All patients aged 16 or over registered at a GP practice in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland are invited to share their most recent experiences of accessing and receiving care from your GP practice.
Complete a short questionnaire and tell us your experience of accessing and receiving care from your GP practice. It is really important to share your views. Your response will be anonymous and independently analysed. Your insights will be used to help local services improve, so they better meet your needs.
Filling out a questionnaire online by Sunday 10 March 2024
We are improving our appointment system: Launching Clinical Patient Triage Nov 23
In response to patient feedback relating to appointment availability and difficulties with contacting us on the phone, we are introducing a new Clinical Patient Triage system.
This means every medical enquiry is triaged by one of our GPs first.
From 13th November 2023 patients will be asked to complete an online form through our website or the NHS App, and this will enable us to direct the query to the most appropriate person who can help as quickly as possible.
If you call us, our staff will complete this form for your over the phone.
What is a clinical patient triage system?
The Clinical Patient Triage System has been developed by GPs at Latham House Practice to facilitate more efficient handling of the ever-rising demand for primary care appointments and address service levels.
The system uses Patient Triage supplied by AccuRx as the online patient communication platform and relies on the triaging skills of experienced GPs to prioritise resources according to clinical need as well as signpost patients towards the most appropriate services.
What will happen if I genuinely cannot complete the form online?
Those patients genuinely unable to use the online form can call the surgery and our Receptionists (Care Navigators) will complete the online form for them.
What questions will I be asked?
Is this an admin query or a medical issue?
The patient will be asked some concerning symptoms questions to establish if the clinical concern is an emergency.
Please describe the medical problem.
How long have these concerns or symptoms been going on?
Have they got better or worse?
Is there anything you are particularly worried about?
How would you like us to help?
What if my concern is urgent?
Please do not contact us online with an urgent concern.
Urgent clinical needs should be directed to us by phone or in person only.
Please be assured that we will always have arrangements in place to deal with urgent medical cases on-the-day.
Aims and Objectives
This new way of working will enable us to:
Speed up the call contacts, reducing call wait time.
Maintain attention to urgent on the day needs. (Urgent calls will follow normal pathways)
Clinically assess patient need, ensuring right appointment at the right time.
Reduce wait times for routine appointments as we respond to need appropriately.
We would like to thank our patients for their support during this transition.
What help is available to patients at the Practice?
The Latham House Medical Practice team can now offer more specialist services than ever. These teams include a variety of highly trained medical professionals who each bring extensive specialist knowledge to care.
These GP-led teams include roles like advanced nurse practitioners, community paramedics, and clinical pharmacists. These roles are embedded within a GP practice team. All staff liaise with each other effectively to deliver holistic care.
Advanced Nurse Practitioners
Advanced nurse practitioners are trained to help with diagnosis and initiate treatment plans, including prescribing, particularly when it comes to acute and chronic conditions.
An advanced nurse practitioner can do many things that were previously done only by a GP. These include taking a person’s medical history; conducting physical examinations; ordering further investigations; and prescribing medicines.
Practice Nurses
Practice nurses are registered nurses. They are involved in many aspects of your care during the course of your life, from family planning advice and childhood immunisations, to blood samples and managing long-term conditions.
Mental Health Nurses
Mental health nurses in the GP team promote and support a person’s recovery when they have mental health problems or are living with a psychological condition.
These nurses work with the person, their families and carers, to help them live independent and fulfilling lives. They will advise patients on things like relevant therapies, taking medication correctly and suggest different treatments, such as activities or support groups.
Nursing Associates
Nursing associate is a new role in the practice nursing team. They sit between healthcare assistants and registered nurses.
Healthcare Assistants
Healthcare assistants are a key part of the practice multidisciplinary team. They support the practice nursing team in delivering treatment, preventative care, health promotion and patient education. They are often trained in wound care and managing chronic diseases.
Clinical Pharmacists
Clinical pharmacists assess and treat patients, using expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas.
They care for patients with chronic illnesses and carry out clinical medication reviews to manage people with complex medication needs, especially the elderly, people in care homes and those with multiple conditions.
Community Paramedics
Community paramedics can quickly recognise and manage patients whose conditions are rapidly deteriorating. They can also care for those with long term conditions, minor injuries, and minor illness.
They can provide urgent assistance through telephone triage and home visits to treat wounds, certain infections and other minor injuries and illnesses.
Many can also administer certain types of medicine directly to patients, including pain killers, without the need for a prescription.
Social Prescribers
Social prescribing enables care professionals to direct people to an extensive range of local services to help their physical health and mental wellbeing.
