It's Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

March is ovarian cancer awareness month

March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.

Ovarian cancer is the 6th most common cancer in ladies in the UK. It’s important to be aware of the symptoms of ovarian cancer, as earlier diagnosis leads to improved outcomes. But it can be difficult to spot as symptoms can often be vague and similar to those of much less serious conditions.

So, what symptoms should you be looking out for you ask? Well, NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) highlight the following symptoms, which may either be persistent, or occur frequently (more than 12 times per month):

  • persistent abdominal bloating

  • feeling full (early satiety) and/or loss of appetite

  • pelvic or abdominal pain

  • increased urge to pass urine, or passing urine more frequently

Ovarian cancer can also be considered when you experience:

  • Unexplained weight loss

  • A change in your bowel habit

If you do suffer from these symptoms, then please don’t hesitate to speak to one of our GP’s who will be more than happy to help.

For more information on Ovarian Cancer please feel free to visit Cancer Research UK

 
 

By Dr Ramadani

 

Eating Disorder Awareness Week - Accessing the help you deserve 💜

Beat Eating Disorders

1-7th March 2020 marks Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

Beat is the UK’s eating disorder charity who’s mission is to end the pain and suffering caused by eating disorders. Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that ruin and, too often, take lives.

They offer helplines which people can ring if they or a loved one are struggling with an eating disorder, they offer advice, skills and a listening ear to anyone who rings. They also have a directory in which you can access to find more local services which may be of help.

Go to their website for more in depth information on how they can help.

If your or a loved one are struggling with an eating disorder please contact your GP and book an appointment to discuss, as the sooner you can access treatment, the better. You can also ask for a double appointment so you have more time to allow yourself to talk.

You can also talk in confidence to an adviser from Beat by calling:

Adult helpline on 0808 801 0677

Youth helpline on 0808 801 0711

Student helpline on 0808 801 0811

The Helplines are open 365 days a year, 9am-8pm during the week and 4pm-8pm on weekends and bank holidays. If you can’t get through immediately Beat advise you contact them via their one-to-one web chat service instead.

Eating disorders are not about food. Instead, eating disorder behaviors are a way of coping or feeling in control.

PCN Staff - Who are they and what do they do?

WE Connect.

The PCN (Primary Care Network) are a network of shared resources between local practices. We at St Wulfstan are apart of South Warwickshire’s East PCN, alongside the following surgeries:

Fenny Compton Surgery
Harbury Surgery
Kineton Surgery
Southam Surgery

This means that we are lucky enough to have the lovely help of the following PCN Staff, who do about 1 day at week at each practice. Some of you may have already had the pleasure of chatting to some of them.

 
 

Patient Care-Coordinator: Fraser

Fraser is the 1st point of contact for patient’s who may be referred to one of services offered by our new PCN staff, whether this be through a self-referral or through your GP or nurse. He will determine whether the patient would better suit seeing the Heath and Wellbeing coach, or the Social Prescribers. He also deals with general queries and handles all the referrals.

In addition to this, Fraser is helping launch several exciting schemes including an Exercise@Home programme and Blood Pressure monitoring @ Home.

Health & Wellbeing Coach: Ludmilla

Ludmilla offers education and guidance for patients on changing their habits surrounding diet, lifestyle and general heath and wellbeing. A few of the team at St Wulfstan actually attended her online talk on ‘resilience’, which we found to be extremely wonderful and insightful. Ludmilla’s overall goals with patients is to help them achieve: better heath outcomes, better response to treatment and improved prevention of disease.

So, if you are struggling to control your chronic disease, suffer symptoms such as chronic pain, need help loosing weight, or otherwise feel like you could benefit from some Health & Wellbeing coaching then please e-mail we.connect@nhs.net where Fraser will be able to help further.

Social Prescribers: Jo, Rita and Elicia

The social prescribers are a wonderful team of ladies who act as a signposting service for patients to relevant local resources which they may benefit from. There are so many different programs, and opportunities outside the clinical setting but its often hard to find the ones most relevant to you - this is where Jo, Rita and Elicia come in. They can help direct you in all areas such as: benefits entitlement, connecting with local community groups, carer support and access to social care, and so much more. Some of our patients may have already been contacted by them to offer any services, but anyone is more than welcome to talk to them.

If you would like to access this service please e-mail we.connect@nhs.net where Fraser will help get the ball rolling and get you booked in for a chat!

