11th July 2024: GP Patient Survey Results
The NHS annual survey results are out! Pound Hill Medical Group has come out above the national average in all the key areas, as you can see from the results below:
| Question | Pound Hill Medical Group | National Average |
| Good overall experience of this practice | 77% | 74% |
| Easy to get through to by phone | 53% | 50% |
| Healthcare professional was good at listening to the patient | 94% | 87% |
| Patient had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional | 93% | 92% |
| Patient's needs were met | 96% | 90% |
Thank you to everyone who responded to this survey. We are very pleased that most of our patients had a good overall experience of our practice, and we appreciate those who took the time to let us know where we're doing well, and where we can improve our services for our patients.
We are planning to look at these along with our in-house survey and our monthly Friends and Family results to look at areas where we can help improve the experience that our patients have when they need us. To view the full results, visit the GP Patient Survey website.
June at a glance...
21st May: Infected Blood Inquiry
Following recent media coverage about the Infected Blood Inquiry, we understand that some people may be concerned about their own health.
Please see the dedicated NHS webpage for key information about this and signposting on where to find support: https://nhs.uk/infected-blood-support
Since 1991, all blood donated in the UK is screened and distributed by NHS Blood and Transplant following rigorous safety standards and testing to protect both donors and patients.
Since testing has been introduced, the risk of getting an infection from a blood transfusion or blood products is very low.
All blood donors are screened at every donation and every donation is tested before it is sent to hospitals. Blood services and blood safety has been transformed, not only in terms of technological advances in testing but also in the way donors are recruited and checked they are safe to donate.
Given the time that has elapsed since the last use of infected blood products, most of those who were directly affected have been identified and started appropriate treatment. However, there may be a small number of patients where this is not the case, and particularly where they are living with asymptomatic hepatitis C. If you are worried about risk of hepatitis C, you can order a confidential test online through the NHS website: http://hepctest.nhs.uk.
Patients who want more details about the safety of blood from donations in England can find more information here: https://www.blood.co.uk/the-donation-process/further-information/your-safety/
26th April: Free BRCA gene testing to identify cancer risk
NHS England is now offering free BRCA gene testing for anyone living in England, aged 18 or over with one or more Jewish grandparent, of any type of Jewish origin (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi etc).
If you have a fault (mutation) in one of the BRCA genes, your risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer is greatly increased.
For example, most women in the UK have a 1 in 7 (15%) chance of developing breast cancer in their lifetime.
Out of every 100 women who have a BRCA1 gene mutation:
- 65 to 85 will develop breast cancer in their lifetime (65 to 85% lifetime risk)
- 40 to 63 will develop ovarian cancer (40 to 63% lifetime risk)
Out of every 100 women who have a BRCA2 gene mutation:
- 40 to 85 will develop breast cancer in their lifetime (40 to 85% lifetime risk)
- 10 to 27 will develop ovarian cancer (10 to 27% lifetime risk)
Women with BRCA mutations are also at increased risk of developing breast cancer at a younger age. People with Jewish ancestry are around 6 times more likely to carry a BRCA faults than the general population.
Knowing you have a BRCA gene fault allows you to access a range of options, available on the NHS, that help to manage and reduce cancer risk, as well as avoid passing on the gene fault to your children.
18th March: New study for patients with Parkinson's Disease
AccessPD is a novel type of study that provides researchers with invaluable data about Parkinson's disease, provided by you, on your own terms, from the comfort of your own home, in the form of questionnaires, medical device data and DNA testing. You may receive a text message from our research technology partner uMed inviting you to participate in this study. You can keep up to date with all our research projects and where to find out more on our Clinical Research page.
18th March: Patient Choice for referrals
If our GPs refer you to a specialist, you usually have the right to choose which hospital you go to. You can choose a hospital in your area – or one further away if you wish. You may also choose an independent hospital, if it provides services for the NHS.
You have the right to choose your hospital, but if you prefer, you can ask your GP to help you decide. If you prefer to make your own choice, you will need to use the NHS App or the National Referral Helpline on 0345 608 8888 to select your hospital.
For urgent referrals for suspected cancer, you will not be able to choose your hospital.
You can read more about this on the NHS website.
World Antibiotic Awareness Week November 18th to 24th : Keep Antibiotics Working
Taking antibiotics encourages harmful bacteria that live inside you to become resistant. That means that antibiotics may not work when you really need them. This puts you and your family at risk of a more severe or longer illness. Take your doctor or pharmacist’s advice when it comes to antibiotics.
Antibiotics AREN'T needed for:
- Colds
- Flu
- Vomiting
- Most coughs
- Most ear infections
- Most sore throats
- Most diarrhoea
- Most cystitis
Antibiotics ARE needed for:
- Sepsis
- Pneumonia
- Urinary tract infections
- Sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhoea
- Meningococcal meningitis
10th November: Remembrance Day
We’re proud to support our veteran community as a Veteran Friendly GP practice this Remembrance Day.
We know that this Remembrance Day is likely to be particularly challenging for many veterans in our community and we want you to know that we are committed to effectively identifying and supporting your health needs.
As a Veteran Friendly Accredited practice, our team:
- recognises the importance of identifying veteran patients within our community;
- understands the unique health needs that veterans may have;
- strives to provide veterans with the very best care and support;
- knows about specialist veteran healthcare services that exist
If you're a veteran patient, please do let us know that you have served so that we can make sure you receive the most appropriate and best care, if and when you ever need it.
You can learn more about how we support our veterans here.
3rd November: Important information for patients currently on hospital waiting lists
The NHS has been working hard to address the backlogs built up during the COVID pandemic.