These services and activities, although not medical, allow people to take greater control of their own health. Some examples are group classes, arts activities, healthy eating advice and support joining in with sports.
Social prescribers, also known as ‘link workers’, refer patients to services relevant for their needs. Anyone working in the GP team can refer a patient to a link worker. This is also a self-refer service.
Covid-19 and flu vaccinations update
As we begin to enter autumn/winter and colder months, we will naturally be spending more time indoors. We must think of those family members and friends who are more at risk to winter illnesses such as flu, coughs, and sneezes as well as Covid- 19.
Vaccines are our best protection against flu and Covid-19. Over the last few years, they have kept tens of thousands of people out of hospital and helped to save countless lives. Getting these vaccines ahead of winter are two of the most important things you and your community can do to keep safe and get ‘winter strong’.
In line with expert advice, we are now offering flu and COVID-19 vaccines to those at greater risk of serious illness this autumn and winter.
If eligible, we encourage you to come forward as soon as you can due to the risk of the new variant, for the best possible protection. It is important to top up your protection, even if you have had a vaccine or been ill with flu or COVID-19 before, as immunity fades over time and these viruses change each year.
Both vaccines have a good safety and effectiveness record. Their side-effects are generally mild and do not last for more than a few days. You are encouraged to get both vaccines in the same visit where possible, to get protected against both viruses in just a few minutes.
Get in contact with us online with the NHS App or Patient Triage by AccuRx from our website home page, email at [email protected] or call us 01664 503000 to book your vaccine.
Latham House Medical Practice
Covid-19 and Flu vaccinations : Other Leicestershire locations
Appointments can be booked for Covid and flu vaccinations using the National Booking Service. The NBS will be regularly updated with appointments as they become available so, please remember to check back regularly if you aren’t able to find an appointment at a suitable time or location.
National Hormone Replacement Therapy Medication Shortages
There is a continued national supply issue with some medications, particularly hormone replacement therapy medication Utrogestan®.
Utrogestan®, a type of HRT used to treat menopausal symptoms, is expected to be in intermittent supply until late 2023.
As stock is limited when pharmacies can obtain the product they have been instructed to only dispense 2 months supply as regulated by the Government. However, many patients are finding repeated out of stocks in their local pharmacist due to increased demand and restricted supply.
The Practice cannot provide a further prescription for a greater supply.
Your pharmacist does not contact the Practice to inform us of their stock levels.
What other help is available ?
There is only one tablet alternative available at present which is not covered by the HRT certificate.
Another option would be to consider discussing with the GP or Nurse about having a coil fitted or to discuss with a GP if other formulations would be appropriate.
Take your prescription to another chemist. The shortages are exacerbated by limited communications across the pharmacy sector and a restricted supply chain.
We would advise patients to try at least three pharmacies before contacting the Practice. It is our experience that at any given time, usually one of the local pharmacists has stock.
The Process For Complaints About NHS Primary Care Services Is Changing
From 1 July 2023, the way members of the public make a complaint about primary care services is changing. Primary care services are generally the health services that you receive outside of hospital; these include GP practices, dentists, opticians and pharmacy services.
Everyone has the right to make a complaint about any aspect of NHS care, treatment or service, and this is written into the NHS Constitution .
Members of the public are still encouraged to raise their concerns directly with the primary care provider in the first instance, as this may lead to a quicker resolution. However they also have the option to complain to the commissioner of the service. Up until now, this was NHS England, but from 1 July, most primary care services will be commissioned by the local integrated care board (ICB).
Patients in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) should therefore direct any complaints about primary care services to the LLR ICB.
Dr Nil Sanganee, GP and Medical Director of the LLR ICB, said: “Now that we are taking over the responsibility locally for a broader range of health functions, this will enable us to design services that better meet the needs of our local population.
“We want to listen to our patients in order to deliver improvements and the new process for handling complaints is an important first step in this journey.”
A complaint may be made by email to: [email protected], by telephone on: 0116 295 7572 or in writing to this address:
Corporate Affairs Team Leicester, Leicestershire ICB Room G30, Pen Lloyd Building, County Hall Glenfield Leicester LE3 8TB
Members of the public with ongoing complaints received on/after 1 July 2022 will receive a letter from NHS England informing them that the ICB is now handling their complaint with confirmation of their case handler.
Members of the public with any ongoing complaints received before 1 July 2022 will receive a letter from NHS England informing them that their complaint is being retained by NHS England with confirmation of their case handler.
Patient Triage will replace Engage Consult from 1st July 2023
Latham House Medical Practice will use Patient Triage as an Online Consultation platform from 1st July 2023.
