Riverside Medical Practice

🗓️The Practice will be closed on Mon 28 Nov - due to a bank holiday carried over from the time of HM Queen's funeral. Please call NHS 24 on 111 if you have an urgent health concern which you think needs addressing before we re-open: theriversidepractice.co.uk/bank-holiday-c…

📢Our new HRT 'review and re-order' form is now live. This is part of a @ihubscot pilot project, to test if we can improve access to medication reviews (for certain type of meds) via use of online review forms - bit.ly/3GEpSNQ

2/2 Wed: meeting with ELHSCP re progress on recommendations & next steps on recommendations needing joint input Thurs: workshopping new Vision Online workflows - for online booking of blood tests and nurse appts

We're listening to what patients are saying & taking steps to improve things. This week: Mon: meeting re patient engagement plans Tues: NHS Lothian meeting re changes to phone system ... plus new HRT review & re-order online form goes live - bit.ly/3TWkZ5T 1/2

2/2

We appreciate all feedback - which can be sent in via our online feedback form or via the box in the waiting room. We'll do a round-up of all feedback sent in our next patient newsletter ... but here's one sent in today which made us smile :) 1/2

@mm0jxi Patients are welcome to book a diabetic review with one of our specialist nurses, especially if you have any new symptoms/the condition isn't well managed.

@mm0jxi Both are on our radar John! For the online booking we now need to use an entirely different system and re-register patients but more on that soon - initially we plan to trial it with bookings for blood tests and other nursing appointments.

We've made some small adjustments to our phone system, in line with patient feedback, to make the messages you hear when you call us simpler and clearer. More to come soon hopefully.

On tonight's STV News at Six: GPs under pressure. @BMAScotland say doctors are facing severe staff shortages and a huge increase in patient demand, with a warning from one senior GP that some practices are having to close "in record numbers" as they buckle under the strain.

News here of the recent BMA Scotland survey of General Practices - big recruitment gaps across the country. We're grateful & fortunate to have a full team of GPs & other healthcare professionals at Riverside, although we know our patients still need more - twitter.com/pulsetoday/sta…

If you have a minor illness, a pharmacy is the first place you should go for advice 💊 Pharmacy teams are experts in medicines & can provide help and advice quickly without an appointment. For more information, check out the Right Care Right Place webpage: weare.nhslothian.scot/rightcare/

@mm0jxi Thank you John! It's really welcome when patients notice positive change and let us know they've noticed :)

@RiversideMpcc Can I say we've noticed a vast improvement in the turn round times for repeat prescriptions recently, down to 1 or 2 days from nearly 10. Great to see you've been able to reduce the backlog, well done!

Interesting article which brings home the challenges that patients are facing right across Scotland in contacting & seeing their GP, despite GPs working 'as hard as possible'. Thank you @now_its_nora for highlighting the situation at your Practice.

@mm0jxi @now_its_nora We really do appreciate that John. As Nora says - GP Practices and patients are in agreement on this. We continue to explore all possible ways we can improve things for patients, bit by bit.

@RiversideMpcc @now_its_nora One of the primary issues is the difficulty in contacting a practice, having to call 30 or more times into a phone system that just says 'we're too busy to answer your call' is frustrating and unhelpful. Investment needed in call handling and online booking systems, and GPs!

🗣️🩺"We cannot allow things to get any worse – it will be catastrophic for the system if they do." General practice in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is buckling under the pressures of increasing demands and rising vacancies - you can read more below 👇 🧵 bma.org.uk/bma-media-cent…

Over 65 and unable to attend the appointment offered by letter for your Winter Vaccination (Flu/Covid booster)? Why don't you drop into one of this week's drop-in clinics in Tranent? Prefer an appointment or need more info? Visit NHS Inform for more info. tinyurl.com/2p87um9d

Our IT system is running very slowly today, bringing significant challenges for the day-to-day working of the Practice. Wait time on the phone is currently very long, due to this. NHS Lothian & Vision IT have been informed & asked to find solutions to this long-running issue.

If you have symptoms of #Diabetes, you should visit your GP as soon as possible. For more info on symptoms, diagnosis and treatments visit:📌nhs24.info/diabetes @DiabetesUK has lots of great advice and information including on #WorldDiabetesDay:📌diabetes.org.uk/get_involved/w…

This #WorldDiabetesDay, we want to raise awareness of the most common symptoms of #Type1Diabetes - also known as the 4Ts: 🚽 Toilet 💦 Thirsty 💤 Tired ⬇️ Thinner Retweet and help us spread the word! 💙 orlo.uk/CBbeL #WDD #WDD22 #diabetesday #diabetes #T1D #4Ts