Nettleham & Cherry Willingham Surgeries
Flu Vaccinations Programme
We hope to commence our flu campaign towards the end of September. Following the success of our Saturday morning flu clinics, we shall again be running our flu clinics on various Saturday mornings throughout October at both Nettleham and Cherry Willingham surgeries. We will be providing limited Thursday evening clinics at Nettleham for those patients who genuinely cannot attend on a Saturday. Vaccination is available for patients who fit one of the criteria listed below:
Aged 65 or over
Have Chronic Heart Disease
Have Chronic Respiratory Disease (including Asthma when regularly using an inhaled steroid)
Have Chronic Liver Disease
Have Chronic Renal Disease
Have Diabetes
Have Suppressed Immune Systems
Are a Carer
Have Multiple Sclerosis
Currently pregnant
Please contact either surgery from the beginning of September to book an appointment in one of the flu clinics.
Staff
Jenny Bunn, one of the practice’s medical secretaries has just retired after 36 years with the practice. Some of you, I’m sure will have had contact with Jenny over the years. The practice would like to wish her a very happy and well deserved retirement.
Appointment system
We constantly review and monitor our appointment system to try and find the best ‘fit’ for everyone. We acknowledge that it has not been easy for patients recently to make a routine appointment and we apologise for this. We have now introduced a new system for patients wishing to be seen on the same day with an acute problem. Anyone who telephone the surgery to request a same day appointment will be given the opportunity to come to the practice at 11:20am to a ‘sit and wait’ clinic. All of these patients will be seen by a GP that morning. To avoid long waits these appointments are strictly for single new problems which can’t wait until another day.
Bowel Cancer Screening Programme
The NHS Bowel Caner Screening programme for people aged between 60 and 69 was launched by NHS Lincolnshire at the end of December 2009. This means that within the next two years everyone in the county in this age bracket will be invited to undergo bowel cancer screening.
Those people that wish to take part will be sent an easy-to-use testing kit directly to their homes which they then post back to a laboratory for testing. Anyone who has an abnormal test result will be given an appointment to see a specialist nurse in the endoscopy units at one of the local hospitals to discuss further tests.
For more information about the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, log on to: www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk/bowel or ring the freephone helpline 0800 707 60 60.
Helen Lunn
Practice Manager