Meadowside Medical Practice Newsletter
October/November/December 2002
A mainly beautiful, dry and sunny September this year was unexpected and welcome. Yet as I write this rain is lashing down. British weather!
Our small and friendly practice has a tradition of personal service combined with the highest quality of care available. We are a teaching practice and benefit from medical students, house officers and registrars, who stay with us from a few weeks up to a year. Welcome to all new patients.
We look forward to the return or our Practice Manager, Vicky Jameson; she is due back to Meadowside now that little Alice is 6 months old.
Dr Kate Mainwaring is with us as our Pre-Registration House Officer until December. She is from Shropshire and trained at St Andrews and Manchester. She has been meeting all the primary health care team members, holding surgeries and doing home visits. She is going to do some more video surgeries to watch how she consults. She is planning to be a GP in the future, so is hoping to gain plenty of experience whilst with us.
Dr Michelle Delap has started as our registrar and will be working with us for 12 months. She has clinical experience in medicine and surgery and enjoys minor surgery. She will be studying for the higher qualification – the MRCGP – and will also be using the video camera as a learning tool to view her consultations.
Dr Linsey Walker nee Maycock is known to many of you already as she was working full time as registrar from August 2001-August 2002. She is now a General Practitioner and we congratulate her on gaining distinction in her MRCGP examination. She is going to work with us as an assistant one or two days a week this year. She married Kevin, also a doctor, on a lovely sunny day in July.
Dr Marcus Jacobs sends his best wishes as he starts a post in general hospital medicine. We thank him for his enthusiasm and excellent contribution to the practice.
Sister Cath Jackson started her maternity leave in mid-October and we will keep you fully informed of her progress at this exciting time for her and her family.
Lisa Duxbury has been working as a secretary this year and is about to depart for a change of scene – she is going to work and travel in Australia; we will be thinking of her when it is sleeting here – as she enjoys the sunshine!
Our staff here are adaptable and like learning new skills. Yvonne is expanding her role and will use her secretarial and organisational skills to advantage. Eileen is training to become the practice Phlebotomist – or blood sample lady. I am sure she knows the Tony Hancock quote about “an armful!” in case anyone is thinking of this when having blood taken.
The staff have happily joined in with the charity ideas. Jeans for Genes Day for children’s charities was a success, all staff wore leisure clothes or denim – with Dion excelling in denim jeans, jacket and cowboy hat! This theme was repeated on both flu vaccine days and we raised £179.70 for this worthy cause. Thank you to all that contributed.
Our own Equipment Fund continues and we are intending to buy a portable heart monitor, emergency bags and portable oxygen. We will be holding our annual Christmas Raffle this year, so if you have a home-made fruit cake, new soft toy or anything else suitable, we would be delighted to offer these as prizes.
1953 – Everest – 2003
Dr Denver would like to tell you that in April 2003 he will be going on a 21 day expedition to Everest Base Camp. He will provide medical support for the Lancaster Royal Grammar School expedition, which will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest. The expedition will also have an educational and research element, but it is also raising money for the Himalayan Trust. This charity was started by Sir Edmund Hilary to build schools and hospitals in Nepal.
As a practice we are supporting Dr Denver in this venture.
We now have a good patient library book collection about health matters, they are given on loan, so don’t forget to return them, as it is embarrassing for us to have to write and remind people and expensive to us if they go missing and we do like others to have the opportunity to benefit from the books too.
A recent patient survey of our appointments system showed a most positive response to our efforts to improve. It is popular to ring early at 8am for an appointment that day. We are intending to offer more early morning appointments to help people who go to work early. Please help us too by telling the appointment receptionist what the medical problem is; that way we can see the urgent problems urgently. All staff here will be speaking to you in confidence and their job is to help the doctors do the best for you.
Please arrive promptly for your appointments. Please bear in mind how the time of day affects the traffic, when you plan your journey. It can cause the doctor/nurse’s whole surgery to run very late if even one person is 5 minutes late.
It may not always be possible for the doctors/nurses to see you if you are more than 10 minutes late for your appointment, which would mean you would have to
re-book for another day.