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Strawberry Hill Medical Centre Surgery News

Farewell

It is with great sadness that August saw the retirement of our wonderful Practice Manager Louisa. Louisa has taken the surgery through some difficult times and guided the development of the surgery and the introduction of new ways of working. We wish Louisa well.

We are fortunate that Sabrina has now been appointed as our new Practice Manager. Sabrina has been the deputy for three years and as such has had the opportunity to be an understudy with Louisa and learn the machinations of a large and thriving Medical Centre.

Sabrina will be attending our patient committee meetings to keep us up to date with how things are going and new developments that come on stream. An assistant practice manager will be appointed to support Sabrina.

Care Navigation

Since April 2024 the surgery has been using a new Care Navigation Toolkit, which is a set of questions and guide protocols written by your Strawberry Hill GP’s.

When a patient phones in with a particular problem, the Patient Care Adviser (PCA) will ask some questions. They will then book you an appointment with the most appropriate health professional. For example, it could be with a Nurse, Physician Associate or Pharmacist. You will often find you will get an earlier appointment with a Physician Associate or Pharmacist than with a GP. You can refer yourself to physio – you no longer need your GP to make the first referral for you.

Visit their website: Physiotherapy (MSK Outpatients) | Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Our Newsletters

Your patient group tries to bring you the latest information about your surgery and up to date new health news. So we don’t repeat ourselves, please do look back at previous newsletters as they will also have health news and information about developments.

Why does the brand name of my medicine change?

Did you know that the med’s you are prescribed can come from several different providers and may look different at times. Please do not worry. There is now a plethora of pharmaceuticals who see the benefit of developing drugs.

This means there is a very competitive market for health professionals to navigate.

ScriptSwitch can be a huge benefit. ScriptSwitch is a powerful database that shows the availability of different brands of drugs that have the same active ingredients. Health professionals can now log in and choose the cost savings for healthcare practices and save huge sums for the NHS. For example, a brand-name statin such as Lipitor 40mg can cost £24.64 per month but its generic equivalent Atorvastatin is £1.58 for a month.

The figures can amount to tens of thousands of pounds annually for a medium-sized practice. This is a saving for the NHS which means the money can be spent on other areas of the NHS. It is important to emphasize that while the brand may change, the pharmaceutical constituents remain consistent.

This means that patients are still receiving the same pharmacological benefits, but at a reduced cost to the healthcare system. By focusing on the active ingredients rather than the brand name, healthcare professionals can prioritise the affordability and accessibility of medications without sacrificing their quality.

More Staffing News

Great News! We finally have a Saturday morning blood collection service. We have two phlebotomists, one started at the end of July and a second one starts in September.

Staff Roles – Social Prescriber

To further understand the many different roles of staff at SHMC, we will be highlighting one role in each Newsletter. This Newsletter introduces Terri (a social prescriber). Many conditions a patient presents with are linked to housing, fitness/weight, poverty, loneliness or family issues. Terri can help you access the local free or low-cost support networks and services and help fill in forms.

App Workshop – Keep the date!

30th November: 8am to 11.30am

After the success of the NHS app workshop in February, the PPG will be offering another workshop to help more patients understand how to use the SHMC, and NHS app.

We have learned lessons from our previous workshop so hoping for even greater things this time!

Checking Appointments

Patients can now check their appointment time and cancel on a telephone, even when the surgery is closed. This can also be done via the NHS app. For patients who prefer to use the phone, calls must be from the telephone registered on the patient’s records. It is also necessary to enter the correct date of birth.

Winter Injections

This winter there is a Nationwide programme to vaccinate 75–80-yearolds against RSV, which is a respiratory virus. If you are eligible, we will contact you and book your vaccine at Strawberry Hill.
In October, we will start the covid and flu vaccinations. Covid and flu vaccinations are available for those aged over 65 or those immunosuppressed.

Travel Advice and Injections

If you're planning to travel outside the UK, you may need to be vaccinated against some of the serious diseases found in other parts of the world. SHMC no longer offer any travel advice for patients. They offer free immunisations and boosters for diphtheria/tetanus/polio, typhoid, Hepatitis A and cholera. These can be given by one of the practice nurses. Any other vaccines have to be paid for but this service is not available at SHMC. Boots the chemist can offer injections but availability can be a problem.

You can also get travel vaccines from: