The number of home visit requests are going up, unfortunately this means we need to tighten our visit policy bringing it into line with nationally accepted guidance.

Please read our visit policy below:

The best place to see a doctor is nearly always at the surgery as we have the necessary equipment and facilities available for safe, effective examination and treatment. Additionally, home visits are time-consuming and doing unnecessary visits would reduce our ability to see greater numbers of patients at the surgery.

However for patients who are housebound (ie. completely unable to leave the house even with transport), this is possible.

If you do need a home visit, please call reception or complete an online form before 11.30. We have no capacity to undertake late visits and illnesses that develop in the course of an afternoon likely require an emergency service.

All requests for home visits will be triaged by a member of the practice team in order to assist the GPs and nurses in prioritising visits. Your GP will also decide if/how urgently a visit is needed.

We regret that we are unable to offer home visits for patients who are prevented from attending the surgery by lack of transport.

Our dispensary is experiencing a higher than usual demand for prescription requests.  This is impacting on our normal turnaround time. There is also the nationwide shortage of medicines that all pharmacies and chemists are experiencing. 

We have therefore introduced a seven working day turnaround for the collection of prescriptions. This is still a quicker turnaround that the High Street and also internet providers. We have also been working weekends and evenings in order to reduce the backlog, and have also employed extra temporary staff to try to ensure that when we receive supplies we can fulfil the prescription as soon as possible.We are therefore asking our patients to, if possible, order your repeat prescription at the same time as you are collecting your current prescription. This will help to give us time to get your repeat prescription ready for when you require it. 

As your GP practice, we have been asked to provide you with access to your full medical record going forward via the NHS app (and NHS website) if you have a suitable NHS login. This will be going live for our practice starting from the 18th of October.

Your GP medical record contains consultation notes based on conversations between you, your GP and their team: medicines prescribed to you; all test results including hospital investigations; allergies; vaccines; and your medical conditions along with documents that may have been sent from local hospitals, clinics or other agencies, eg the police. There is likely to be sensitive and personal information within your medical record and at times it may contain information that could be upsetting, especially if they contain news of a serious condition.

We are supportive of providing you with access to your record, but we wish to do this safely and make you aware that this is happening so that you can opt out, if you so wish. Patients will be sent a text message over the next few days allowing them to opt out.

It is important that you are aware of the risks which may be involved in having such confidential data either on your smartphone with the NHS app installed or online if other people might have access to that information through your devices. If you are in a difficult or pressured relationship for example, you may prefer your records to remain accessible only to those treating you, with them not appearing on your smartphone or online. Anyone in such a position should make this clear to us at the practice, so we can take steps to keep you safe.

Sometimes people with a mental health condition might prefer not to see documents that remind them of difficult times in their life. Letters from mental health teams sometimes go into detail about past events, and great care would be needed in deciding whether you would want to see these letters.

The below link can be a useful guide to help understand some abbreviations that may be in your medical records:

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/nhs-app-help-and-support/health-records-in-the-nhs-app/abbreviations-commonly-found-in-medical-records/

The below link is a useful guide to gain more understanding of the NHS app and how to use:

NHS App and your NHS account - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

We have limited availability of the Covid vaccine which we are prioritising for vulnerable patients and we are unable to guarantee that we will be able to provide this to other patients. If you do wish to have your Covid vaccine guaranteed we recommend that you contact the Allied Pharmacy on Mill Street in Driffield or the Holme Pharmacy in Holme on Spalding Moor.

GP, nurse and other healthcare professional appointments are now available in The East Riding during evenings and weekends. To make an appointment please speak to practice staff. Please note this is nor a walk-in or emergency service and you do need to pre-book.

We have had many patients recently who have told us they have heard a rumour that we will be closing the Nafferton branch. We'd like to re-assure all patients that there is no truth in this, we recognise that the Nafferton branch and its excellent staff provide a vital service for our patients who live in Nafferton and the surrounding areas. We have recently moved the dispensing of medicines to the Driffield surgery but patients can still collect their medicines from Nafferton should they wish the same way they always have.

 The NHS Constitution states that Research is a core function of the NHS. Clinical Research is a major driver of innovation and central to NHS practice for maintaining and developing high standards of patient care. Ultimately, clinical research means patients get access to new treatments, interventions and medicines. Investment in research means better, more cost effective care for patients.

                              What are the benefits of GP practices taking part in research?

• It offers patients access to new treatments
• It brings new dimension to practice and added skills to those involved
• It provides national gold standard training for research
• It offers mentorship and support to those involved in research within practice

                                        How can you help and take part?

                               There are various ways a patient can become involved in studies

• A doctor or nurse may talk to you about a particular study and ask whether you would be interested in participating
• You may be sent information through the post if we feel you may be a suitable participant

You are under no obligation to participate in any research project

Your care and your relationship with your doctor will not be affected in any way if you decided not to take part in a research study

Research we are currently participating in:

ITCHINESS 

Investigating the safety of a medicinal cream with an active substance vs a medicinal cream without an active substance in those with itchiness and kidney disease.