Clinical Pharmacist: Hitesh and Rajveer

The clinical pharmacists are an extension of our clinical team. They are engaged in multiple activities and you will most likely interact with them in the form of a medication review. In these reviews, they will ensure the appropriate blood tests and monitoring has been completed for your medication and review your current medication for appropriateness. This is your chance as a patient to have an in-depth discussion about your medication and any questions or concerns. They have a strong relationship with your GP and any suggestions for your care will be as a multi-disciplinary approach.

First Contact Practitioner: Roger

Roger is our First Contact Practitioner and also works as part of the South Warwickshire Foundation Trusts MSK (Musculoskeletal) team. 

Roger is an extremely experienced musculoskeletal practitioner and can see patients with; Arthritic symptoms, Sports injuries, Joint pain, Back pain, Non-specific muscle pain.

Roger is a prescriber and will be able to refer the patient to the most appropriate service and of course will discuss concerns with the patients GP as required.

If you have any questions about the services on offer please contact Fraser by email on we.connect@nhs.net

 

Calling all plastic bag owners!

A wonderful project has been set up by a local lady, Brenda Dommett, alongside some residents of Galanos House to turn your old plastic bags into something useful!

Together they are creating as many rug/bed roll as they can from our old plastic bags, which will all be donated to a homeless charity who will then be able to distribute to rough sleepers. The rugs are ideal due to their warmth, waterproof abilities and light weight.

Each rug takes over 500 bags to make. Therefore we are appealing to you to donate any plastic bags you have laying around to this wonderful cause. There is a clearly labelled donation bin outside the visiting pod at Galanos house, Southam where we accept these bags. Please do not drop these off at the Surgery.

If anyone has an queries regarding this project, please contact Brenda Dommett directly through brenda@priors-marston.co.uk as she is the lady behind this lovely project.

The image above is what the rugs look like on completion.

 

It Takes Balls To Talk Gents

Suicide is the biggest cause of death in men under the age of 45.

Over three quarters of people who kill themselves are male (Reference: ONS)

It Takes Balls To Talk is an amazing locally run campaign, who’s goal is to tackle the stigma behind Mental Health in men. They have a range of local services on offer to help you, no matter what situation you are in.

If you or any of your loved ones are affected by mental health, please give this site a look. You matter, and you deserve to know that. Feel free to also have a look at our Mental Health page.

If you would like to chat to any of our GPs, follow the link to join us, or book an appointment today.

Welcome Roger, Our First Contact Practitioner...

We welcome Roger to St Wulfstan Surgery.

He is a qualified and very experienced Physiotherapist who is working with us as a First Contact Practitioner (FCP). In this role he will be seeing people with new joint and muscular pains and problems. Whether it be muscular strains or hip/knee/ankle/neck/back/shoulder or elbow pains, it is possible to book in with Roger in the first instance. As well as having a wealth of experience, he is able to refer to appropriate services such as physiotherapy or the local specialist Musculoskeletal service. He is also able to refer for investigations such as scans.

Roger will be working with us on Tuesdays, and appointments can be booked via Reception.

Who are our Reception Team?

Hello from your friendly Reception team at St Wulfstan surgery! 😄👋

 

Amanda, Jane, Jacqui, Wendy, Maddie, Julie and Mandy are your first port of call when calling the surgery or just popping in. We understand, for many, that calling the doctors surgery can be a daunting decision, therefore our aim is to guide and help you make the right appointment. You get to see the most appropriate clinical staff for your needs. We want you to feel comfortable at St Wulfstans and we strive to offer a first rate service.

 

We feel extremely privileged to be there for you and will help to the best of our ability with any query or request you may have. Please be patient with us though, as you can imagine we never know quite what query will be asked of us next and we can end up wearing many hats throughout our day. We are techno champions, meet and greeters, chaperones, detectives, the receivers of all kinds of samples, excellent tea and coffee makers and the providers of copious amounts of a good listening ear to make sure we point you in the right direction. Finally we possess the collective knowledge of an elephant, one of us will always know the answer!

 

As a team, we support each other and the rest of the amazing staff here at St Wulfstans surgery. We pride ourselves on our adaptability, teamwork and community spirit which we hope you, as patients, will benefit from.

Government update 17.2.21 - Guidance on shielding

You may have seen in the news today that a further 1.3 million patients will now be added to the ‘shielding’ list. This will mean that these patients will be vaccinated against Covid as a matter of priority. The Department of Health and Social Care will write to patients about what shielding will mean for them and those patients will be contacted direct to be called for their Covid vaccine.

We are currently receiving a very high number of calls about this. Please could we ask patients who think they may be added to the shielding list to avoid ringing the surgery about this matter as, unfortunately, we do not know when you will receive your letter from the government or when you will be called for your Covid vaccination.

More information is available on the government website here

Stay safe.