Latham House Medical Practice have been operating an online patient triage system called Engage Consult since June 2020. Following a review of this service and to enable greater accessibility for patients, we will now be switching to the online contact tool called Patient Triage, provided by AccuRx.
Patient Triage enables patients to report medical issues, submit an administrative request, and seek self-help guidance, just like Engage Consult. The practice will triage the request and responds within a stated timeframe.
For all current users of Engage consult – no further action is needed, you will just follow the links from our website and continue to submit your request as before using the new platform.
For all patients who have not used our online patient triage, please follow the links on our website which will take you directly to the website to raise your request.
Please watch the short demo of how to use Patient Triage
How does Patient Triage work?
Patients access Patient Triage via a link on the practice’s website or through the NHS App. When the patient clicks on the link from the Practice website, this opens up a webpage which offers the patient the ability to:
Seek self-help – this links to NHS guidance
Submit a medical request – patients are asked a few short generic questions.
Submit an admin request – patients are asked questions specific to their request type
Contact via Patient Triage is for NON URGENT requests – just as it was with Engage Consult.
Benefits to Patients
Easy to access: no app, no account needed – patients simply go to the webpage
Convenient: available 24/7, so patients can submit requests at a time that suits them
Faster: requests are quick and simple to submit, and no need to wait on hold over the phone
Requests can also be sent from the NHS App.
Engage Consult will no longer be accessible to patients after 3:30pm on Tuesday 27th June 2023 to enable the change over of the technology and to ensure that all previously received Engage Consult contacts can be actioned and closed appropriately.
We would like to thank our patients for their understanding
Transfer of Primary Care Complaints function to ICBs from 1 July 2023
From 1 July 2023 the way members of the public make a complaint about primary care services to the commissioner is changing. The primary care services this will include will be GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacies.
Rather than contacting NHS England, complaints will be made to directly to the local ICB. Members of the public will still be able to make a complaint to the provider and will be encouraged to do so in the first instance. This is NOT changing.
Patients will be advised they can make complaints:
To the healthcare provider: the organisation where they received the NHS service, for example a GP surgery or dental surgery (as they are under current arrangements).
To LLR ICB as the commissioner of the services or care that the patient received.
Members of the public with ongoing complaints received on/after 1 July 2022 will receive a letter from NHS England informing them that the ICB is now handling their complaint with confirmation of their case handler.
Patients with any ongoing complaints received before 1 July 2022 will receive a letter from NHS England informing them that their complaint is being retained by NHS England with confirmation of their case handler.
Public facing communications will be made available soon
Extended wait times for routine appointments with some of our GP Team
We do understand that our patients are concerned with the current wait times for routine appointments at our Practice. We would like to share a little more about the current climate in Primary care, to give greater awareness to the access challenges we, like all other GP Practices in the UK, are facing.
The demand on Primary Care services has increased significantly both in terms of the numbers of consultations and the length of the consultations taking place. Along with the increased demand to see GP’s, the complexity of patients’ problems has also increased, which in turn has seen the average attendance to the Practice more than double versus previous years. Various NHS studies show that people aged 50 or over are now presenting with two or more long term conditions which require a complex management from the whole clinical team but largely managed by the GP. This in turn requires more medicine management which can rarely be managed during a typical 10-minute consultation.
With rising demand and clinical complexity, the number of UK GPs continues to fall, a trend that, unless adequately addressed by the UK Government, appears likely to continue. Reduced funding and the pressure within the system also makes the GP career less attractive to newly qualified doctors, making recruitment particularly challenging for General Practice. With all the increased pressure on the role, long term sickness amongst existing GPs is a continual concern and those wishing to remain in the service are rightly looking to better manage their own work life balance. This results in the need to recruit more GPs to join the team to enable the Practice management to fulfil the GP sessions required to meet the local demand.
There is also disparity in the perception of what a GP does in a working day which can result in unfair criticism of the profession. A GP in our Practice will see more than 30 patients a day. They also deal with phone calls and complex home visits. On a very busy day, the duty doctor can have contact (by phone or face to face) with between 80 and 100 patients. GPs also each receive between 50 and 100 tasks and test results each day which they must deal with.
GPs are expected to undertake regular training and must keep their detailed training portfolio up to date. GPs also have to attend meetings and be involved in local decision-making or fulfil other roles such as safeguarding lead or mentors to student GP’s. There is huge pressure to move more services out of hospitals into the community but instead of funding being increased to help GPs deal with this additional work, it is being cut.
