PREVIOUS NEWS ITEMS
New opening times from 4th April 2011
At the Meadowfields Practice we are constantly trying to improve the service we offer. Following patient feedback we are pleased to announce that from the 4th April 2011 we will be offering evening appointments. To achieve this we have changed the opening hours at both sites. Triage will be available on 01332 700455 from 8:00am – 11:00am and 1:30pm – 4:00pm.
| Day | Chellaston | Coleman |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 8:00am-6:30pm | 9:00am-5:00pm |
| Tuesday | 8:00am-2:00pm | 10:30am-8:00pm |
| Wednesday | 7:00am-12:30pm | 11:30am-6:30pm |
| Thursday | 8:00am-4:30pm | 10:00am-6:30pm |
| Friday | 8:00am-6:30pm | 9:00am-1:00pm |
Staff News
Dr Ruth Francis has left the Practice after being on sick leave since December. We send our best wishes to her and wish her well for the future.
Dr Kate Roberts-Lewis has started her maternity leave and will be off for at least a year whilst she spends time with her baby. She is being replaced by Dr Rozie Salih. Dr Salih is newly qualified and will be working across both sites on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We wish her a very warm welcome.
GP Commissioning
Although the Government's plans for the NHS have not been enshrined in law yet, Meadowfields is endeavouring to be at the forefront of the new developments.
We have become actively involved in the new local GP commissioning agenda and we are pleased to have a Meadowfields representative on the Strategic Leadership Board.
Public and patient involvement is key to the success of the service re-design in the NHS, and we want our patients to have a big say in this. If you are interested in getting involved, please let our receptionists know and we will get more details to you. Thank you.
New Years Resolution 2011
If you are thinking about giving up smoking read on.........
Did you know you are up to four times more likely to stop smoking by attending a specialist clinic than by using willpower alone.
If you have decided you want to stop smoking, but need support, we run a very successful Stop Smoking Clinic to help people break the habit. This is a one to one service run by our Smoking Advisor Caroline, here at the Practice.
If you wish to discuss this further or would like further information, please contact Caroline at Chellaston on 01332 700455. Caroline's clinics are usually held on a Thursday.
London to Paris Cycle Ride
Next July Pat, our Senior Nurse Practitioner, and her daughter Lizzie, are taking part in the London to Paris Cycle Ride. They are busy training and raising money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. This is a charity dear to their hearts as it is now three years since Pat's diagnosis and treatment.
If anyone would like to make a donation, please send to the surgery.
One of the many events planned is a bottle tombola. If you have any spare bottles (cleaning/alcohol/perfume, etc) please donate these to this very good cause. The PPG are co-ordinating this so please bring in your bottles before the 14th February 2011.
Thank you for your support!
Staff news December 2010
We welcomed two new members of staff this year;
Rose Gregory is a Senior Nurse Practitioner who has a special interest in Diabetes. Rose works across both sites and is full time.
Rose-Maria is our new receptionist and is based mainly at Coleman Street
Dr Roberts-Lewis is expecting a baby in the Spring and so will be going on Maternity Leave next year. We are all delighted with her news and wish her well at this exciting time.
Swine flu update
The latest news from the government is that anyone who thinks that they have Swine flu should now ring the National helplines. If after speaking to the helpline treatment is recommended then the patient will be given a reference number which can be used by their 'Flu Friend' to collect the antiviral drug treatment from designated centres. Any patient with Swine flu should stay quarantined at home for a week to ensure that spread is limited. Some patients who are more at risk because they have underlying medical conditions, are pregnant or are under one, will be advised to contact their G.P. There is also a helpline to ring if you just want information about Swine flu and also a website to check. Numbers are as follows:
Helpline if you think you have Swine flu: 0800 151 3100
Text phone helpline: 0800 151 3200
General Information line: 0800 151 4513
Website: www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk
Staff news July 2009
We are pleased to say that our clinical team is extending again. We have welcomed a new Nurse Practitioner, Peter Butterworth, and a new G.P.- Dr Emma Pooley. In the near future we will also have 2 more G.P.s joining us - Dr Kate Roberts-Lewis and Dr Aravind Kamath. Unfortunately Dr Palekanda has now moved to a new practice.
In the Admin team we are extremely sad to be saying Goodbye to Amy Baraniak who has been with us since the practice was opened by her mother, Catherine Baraniak. Amy worked initially as a student and then as our QOF co-ordinator and Smoking Cessation advisor. Amy has been offered a permanent job in the field of Psychology, which she has been studying at University whilst working at Meadowfields. A new admin staff member, Maggie Woolley, has been taken on to cover Amy's QOF duties.
Staff changes
Over the last year Meadowfields has seen quite a few staff changes. Dr Lekshmanan joined us in April 2008, but unfortunately found the journey from home to work too lengthy and so he has sadly left us to join a practice nearer to home. We are in the process of recruiting a new G.P. to take his place.
