Upton Surgery - Practice of the Year 2009

On October 6th Dr Paul Bunyan, Jo Dodd and Philippa White attended the Management in Practice conference at the NEC and part of this was the announcement of the winners for 2009. It was a great day for the surgery winning the Customer Care award for our integrated team working and examples were given to support this in the Case Manager project, exercise schemes such as Sister Prashers's short walks, the Splash exercise referral, Physiotherapist Mandy's Tai Chi, our work with patient self help groups such as Sister Hogarth's X pert diabetes programme, the Expert Patient Programme, and Challenging Arthritis programme. Then great excitement when we were selected by the judges as the Practice of the Year. There were prize winners for 5 categories in Customer Care, Design and Facilities (we were second in that category like last year!), HR and Training, Business Management and Information Management and Technology. One of the judges for Practice of the Year said this:

?All practices were really put through their paces, so for anyone to have got this far is a huge achievement. What we ended up doing to identify the Practice of the Year was to ask ourselves, which of the practices would we really like to be patients with? All were good but one (Upton Surgery) came out as superior?.

As well as the trophies we won cheques for ?500 which have been sent to Upton Medical Support trust and will be used to enable us to continue the projects and new ones next year.

Dispensing Services Saved
A great start to the New Year was the news that our much valued Dispensing Service is no longer under threat of closure. Minister Phil Hope stated in Parliament "We have taken into account the views of those attending the listening events, meetings, etc. As a result I am pleased to announce that there will be no change in the current arrangements of GP's dispensing medicines to their patients."

The GP Partners and staff would like to say a BIG thank you to the 2,700 patients who signed our petition which was presented with others from Pershore practices to the Health Minister, Alan Johnson, together with the letters you wrote expressing your views. We feel it made a real difference and has saved our much valued Dispensing Service. Thank you again.

Your questions answered on Coughs and Colds

CLICK HERE to open our PowerPoint presentation

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Royal Opening

We all enjoyed a wonderful day when Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited the surgery and performed the official opening ceremony by unveiling two new stained glass windows in the waiting room. The Royal couple met staff and patients and visited a baby clinic and a Tai Chi class as well as the dentist, doctor and dispensary services. The couple spent time with the Mayor of Upton upon Severn viewing a photo display with patients, staff and another county surgery who were all badly affected by the July 07 floods. It was a day to remember for us all and with the local youth brass band to play them in and the primary school orchestra to play them out, crowds were entertained and enjoyed a very informal Royal walkabout both before and after the celebrations inside the surgery.

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Stained Glass Windows

The stained glass window panels were installed on January 22nd and are gifted by the GP Partners and patient donations and are not part of the building costs.

Upton Surgery has a tradition going back many years of being supported by local artists and the windows are an extension of the arts and health programme to improve the environment for our patients. We hope those waiting in the surgery will feel more relaxed and less stressed as they enjoy the beautiful natural rural view framed by colourful scenes of Upton upon Severn and the surrounding countryside.

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Suggestions

We have a suggestion box on the reception counter and are always pleased to receive any ideas for current improvements or introduction of future services. Ideas are discussed with the GP Partners and then with the patient group.

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EMIS ACCESS

Have you registered for our online facility EMIS ACCESS?

More online appointment booking facilities have recently been added. As well as Doctor appointments you can now book your phlebotomy and Practice Nurse or Healthcare Assistant appointments online. You can book for certain nurse led clinics (for example diabetic and respiratory).

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