In addition, in an average month, more than 100 hours of GP surgery time are wasted because patients book appointments for which they fail to turn up. If all our patients had a responsible attitude and cancelled any appointment that they no longer needed or could not attend, the wait for a routine appointment would be shorter.
To give you an idea of the scale of the problem we can report the following figures for June 2023
Total missed GP appointments = 247
Total Did Not Attend (DNA) All appointment – mixed types- for June = 734
As GP appointments are a particular concern, we have broken down the missed GP appointment numbers below
Total GP Appointments wasted by failure to attend = 247 appointments
– GP Appointments = 150 appointments (26 hours) – this is F2F or telephone appts the patient has booked themselves
– GP Appointment = 26 appointments (4 hours) – this is appointments that were requested by GP or IAC for a review or F2F appointment
– GP Locum = 40 appointments (7 hours)
– GP Registrars = 31 appointments (9 hours)
Where we have mobile phone numbers registered on patient records, we send SMS reminders about the appointments booked. We also regularly communicate our 24-hour cancellation line and currently rely on patients being responsible and cancelling the appointment if they no longer require it. In other Practices, where there is more than one surgery in the location, the GP Practice will have a policy to delist patients who fail to attend their GP appointments on three or more occasions. As the sole GP Practice in Melton Mowbray, we are unable to put this policy in place as we are aware patients don’t currently have the option to register elsewhere locally. We are however looking into how we can be more proactive in managing appointment attendance. Unfortunately, this will mean additional work and cost to the Practice, which we can ill afford, to maintain this increased communication.
We would like to thank the vast majority of our patients who use our services sensibly and considerately and urge them to continue to seek help or advice when needed. Please be assured that, although you may sometimes have to wait for a routine appointment, we will always have arrangements in place to deal with truly urgent medical cases on-the-day. However, these arrangements will only work if they are not abused by the very small minority of patients who insist on immediate access for minor or self-limiting illness.
We remain committed to our recruitment and retention strategy and have had some success this year with recruiting three new GPs to our team, Dr Waddingham, Dr Finn and Dr Saxena. Given the challenges faced with recruitment in this sector, we were delighted to be able to offer these GP’s positions at our Practice.
We also continue to recruit locum GPs to cover sessions and would like to apologise to patients who may not have had the consistency we would like to provide with their family GP.
We would appreciate your continued understanding and support.
International Women’s day 8th March 2023. Celebrating working women at Latham House Medical Practice.
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
The day has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Prior to this the Socialist Party of America, United Kingdom’s Suffragists and Suffragettes, and further groups campaigned for women’s equality. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2023, we wanted to celebrate some of the amazing working women in our own Practice team.
Introducing four fabulous women who have their own inspirational stories. (L-R) Sarah Culpan, Lesley Berry, Carmel Rhodes and Debra Gilbert.
Sarah Culpan: Lead Nurse Care Co-ordinator
Sarah left college with qualifications in art and design initially before she realised her dream was to become a district nurse. After completing a nursing qualification in Sheffield, Sarah found there were no vacant district nursing roles so embarked on a two-year nursing role on the respiratory ward in a local hospital.
Sarah is married to Mark who is in the military, and they relocated to the midlands when Mark’s work required a move. Sarah worked for a number of years in the Nottingham community nursing team before they made a home in Melton Mowbray.
Sarah then took a role as a community nurse locally and then four months after welcoming her first child, Sarah embarked on her Specialist Practitioner qualification in district nursing!
Sarah comments “I was approached to join LHMP in 2014 and I’ve loved developing my role and the care coordinator team. I feel privileged to have the freedom to shape the team to the needs of our patients. We focus on patient support, case management and putting things in place to ensure patients are supported at home.”
Sarah shared that she remains committed to developing the team and herself and this is never more evident than in her recent Cavell nursing prize awarded in September 2022 for her outstanding contribution to nursing.
Sarah leads a team of nurse care coordinators who provide support to patients with complex care needs.
“People often say to me that I must have a hard job but I feel like I have the most rewarding job I could ask for. I feel very privileged to care for the patients I do. Being able to make a difference in just a small way makes my job every bit worthwhile.” said Sarah.
Sarah’s mantra is Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself.
Lesley Berry: Nurse Care Coordinator
Most of us know Lesley as a nurse care coordinator but others may know her as the landlady of The Chumley Arms in Burton le Coggles or maybe as the manager of the local farm shop attached to the pub!
Lesley is married to John who is a chef and Lesley was a practicing nurse when an opportunity came up for the couple to run the local pub in 2009. They jumped at the chance and with the support of the local community, have made it a roaring success. Lesley continued in nursing until 2011 when she left to focus on the family business.
