News

Residents across the county are being asked to share their views on the General Practice (GP) Out of Hours Service as part of plans to secure a new contract, say health bosses at NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin (NHS STW).

The GP Out of Hours Service, currently delivered by ShropDoc, provides medical care outside of General Practice core hours. As part of NHS STW’s commissioning responsibilities, there is a need to re-procure the service in line with its statutory and legal duties.

The official procurement process is due to begin in September 2024, with a contract potentially being awarded to the successful bidder for a period of up to five-years.

Potential providers, that are suitably qualified and experienced, are now being invited to submit expressions of interest for the GP Out of Hours Service which will enable NHS STW to understand what options for the service are currently available.

As part of the process, NHS STW has launched a county-wide engagement exercise, running until Sunday 15^th September 2024, to gain important patient and resident feedback which will be used to inform the service design.

For anyone who would like to share their views on what works well and what could be improved, please complete the following short survey which will take around five to ten minutes: https://forms.office.com/e/pijyKGv98b.

If you would prefer to complete this survey in an alternative format, you can request this by emailing stw.communications@nhs.net.

Gemma Smith, Director of Commissioning at NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, said: “Work is currently underway by NHS STW to re-procure the GP Out of Hours Service. This is part of our usual commissioning business cycle.

“Taking our statutory duties into account, we are progressing with a formal procurement process whilst recognising the crucial role that the GP Out of Hours plays within the local health and care system.

“Our intention is to minimise any impact on our patients and residents as far as possible and we are committed on ensuring continued good access for patients”.

The National Patient Survey results for 2024 have been released. This is an independent survey carried out annually by IPSO Mori on behalf of NHS England and is sent out to 2 million patients across the country. The Patient Survey is an important tool that allows practices to compare their experiences of their patients compared to other practices across England. However, the number of questionnaires sent out and returned represent a very small sample of patients. Of 315 questionnaires sent out, only 125 were returned. This is a 40% return and is a sample of only 1.33% of patients. Whilst acknowledging the reduction in the score for the overall experience of our practice compared with last year, the percentage of patients who reported a very good overall experience is the same as the local and national picture.

Without knowing who contributed to the survey it is difficult to be able to analyse the results in great details to be able to learn from individual experiences and make appropriate changes to our processes. Nevertheless, we are committed to listening to patients and taking their feedback seriously. Our Patient Group is currently being relaunched and we will be discussing the results with the Group at a forthcoming meeting.

Please find a link to our results below:

Patient Experience (gp-patient.co.uk)

 THE SHROPSHIRE CARERS SUPPORT TEAM

will be visiting Plas Ffynnon Medical Centre

for a drop-in information session

Thursday 20^th June

9am- 12pm

This week we said farewell to Dr Yvonne Seenan who has moved on to pastures new after 11 years dedicated service to Plas Ffynnon. We are sure you will join us in wishing her the best in the future.

If Dr Seenan was your allocated GP you will be automatically re-allocated to one of the other partners at the practice.

We understand that some of our patients may have encountered difficulties viewing certain documents (e.g. letters from the hospital) due to a software problem. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. We are pleased to inform you that this issue has been resolved for new documents being added onto the system. It may take up to a month for older documents to become visible. 

Your GP team will have been able to access the letters so your care will not have been affected during this time.

Talking Therapies/ Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services can support people with mild to moderate mental health issues such as anxiety or low mood. Patients can self-refer without needing to speak to their GP if they don’t want to.

Shropshire Primary Care Psychological Therapies Service aims to improve health and wellbeing by offering a range of help, advice, life skills courses, supported self-help, other groups, and individual therapies for everyone aged 16 and over.

We are a team of NHS specialists trained to offer effective talking therapies and support. Our team comprises cognitive behaviour therapists, counsellors and psychological wellbeing practitioners. We deliver a choice of evidence-based psychological therapies in a variety of modes including email, web-based programmes, telephone, face to face, individual and group interventions, to allow you to access the service in a flexible way which suits your lifestyle, and according to what is most appropriate for your needs.

We can assist with:

• low self esteem
• difficulty in relationships
• stress
• worry
• anxiety
• low mood
• obsessions and compulsions
• panic
• phobia
• trauma
• anger problems

https://shropshireiapt.mpft.nhs.uk/

Self Referral

Although there is high demand for our services, we aim to offer you an appointment as soon as possible (within 2 to 4 weeks as an estimate). You can refer yourself into our service through the following methods:

Telephone

Please call us on 0300 123 6020.

You will need your NHS Number to hand, together with your name and address details.

The receptionist will take your details and will offer you an appointment for a telephone assessment with one of our qualified therapists, who can talk through the various treatments on offer with you.

Online

Please complete our online self-referral form.

GP

You can visit your GP, or other healthcare professional, to discuss your needs and they can then support you with a referral to us.

NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin are proud to launch a new app aimed at helping children and young people to better manage their asthma.

NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin are looking at how to support children with asthma to manage their own condition and have commissioned an asthma app called the ‘Digital Health Passport’ which can help educate children and parents.  NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin have also commissioned a range of activities for children with asthma which will support their confidence and breathing technique.

The new app, which can be downloaded for free, helps children manage their asthma. It notifies them when they are due to take their inhaler, alerts them of particularly high pollen or air pollution triggers and keeps their annual review document easily accessible.

Around 5000 children and young people are registered as asthmatic across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. The NHS has recently funded specialist nurses to support asthma education and reviews in our area, which will lead to a rise in annual asthma reviews, and training offered to primary care staff and schools. There is also a plan to invest in a pilot diagnostic hub to ensure the NHS captures patients with asthma at an early stage.

The new app, from Tiny Medical Apps, can be downloaded here free of charge. Parents of children with asthma are encouraged to speak to their GP or practice nurse for more information.

Fancy a cuppa? Sometimes reaching out to someone with as little as three words can make a big difference.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, the theme is loneliness – something we all can experience at some point in our lives, which can have a huge impact on our wellbeing.

Sometimes it can be easier to reach out to someone else who may be feeling lonely. As part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport alongside the Department for Health and Social Care are continuing to encourage people to ‘Lift Someone Out of Loneliness’ by taking a simple action to help someone who may be feeling lonely. If we do this regularly, we can all help to lift each other up. Find out how you can help to lift someone out of loneliness