Keep us in the loop!

Please remember to let reception know if your telephone number/s or email address have changed.  You can do so easily online if you have access to the NHS app or Patient Access. If you would like to sign up to one of these services you will be able to book appointments online, order repeat prescriptions and much more. For more information on this click here.

It is really important especially with COVID that St Wulfstan Surgery hold the correct contact details for yourself.

Appointment confirmations and urgent communications often occur via text message and email is a great way for patients to receive the surgery newsletter plus some administration correspondence.  

It's time to take time for YOU! - Don't miss out!

Get Set to Go

The Get Set to Go Team from mind are offering 6 free sessions of the following: Yoga, Tai Chi, Vinyasa Yoga and BodyBalance (please see image attached for session details).

The sessions will begin week commencing 22nd February, commence weekly and finish in time for Easter. Those who are interested in joining our sessions can sign up by emailing us at getsettogo@springfieldmind.org.uk or by calling 01789 298615, all abilities are welcome (age 18+).

This is an amazing opportunity to take that much needed time to focus on yourself, whilst also enjoying moving your body. We all need to step up and show up for ourselves right now.

Todays COVID-19 Vaccination Update

LATEST UPDATE - 10.02.21

Vaccinations are continuing well, but are limited by the vaccine supply given to our local vaccination site at Southam Clinic.

Locally, in excess of 90% of eligible patients in Groups 1-4 have now been vaccinated.

The vaccination site has now been given permission to start vaccinating Group 5 patients (aged 65 and over), so invitations are currently in progress. If you find yourself in this age range then please be patient and you will be contacted via telephone once an appointment is available.

Housebound individuals are being vaccinated from this week, and again if you are eligible, you will be contacted.

If you are aged over 70 and have not yet had your vaccine then please let us know, by email preferably.

Lets hope this progress gets us closer to returning to normality!

For further details regarding the COVID vaccination programme please visit our dedicated page.

To stay up to date with our weekly news email, please register below.

Dr Bakewell's Guide to New Year's Resolutions - How to Succeed

Volume 1 | Issue 1

January 2021

The Good Health Newsletter

New Year’s Resolutions - How to Succeed

Dr H Bakewell

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
— Aristotle

At this time of year we start to look to the future and maybe make some New Year’s resolutions to improve our life, make a healthy change or do something we’ve always wanted to do. A YouGov poll in 2018 found that 25% of Britons will make a New Year’s Resolution and that the commonest resolutions are to exercise, loose weight and eat a healthier diet.

 

On average 80% of New year’s resolutions will fail, so often after a few weeks of effort our good intentions fall by the wayside but there is good science to back up why this happens.

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
— John C Maxwell

How to Succeed

 

1.       Be specific

A resolution to “do more exercise” becomes “do yoga on my yoga mat in the living room for 20 minutes twice per week after I get home from work”

2.       Make a tiny change

If 20 minutes twice per week is not realistic then reduce it to something more achievable, say 10 minutes just once per week. Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem like much, by setting the bar so low you are more likely to be successful and this creates positive feedback, making the habit more likely to stick, then you can increase it if you wish. It’s better to make a small change now and stick to it than fail to completely overhaul your lifestyle.

 

Tip: Don’t try to create more than about three new habits at a time

 

3.       Create an environment that sets you up to succeed

If you want to give up eating unhealthy snacks, remove them from the house, hide them in your garden shed or simply don’t buy them, stock up with some healthy alternatives instead. Want to exercise more? You could try getting your exercise clothes ready the night before so all you have to do in the morning is put them on and go for that run.

4.       Get help and support

You are more likely to succeed if you have the support of your friends, family or by joining a group of like-minded group of people such your local ParkRun group (see below for details). At St Wulfstan surgery our smoking cessation nurse can offer support to stop smoking, studies show you are more likely to quit smoking for good with outside help.

5.       Don’t try to do create more than about three new habits at a time

6.       Focus on the process not the end goal

Having a goal doesn’t mean you will achieve it but by focusing on achieving the small daily habits you will gradually incorporate the change into your lifestyle and that way you will start to see results.

 

Further Reading

If you want to learn more about building daily habits to improve your lifestyle and overall health then I recommend checking out:

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Tiny Habit by BJ Fogg

Parkrun Leamington Spa

Written by Dr H Bakewell

Welcome Back Dr Mistry!

We are delighted to announce the return of Dr Deena Mistry to the practice, who has been greatly missed by staff and patients alike. Dr Mistry will be attending the surgery next week.

After her time away on maternity leave, she will be running 3 sessions a week at the surgery starting Monday 8/2/21 - add the date to your calenders!