctors’ services.
Benefit Forms
To find out whether you are
eligible and to request a form contact:
The Department of Works and
Pensions Tel. 0800 882200
For
forms and advice regarding
· Attendance Allowance
· Disability Living Allowance
· Carers’ Allowance
· Incapacity Benefit
Help can also be obtained from
their Website www.dwp.gov.uk.
Forms are available to download from this site.
What to do when you have received your
form
Complete the part which
requires personal information. You will
then need to hand the form in at the surgery for the doctors to complete and
sign their part. We can send it off
directly, or you may collect your completed form from the reception desk – this
can take up to a week. There is no
charge for the doctors’ services.
Passport / Driving Licence forms -
Photographs
If the doctors have known you
for more than two years, or in the case of a child, have known the parent, they
will be happy to validate your forms/photos.
The
charge for this service, as of February 2004, is £15, and you should allow up
to a week for this to be completed.
In the case of passport forms/photos
Please ensure that all
documentation is included as it will be returned to you in a verified sealed
envelope ready to post.
Private claim forms such as BUPA, PPP,
etc.
If you have been referred to
a private doctor for an illness or injury by one of our doctors, they will be
happy to complete your claim form.
Please make sure that the patient’s section of the form has been
completed before you hand it in, and that the doctor receives all sections.
The
charge for this service, as of February 2004, is £20, and you should allow up
to a week for this to be completed.
When payment has been received, we are happy to forward these forms
directly to your insurance company.
Otherwise they will be available from reception.
Ann Knight
Expert
Patients
It has long been known that
people have a lot of skills and knowledge in managing their long-term
conditions – doctors often observe that patients “know as much about their
long-term condition as I do”. Health
services are recognizing that this potential should be realized and are
encouraging patients to enrol in new self-management courses run locally.
There are two types of short courses. One deals with a particular condition, and is
about understanding it and living a normal life by protecting oneself from its
ill effects. Currently this course
exists for diabetes in the form of a Diabetes Group Education class. This is particularly aimed at those who have
newly been diagnosed, although people with established diabetes are welcome as
well. The second is not related to a
particular condition but helps patients living with a range of long-term
problems and covers a number of shared themes, e.g. medication, approaches to
diet and exercise, and managing pain.
This is the Expert Patients
Programme (EPP). Feedback from the
courses so far has been very positive.
The courses are typically over six weeks, and generally
each weekly session lasts 2 – 2.5 hours.
The aim is to develop the individual but some people find themselves so
enthused that they wish to help others with their new-found skills. This can involve supporting other patients
and educating health care professionals and students. This sharing of knowledge, whilst very
welcome, is entirely voluntary. The
main aim is self-empowerment.
People with any ongoing chronic medical condition can
enrol. At the moment the PCT and local
practices are particularly looking at Diabetes or Chronic Airways Disease
(bronchitis, emphysema or “smoker’s asthma”), but all are welcome to express an
interest.
What is an
“Expert Patient” ?
(CMO Website-link below)
Expert
Patients:
·
Feel confident and in control of their
lives
·
Aim to manage their condition and its treatment
in partnership
with
health care professionals
·
Communicate effectively with
professionals and are willing
to
share responsibility and treatment
·
Are realistic about the impact of their
disease on themselves
and
their family
·
Use their skills and knowledge to lead
full lives
For more information please
cut off the slip below and return it to the
surgery. You can also visit www.doh.gov.uk/cmo/progress/expertpatient/
I am interested in finding out more about the Expert
Patients Programme Group Education Classes.
The condition I have is ………………………………………………….
My name is
………………………………………………………………
Thank you! Ashok Kelshiker
Preventing Falls and how to
avoid Slips, Trips and Broken Hips (Help
The Aged)
· Be Safe
· Be Careful
· Be Independent
Amongst our patients at EHMC
in 2003 the following number of falls were documented
(not including many when people may not have needed to tell us).
Men aged 85-89 51
% Ladies aged 85-89 40 %
aged 75-84 14 % aged 75-84 32 %
Sadly, a lot of people trip,
slip or fall, and this can damage a person’s quality of life. There are some tips to help avoid falls.
Keep your body active
You
are more likely to fall if you have weak muscles and poor balance. A good way to make your muscles stronger and
to improve
your
balance is to take regular exercise that might include walking, light gardening
and keep-fit classes.
Start
gently, build up slowly, and don’t try to do more than you feel comfortable with.
Don’t
stop taking exercise just because you have had a fall or because you are afraid
of falling.
Keep your body healthy
Make
sure you eat a healthy diet with plenty of Calcium and Vitamin D, found in
dairy products, meat, sardines, tuna and other oily fish. Most fat spreads and breakfast cereals have
Vitamin D in them.
Many
older people are now being advised to take additional prescribed Calcium and
Vitamin D, especially if they have previously fallen or fractured any bones.
Watch what you wear
Remember
“SLIPPERS
SLIP”. You are more likely to
slip or trip if you wear loose slippers, sandals, shoes with heels and clothing
that trails on the ground.
Wear flat shoes or shoes with thin soles or a built-in
heel.
Keeping an eye on your health
Wear the right glasses.
Have
your medications checked at regular intervals as written on your prescription
sheet, especially if you are taking more than four kinds.
Don’t drink too much alcohol.
Have your flu jab.
Take good care of your feet, which may involve using
the Chiropodist.
Making your home safer
Fit a letterbox cage to save bending down.
Use bright light bulbs in the kitchen.
Use long-life bulbs.
Avoid
having any loose rugs, wires or other clutter on stairs or places where you
walk.
Have handrails on the stairs, by the bath and by the
toilet.
Take the casters off any furniture that you hold on
to.
Avoid using steps – move things to where they are more
accessible.