To help, the NHS will be contacting patients who have been waiting a long time for hospital treatment. This is to remind people that they can ask to move to a different hospital where they may be seen quicker.
There is now a new website called the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System, or PIDMAS. If you have been waiting for 40 weeks or more, you can use this website to ask to change hospitals.
If you are eligible, your hospital will send you an SMS text message or a letter, explaining how to ask for a different hospital.
Please do not call the surgery about this, as your GP does not have any information about individual patients.
The hospital will contact you if you are eligible. Please do not contact them either.
You can find more information on hospital websites, like this one from the Royal Surrey County Hospital.
31st October 2023: Lung Health Checks
If you're aged between 55-74 and have ever smoked, you will soon receive an invitation letter from InHealth, who are providing lung health checks in partnership with NHS Sussex.
Lung cancer is difficult to spot early, as many people don't get symptoms straight away. A lung check could save your life by finding lung cancer early, when it is more treatable and there is a higher chance of survival.
The first step of a lung health check is a telephone call with a health advisor. They may then arrange for you to have a CT scan in a local setting.
For more information, visit the Sussex Lung Health Check website.
27th October 2023: Crawley Diabetes Support Group
Do you have diabetes, or are you afraid of it? A new support group has started up in Crawley, meeting face to face to help each other to get their blood sugars under control, lose weight, or just hear from other people who know exactly what it's like living with diabetes. To find out more, email diabetesgroupcrawley@gmail.com. We will be texting our patients who have diabetes or non-diabetic hyperglycaemia (also known as pre-diabetes) to let them know that this group exists.
18th August: Your experience joining the practice
Pound Hill Medical Group recently became accredited as a Safe Surgery, promising to make sure that a lack of ID or proof of address, immigration status or language do not prevent patient registration. Everyone is entitled to primary care in England, no matter your citizenship or immigration status. We will ensure that our practice offers a welcoming space for everyone who seeks to use our services.
We sent out a survey to the last 100 people who registered at the practice, to ask about their experience. Most people said it was very easy to register once they had their allocation letter, and over 50% gave us a 9 or 10 out of 10 when rating how helpful our staff were, which is always nice to hear! One suggestion that came in was that it would be helpful for new patients to be told who their usual GP is. From now on, we will send a text to newly registered patients, letting them know which doctor is their named accountable GP. Thank you to everyone who responded for helping us improve our services for new patients joining the practice.
7th May 2023: Free and confidential home tests for hepatitis C now available via the NHS
The NHS is committed to eliminating hepatitis C as a major public health issue in England, ahead of the World Health Organization goal to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.
Achieving this ambition is crucial. If left untreated, hepatitis C can lead to life-threatening conditions like liver cancer or liver failure. While significant progress is being made to reduce the number of people with hepatitis C, more needs to be done to prevent new infections and reinfections.
Many people across England may have hepatitis C without knowing. Sharing toothbrushes, getting tattoos abroad, having unprotected sexual intercourse and injecting drugs are just some of the ways people can contract hepatitis C. To reach our goal of eliminating hepatitis C we need to get more people testing.
If you are over the age of 18 and live in England, can now order a free and confidential home test for hepatitis C via the NHS. This is an at-home, self-sample test taking a few drops of blood from your finger. If found positive for hepatitis C, you can be treated and cured.
Order a free and confidential home testing kit today: Home - HepC (hepctest.nhs.uk)
December 2022: Online GP Appointment Access
To help us better triage appointment requests we will not be making the on the day appointments available online for the moment. These can still be booked by telephoning the practice at 08:00 and pre-bookable appointments will still be available online.
September 2022: Physician Associates at Pound Hill Medical
We are pleased that we have been able to recruit three Physician Associates who will be starting in November who are Lauren Neal, Nathan Faulkner and Lauren Hillyard. The Physician Associates work alongside the GPs and can see everything that the doctors would see under their medical supervision.
January 2022: Referral to Pharmacy for minor ailments
The Reception team may refer you to a local pharmacy for help with some minor ailments and you can either contact the pharmacy direct or the pharmacist will call you over the day to help. The type of things we will be referring to them are:
- Coughs, Cold and Flu like Symptoms
- Diarrhoea
- Ear Discharge or Ear Wax Earache
- Eye - Red or Irritable
- Eye- Sticky or Watery
- Sore Throat
- Vomiting
We welcome this service that our Pharmacies are now able to provide and hope this will help alleviate the continued pressure we have seen over the past 6 months.
Patient List Capped at Pound Hill and Copthorne Surgeries
The Pound Hill Medical Group has experienced a high level of new patients joining the surgery in the past year which has put tremendous pressure on the Practice and the service we provide. We have reached the point where we are struggling to meet the needs of our patients on a day to day basis and we have therefore made the decision to cap our practice list. This means that you will need to be allocated to a GP Practice in the area which may be the Pound Hill Medical Group or one of the other local Practices.
Please contact the Sussex ICB GP Allocation team on:
07425 616194
or email then at
sxicb.gpallocations@nhs.net
Further information can be found on the Sussex ICS website.
We will be reviewing this decision regularly as we hope that our overall practice size will reduce over the next few months.
Please be patient....and kind
The Practice continues to experience an unprecedented level of demand and while we have increased capacity for all of our clinicians where we can, we still have longer waits for routine appointments and not always able to meet the need for urgent appointments on the day. We appreciate the patience that many of you have shown but would like to highlight that abuse and threats to our staff will not be tolerated and may result in the removal from our Practice list. We have had several incidents lately where receptionist and clinicians have felt unsafe in the Practice and this is unacceptable.
Perry Anderson, Practice Manager