In 2015, Lesley and her husband were contacted by a TV company requesting them to take part in the TV show ‘Four in a bed’. The show invites four business owners to visit each other’s premises and feedback by paying what they felt the stay was worth. After a day of making sausages and a night spent at the pub, it was a hands down win for Lesley and John!
Thankfully, Lesley returned to nursing and now splits her time between running the pub, managing the community farm shop and caring for our patients. Lesley is affectionately known as ‘Mrs Organised’ and it’s clear to see this is an essential skill for a woman with three working roles!
Lesley’s mantra is: There is nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it.
Carmel Rhodes: Reception services
Carmel has been working at LHMP since 2018 and is woman of immense empathy and strength. Carmel joined the Practice 18 months after the tragic loss of her 19year old son, Thomas.
Carmel comments “There are no words to describe the impact on a family after the loss of a child/young adult. I have always been open and honest about our family experience and sometimes we have better days than others. Soon after starting at LHMP, I was made to feel very supported by my team. Not just by my closest work team, but by all my colleagues. I feel strongly that we should be more open and honest with our feelings and seek the support we need. I consider myself lucky to come to work every day and feel supported, especially if I’m not having a great day.”
“As we celebrate women all over the world today, I am celebrating all the amazing women I work with at Latham House who truly make a difference in people’s lives every day, even if they don’t realise it.”
Carmel and Tom’s friends ‘Forever19Tom’ hold an annual football tournament every August, which is near Tom’s Birthday all funds raised are donated to Mind and the Air Ambulance and they would love your support if you’d like to attend future events.
Carmel’s mantra is Never underestimate the power of listening.
Debra Gilbert: Nursing Associate
In 1984, In the era that was ‘Jim Bishop’, Debra joined LHMP on a work experience placement and spent a year in the Casualty department working with the lovely nurses like Hazel Armstrong. It was then Hazel’s husband who tempted Debra over to commercial business where she worked for several years managing the exporting and importing of engineering machinery.
A growing family followed, and it was then that Debra felt the pull back to the health & care sector.
In 2002 Debra became a carer in the community followed by a move to the Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU) at Glenfield Hospital before returning to LHMP in 2016 as a receptionist before progressing to be a qualified HCA.
Never one to shy away from a challenge, Debra began a Nursing Associate foundation degree in 2020.
Debra comments “After many, many years out of school I cannot say it was easy to return to education and at times I really thought I couldn’t finish it BUT, with the excellent support of tutors, management, and colleagues I carried on and I’m delighted that I completed my foundation degree.”
Debra continues “I like to learn new things, and get the little grey cells working, but would I do it all over again? Probably!”
Deb Gilbert is known as a ray of sunshine around the Practice to both staff and patients.
Debra’s mantra is: Believe in yourself, trust your judgement, and go for it.
This is a snapshot of just four fabulous working women who are an inspiration across not only our organisation but also with our patients, community and the families and friends they support every day and who support them in return.
We hope that by sharing these stories you can draw inspiration and strength or just make four fabulous new friends.
Group A streptococcal infections – From the LLR Strategic Coordination Centre
06.12.22:
Current invasive Group A streptococcus (iGAS) infection notifications remain unusually high for this time of year, particularly in children. Marked increases in scarlet fever notifications are also being seen.
Investigations are underway following reports of an increase in lower respiratory tract GAS infections in children over the past few weeks, which have caused severe illness. A high burden of co-circulating viral infections may be contributing to the increased severity and complications through co-infection.
Please find some useful videos done by Prof Damian Roland as an advice for parents and carers on group A streptococcus and scarlet fever .
Group A Streptococcus and Scarlet Fever Advice for Parents and Carer regarding the increase in cases (December 2022) in the United Kingdom. A prototype to develop further resources – please comments on what’s useful and what isn’t? www.youtube.com
Measles is extremely infectious and can be serious. If you have symptoms of measles, please stay at home and phone your GP or NHS 111 for advice. STAY AWAY from GP surgeries and A&E departments – you could spread the illness to others.
Patient Triage is a set of simple questions completed by the patient or receptionist to help us find the right appointment, support or advice for you at the right time. You can get in touch with us online at www.lhmp.co.uk or via the NHS App.
Please contact us by phone for urgent concerns
PRESCRIPTIONS
Please contact the team direct by calling 01664 503000 and select the Prescriptions team option or email the team direct at [email protected]
PRACTICE GUIDANCE: COVID-19
Mask wearing guidance has changed for healthcare settings. Staff will be required to wear face masks in clinical areas.
Patients are advised to wear a face mask when attending the Practice.