More
telephone extensions will stop a rush to the phone. Above all, have one beside your bed,
especially if you sleep upstairs.
A
personal fall alarm such as “Helpline” can be a comfort to you and your family.
Cut down the risks in your daily life
When you get up out of bed or out of a chair, try to
stand up in stages.
When you go to the toilet at night, turn on the light,
don’t use a torch .
Keep your home warm, as cold muscles work less well.
If
you have a pet, fit a brightly coloured collar so that you can see it. more easily and will be less likely to trip over the animal.
Useful contacts
Help
The Aged-Senior Line
0808 800 6565
Monday – Friday 9.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m., a free national service for
older people and their carers
They
will give advice on welfare and disability rights, housing and community care.
Age
Concern Information Line 0800 009966
Every day 7.00 a.m. – 7 p.m., free helpline for older people and carers
They
will give information on money, health, community care, housing, transport,
heating, education and other issues.
Helen
Jenner, Nurse Practitioner
New faces and new ways of helping our patients with medical problems
“Please can I see a doctor today?”
This
all too familiar request is heard in surgeries up and down the country every
day and forms the bedrock of our work in the community. Whilst this is an important part of our work
many of you may be surprised to hear that it is not the most time-consuming. Review of complex medical conditions suffered
by a minority of our patients provides us with the most challenging problems to
deal with. The ten-minute consultations
have formed the cornerstone of our work at Elliott Hall Medical Centre,
something we have striven to maintain despite pressures to reduce them at
times. So what about the future? We are dealing with ever more complex and
demanding problems (physical, psychological and social), so how are we adapting to these new
challenges and increasing pressures on our time?
Why may I be seeing a nurse in future instead of a doctor
for my urgent
problems?
The
first and most important resource we have is our team. Our doctors, nurses and administrative
support team are always prepared to give extra to ensure we help our patients as
much as we can. At our recent two-day
residential, where all the team (and a representation of our patients)
reflected on their work at the Medical Centre, it was agreed that we could work
“smarter” than we do if we ensured that the right people with the most
appropriate skills took on the most appropriate roles. This philosophy will impact significantly on
the way we are organized in the future.
One of the first changes is to develop the role of the Practice Nurse,
who will become for many of our patients the first point of contact for
“urgent” medical problems. For many
patients this will not be new. For
several years Sister Helen has been running surgeries, and our other nurses,
Angela and Alison, have also seen minor illnesses. Our new aim will be that all patients who
feel they have an urgent medical problem will be seen first by one of our
experienced and appropriately trained Nurse Practitioners (Helen or Mary, our
new Nurse Practitioner) or Practice Nurses (Angela and Alison). Needless to say, they will all be supported
by the doctors in the practice.
Will this affect continuity?
To
a certain extent yes, because more people may be involved in your care, but the
hope is that those patients who have chronic problems with their health will
find it easier to see the same doctor at the practice, and that continuity will
in fact be improved. Please remember
that any clinician (doctor or nurse) has the benefit of always having a summary
of your current and ongoing problems available to them on the computer.
How will the new changes be monitored?
All
the clinicians in the practice are encouraged to share with colleagues cases
they need help with, and in addition for those who are either learning or
developing new skills/roles, all their work is supervised. It is likely that many of you will see both
a nurse and a doctor as our new arrangements develop. We plan to keep you posted through The ElliottEar,
so keep reading!
Chris Jenner
Community
Oriented Primary Care
(COPC)
As
a practice we are keen to hear your views on the care that we provide. We spend a lot of time responding to the
problems, and not enough getting feedback that will improve services.
The Government now encourages the involvement of
patients and the public in the planning and development of health
services. This is seen as a way to make
services more responsive to patients’ needs and to produce better health.
However, involving patients and the public in the
planning and development of health care is in its early stages, and there is
little to guide us in the best ways to do this. Our Patients’ Association is very important
to us, and we want to increase the input we get from you.
We have been approached by a team of researchers from
the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences at the Royal Free and
University College Medical School, asking us to take part in an exciting and
innovative research and development project.
This will use a method of changing services called Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC), which is an approach that
puts public involvement at the centre of service development.
The research team has many years of experience in
implementing COPC methods in primary care, and has successfully used COPC
methods
in urban general practice. We look
forward to working with them, and you, to improve the services we provide.
To start the process, the practice team at Elliott
Hall has produced a shortlist of issues which we think need to improve. We want to get
your
comments on these issues, and would like you to prioritize them.
This is an opportunity to have your say!
On the following list please indicate the top three items that, in your view,
need attention, ranking your preferences from 1 to 3, with
1 =
your first choice 2 = your second choice 3 = your third
choice
|
|
Carers and their needs |
|
|
Depression and other mental health problems |
|
|
How to look after diabetes |
|
|
Preventing falls in older people |
|
|
Getting the best care for housebound patients |
|
|
Supporting people with Multiple Sclerosis |
|
|
Responding to the health impact of being Overweight |
|
|
Enhancing the role of the Patients’ Association |
|
|
Dealing with changes in the Practice organization |
|
|
Improving repeat prescribing |
|
|
Managing respiratory problems better |
|
|
Treating stress incontinence more effectively |
|
|
Any other issue you think is important |
Please
return this cut-out slip to the Practice by 30 April 2004
If you would like to participate in this project,
please fill in your name, address and telephone number below. Kalpa Kharicha (researcher) will contact you soon and invite you
to take part.
|
Name: |
|
|
Address: |
|
|
Telephone |
|
Remember, even if you do not want to
take part in the consultation, we would still like to know which of the above
issues you think are most important for us to concentrate on.
Many thanks for your time. If
you would like any further information about the project please contact Kalpa Kharicha (researcher based
at the Royal Free Hospital) on 020 7830 2392