ACCESS - PD

Creating a registry of patients with Parkinson's disease and following their progress over time to improve our understanding of the disease.

Coming soon:

Predict - PD

A study that aims to improve the identification of those at risk of Parkinson's disease before symptoms develop.

We do hope that if applicable you would be willing to take part.

Some patients have contacted us with concerns after being invited to take part in a research study for patients with Chronic Kidney Disease.

Many people develop a reduction in kidney function as part of the normal ageing process and these days this is known as Chronic Kidney Disease. This does not usually cause any symptoms and patients are typically unaware of any problems.

GPs are encouraged to record an electronic code in the medical record for any patients who meet the criteria for Chronic Kidney Disease. This helps with blood monitoring, offering of blood pressure checks and is also important information for when we are prescribing medications. Chronic kidney disease is a common condition and, in most cases, is not a cause for alarm. Patients with progressive deterioration in kidney function or where they are other medical concerns, are always contacted by the practice to discuss further management.

Many patients with Chronic Kidney Disease will already be having regular checks because they have associated conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. An annual blood pressure check and blood test to check on kidney function is recommended unless you have been given different information specific to your circumstances.

We extend our sincere apologies to any patients who have been concerned about the health of their kidneys after receiving the research invitation. You do not need to take any further action but additional patient information about Chronic Kidney Disease is available at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/kidney-disease/

Parents are often advised by schools and other agencies to contact the surgery for referrals for assessment of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 

Referral pathways vary throughout the country but in East Riding of Yorkshire GPs are UNABLE to refer children and young people for assessment of suspected ASD or ADHD. 

The Hull and East Riding Neurodiversity Service accepts referrals from named professionals for ASD and ADHD assessments. The professionals which can refer to this service are Health Visitors, Portage workers, Speech and language therapists, Paediatricians, Educational psychologists and SENCOs. GPs are not included in this list and thus cannot refer to this service. 

The paediatric service will not accept referrals from GPs for assessment of suspected ASD. Referral to community paediatricians will only be accepted for assessment of developmental delay or physical disability. 

We can provide advice and support to parents and families including referrals to the children’s social prescribing team. However, if a referral for assessment is wanted we strongly advise you to contact your school SENCO and, where there are concerns about educational progress, to ask if an educational psychology assessment would be beneficial. 

For parents with concerns about behavioural difficulties, the Early Help and Prevention Service is the first port of call and the service can be contacted on 01482 391700 or at www.eastriding.gov.uk/living/children-and-families/early-help-and-prevention/ 

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) provides help for children and young people experiencing mental health difficulties. Parents can self-refer via the Contact Point on 01482 303688. 

CAMHS also provide an Eating Disorder Service and self-referral is available via 01482 347886 

Prescribing

We are only able to prescribe medications for ADHD under a shared-care agreement with an NHS specialist.  Such medications must be initiated by the specialist and monitored until the child is stable before we can take over prescribing. Responsibility for prescribing and monitoring of the child will be returned to the specialist on safety grounds if there is a change in the child’s clinical condition  

We are not able to enter into shared-care agreements with private clinics or other qualified providers because there is no guarantee of continued specialist follow-up of the child. Medications initiated by private or other qualified providers must continue to be prescribed by them unless care is taken over by an NHS specialist clinic. 

Antidepressant medications are not licensed for young people under the age of 18 and must be prescribed on an ongoing basis by a specialist in all cases. 

To our patients

We are now over a full year into our new appointment system and so far it is achieving our aim of getting the right patients to the right clinician in the right time frame.

Since starting our new system we are pleased to say that we have seen a reduction in the number of patients we are having to direct to the urgent care centres.

We are aware that their are a few who are unhappy with the length of wait for routine appointments and we want to explain this further - our appointments are triaged by a doctor based on clinical need, this to allow those with more urgent conditions to be seen first. Unwell children will be seen much quicker than a request for contraception or a discussion around normal results for example.

We also want to take this opportunity to highlight the enormous strain we (and general practice as a whole) are under. The UK has a decreasing number of doctors and an increasing population. Ourselves and our staff are working extraordinarily hard to provide the best service we can.

Unfortunately we are still receiving a lot of negativity towards our wonderful and highly skilled Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Pharmacists - these are clinicians with years of experience who are expert at managing a large range of conditions. Please do not abuse them, without these clinicians most GP surgeries would no longer exist, they are in high demand and may go elsewhere.

Similarly we are struggling to retain admin, dispensary and reception staff due to the abuse they are receiving from patients. Our staff are doing their very best and do not deserve to be in a position where they feel they have no choice but to leave their job due to abuse.

Let’s keep our local GP services going, no one wants them to be forced to close. Please do your bit to make it easier for us to deliver the great care we went into medicine to provide.