Practice News
Concerns about Autistic Spectrum Disorders/ADHD and Behavioral Difficulties – Information for Parents
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.
Inhaler Guidance
PTL Dates
Dear patients,
Please be aware that the practice will be closed from 12 pm on the following dates due to staff training. We apologise for any inconvienence this may cause.
Thursday 09th March 2023
Wednesday 26th April
Thursday 18th May 2023
Wednesday 21st June 2023
Thursday 19th October 2023
Tuesday 21st November 2023
Thursday 14th March 2024
**Temporary 7-day notice for dispensing**
A combination of unexpected staff absence and seasonal factors is slowing our dispensing at the moment. For a short period we are moving to 7-day notice for dispensing.
Please be assured this is a one-off and we will be back to 4-day notice as soon as possible. We'll send a text to let you know when your order is ready. (We can only do this if we have permission to text, and you can sign a form to agree to this if this helps you - text permission is also useful for swiftly getting information about results and links with helpful medical information).
We sincerely apologise for delays and frustration to our patients and are doing our best to resolve things.
Repeat Prescription Processing Times
PLEASE NOTE: From 28 November 2022 we will be increasing the time needed for processing a repeat prescription to 4 full working days. This is due to ongoing supply chain issues which are beyond our control and we appreciate your help and patience.
Letter to our patients
To Our Patients
We are now a few months in to 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 ANPs ( 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.
Face Coverings and Masks
We respectively request that patients wear some form of face mask/covering when attending the surgery if they are experiencing respiratory symptoms. This is in the interests of safety and to try and reduce the potential transmission of Covid-19 within the practice. If you are attending the practice and do not have any respiratory-type symptoms, it is no longer a requirement for you to wear a face covering. Any help you can give is hugely appreciated.
NEW APPOINTMENT SYSTEM
STAFF PRESSURES
Due to the number of staff isolating because of Covid and other staff absences, we are struggling to staff our dispensaries at both Driffield and Nafferton. We apologise for any inconvenience but this is a specialised role that not just anyone can do.
The Driffield site will be open daily, Monday to Friday, 8.00 am - 6.30 pm with the exception of Tuesdays which will be 8.00 am - 5.00 pm for the foreseeable future (please note closed lunchtimes 12.30 pm - 1.30 pm). It is possible that they may need to change at short notice and we will highlight below if this is necessary.
Nafferton Surgery will have to close on occasion to support the main site. Again we will try and publicise with as much notice as we can.