We are pleased to say that Dr Jaya Palekanda has returned to work following the birth of a healthy baby boy last year. She is working at both sites on a part time basis.
We also welcomed 2 new receptionists based at Coleman Street and have empoloyed an additional member of the admin team to ease the load on receptionists covering for annual leave.
Finally we welcomed Julie Troake who is our new practice counsellor. She only works part time but has already helped many patients. Julie is a friendly cheerful person and has quickly become one of the team.
10th anniversary Party
The planned 10th anniversary garden party for invited guests on September 3rd 2008 went very well. Right Hon.Frank Dobson M.P.(former Secretary of state for Health) who officially opened the practice in 1998, made a return visit as guest of honour.He gave a humourous speech praising the practice and was pleased to note that unlike some of the businesses he had opened, Meadowfields had been a success! The guest list also included Mark Todd M.P, Dr Zammit-Maempel, members of the PCT, local pharmacists and members of the Patient's Participation Group. Many friends old and new joined us in celebrating with canapes and Pimms, whilst listening to live music.The party was a great success, enjoyed by all and a marvellous way to celebrate the years.
At the party, Rosemary cook - the Director of the Queen's Nursing Institute - presented the practice with a certificate confirming that we have been selected to be an Associate Organisation of the QNI - Meadowfields is the first practice to be awarded this honour.In association with this we are proud to announce that Pat Hassall Head of nursing has been awarded the ttile of Queen's Nurse - in recognition of her commitment to high standards of patient care and continually improving practice.
The party allowed us all not only to reflect on how far we had come over the years and how grateful we are to all the patients who have supported us, but also we thought to the future and how we could continue to develop and improve care further.
The final celebration was an excellent meal at Darley's restaurant when we re-lived the time in 1998 when the 7 original members of staff gathered nervously together to get to know one another before the practice opened. Everyone had a good evening, and bouquets were presented to the partners as a small thank you for making Meadowfields such a great place to work.
Celebrating 10 Years!
On 24.8.08 the practice will be celebrating having been in operation for 10 years. We opened in 1998 with approximately 800 patients and now 10 years on we have around 8000 patients! To celebrate our success we are holding a coffee morning on Friday 22.8.08 with free refreshments. We are also holding an official garden party on September 3rd for invited guests who have been associated with the practice over the years. There will of course also be a staff party! We are all very proud that the practice has achieved so much and is still going strong. Watch this space for photos of the various celebrations.
Extended opening hours
We have now extended our opening hours to give better access for people who go to work or are unable to attend during normal office hours.We are now open from 7 a.m. at Chellaston 4 mornings a week and we have altered the evening closing to be open 2 evenings until 6.30 p.m. at Chellaston and 2 evenings until 6.30 p.m. at Allenton. Please see the Branches pages and click on Opening hours for full details. We have also changed our phone system to make it easier to make an appointment. We no longer have a separate triage number. If you ring the main Chellaston number 01332 700455 you will hear a list of options to select. For a G.P. appointment only, press Option 6 - this will put you through to the Senior nurse who will assess your problem and book you appropriately. The other options will direct your call to reception or to the person is responsible for dealing with your query. Please listen carefully to all the options before selecting. Appointments with the Senior nurse for Minor illness or routine appointments can now be booked through reception at both sites by ringing the same main number, or patients who attend Coleman Street may like to ring them direct on 01332 861180.
The new system has been working for a month now and the feedback is very positive.
Branch fully operational at Coleman Health Centre
The new branch surgery is now running very smoothly in its new home at the Coleman Health Centre, Coleman Street, Allenton.
Despite careful advance planning, the initial days were very difficult due to problems with technology. On the day of the move, the phones and computers were not working correctly, and although they managed to get the phones going as a temporary measure, it was several days before the computers were usable, due to the lack of some hardware that should have been supplied before we moved in. Luckily our team were well prepared for just such problems, as we have had lots of experience of technology letting us down, so the surgery was managed very well by the excellent staff at the branch, until things were sorted several days later. Six months down the line the staff and patients are very settled and everyone agrees that the new building is a big improvement on the old one.
Branch move to Coleman Health Centre
The practice is pleased to announce that the branch surgery presently on Upper Moor Road will be moving into the Coleman Health Centre at the end of July and will be open to patients on Monday 30th July at 9 a.m.
The staff at Upper Moor Road is looking forward to the purpose built new premises (and furniture!) and we are sure that the patients will find the new surgery to be much more welcoming and user friendly.
To enable the move to go smoothly the branch surgery will be closed on Thursday and Friday 26th/27th July and cover will be provided by the Chellaston site.
Opening hours will remain the same for the time being, although as new patients register with us we will of course reassess the times to ensure that we have enough surgery time for all.
'Book on the day' appointments will still be dealt with through the Triage line on 01332 705740.
For routine appointments and queries the new number will be 01332 861180.
 |
 |
Revamped website
We've spent some time updating our website and including more content. We hope you'll now find the site more useful!
New Building for Allenton Surgery
Work is well underway on the brand new, purpose built health centre in Allenton, due to open in May 2007. The new centre is situated on Coleman Street and will be named the ‘Coleman Health Centre’. The Allenton surgery will be relocating into the new facility from the current premises on Upper Moor Road.
In addition to the Meadowfields Practice being at the centre, general health services currently offered from Boulton Clinic will be moving from its current base on Wyndham Street. These services include child health screening, chiropody, vision screening and blood taking services.
The new centre also has provision for therapy services, dental services and hospital outpatient clinics and additionally there is a minor surgery suite where minor surgical procedures can be performed. A pharmacy outlet is included in the development.
Our staff are looking forward to the move and hope to be settled in during the Summer 2007.
Choose & Book
Patients now have the right to choose which local hospital they attend when they are referred to see a consultant by our doctors. There is also now a web based system for making referrals that Meadowfields is proud to say we have taken up in its early stages and we have one of the best records for its use amongst practices in the Derby area. Now when the doctor wishes to refer you they can log on to the internet booking site whilst you are in the consulting room and show you the choices available for your particular referral, including average waiting times. When you have chosen the doctor makes you a booking and gives you a unique password and the booking line phone number. This means that you can then phone the hospital direct and make an appointment at a time to suit you and not have the long wait for a letter to come telling you when to attend. Following this booking the doctor will dictate a letter in the normal way, which is then attached to your booking by the secretary, usually within 48 hours. We have found this system to be much better for patients, and apart from a few teething problems, much better for the admin staff too. To speed the process up even further we are shortly having a server upgrade which will enable us to transfer vital information from your medical record directly in the referral so that the consultant has all the information he needs before he sees you. The site is totally secure and managed by the health service so there is no problem with confidentiality.
New Surgery premises at last!
After nearly seven years at the temporary accommodation affectionately known as 'the caravan' by the staff, the practice finally moved into a new purpose built premises on Fellow Lands Way, Chellaston and opened its doors on Monday 21st March 2005. This marked a new era for the practice as for the first time we had the premises that the patients deserved and they no longer had to put up with the paper thin walls, make-do facilities and extremes of heat. The new building has climate control, modern facilities and a clean welcoming interior and boasts, in addition to 4 consulting rooms, a large Health Education/meeting room and a computer equipped interview room that can be used by the patients to access the internet for health information. All the staff were thrilled to be working in the new environment and we are sure that the patients appreciated the change too.
Catherine awarded O.B.E
We are thrilled to announce that in the Queen's Birthday Honours list on June 14th 2003 Catherine was awarded the O.B.E for Services to Primary Care Nursing.
As quoted in the local paper, Catherine was "pretty blown away" by the news, even though it was not a total surprise as she had been approached earlier in the year to see if she would be willing to accept an award if offered. Catherine puts much of her achievement down to the hard work of the team at Meadowfields and is anxious that everyone recognises this.
Those who know her well will realise that Catherine has devoted most of her time over the last few years to developing the role of nursing in primary care, not only by opening our pioneering nurse-led practice, but also by giving many talks and lectures around the country which have spread the word. When not carrying out nursing duties she gives time to visitors to explain the nurse-led system and has helped many other PMS surgeries to develop.
For information on the Honours awards visit the cabinet office ceremonial homepage.
Queens Nursing Institute Fellowship
Catherine has been awarded one of the coveted fellowships of the Queen's Nursing Institute. The fellowship award was established to recognise outstanding contributions to primary health care and the nursing profession.
The award was presented at a lunch held at the Cafe Royal in London on March 27th. The institute recognised Catherine's groundbreaking work in Personal Medical Services and the contribution she has made to the field of community nursing.
For more information on the Queen's Institute visit www.qni.org.uk
Small Business of the Year Award
Following our success on achieving the Investor in People Award in July 2002, Pippa entered us for the Southern Derbyshire Small Business of the Year Award. Imagine our pleasure at being told that we had made it to the final five, and could someone from the Chamber of Commerce come to interview us. Following this interview where Pippa and Pat sang our praises and fielded all the questions, we were then given an invite to the celebratory dinner - as we had reached the final three!
On January 31st. the staff attended this black tie event at the Assembly rooms. A great time was had by all. Then came the awards ceremony, presentations by Peter Sissons. Unfortunately we didn't win, but we all feel that being a finalist was still a great honour, and it shows how successful the Practice is.We are all very thrilled to have got so far.
Watch this space for our next achievement!
Disclaimer: The Meadowfields Practice accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any information given on this site.