Christmas & New Year Opening Hours 2023/24

Please see our Christmas & New Years Opening Hours above

We are running our evening Extended Access sessions on Wednesday 27th December & Tuesday 2nd January from 5pm.

We are also running a morning Extended Access session on Tuesday 2nd January, with a few telephone appointments available from 7am.

For medical concerns outside of our opening hours, please call 111.

In an emergency, please call 999.

We wish all of our wonderful patient’s and their families a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Exciting New Vacancy: Nurse Manager

This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for a Nurse to join us as Nurse Manager.

We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic and proactive nurse to join our surgery team as Nurse Manager. This is a new role and the successful candidate will have a fantastic opportunity to further develop their career whilst providing a high standard of nursing care for our patients.

You will have experience in managing a practice nursing team. The role includes delivering practice nursing care including cervical cytology, immunisation and chronic disease reviews as well as leading the nursing team in HR, quality, training, compliance and development 

Salary will be £45,000-£52,000 per annum

We have a CQC rating of Outstanding and strive to offer the very best possible levels of care. This was evidenced by the latest GP Patient Survey 2023 which placed us #10 in England out of 6402 practices in England and #1 in England for practices with more than 10,000 patients. We are located in Southam, which is a lovely market town in South Warwickshire, only 10 minutes’ drive from Leamington Spa and 20 minutes from Coventry and Banbury.

We serve a wonderful patient population and treasure the great relationship we have with our patients. We have a friendly team of dedicated clinical and non-clinical staff. The successful candidate will enjoy the support of an experienced and dynamic management team.

If you are interested in the role, please contact our Practice Manager, Lindsay at Lindsay.Ward@stwulfstansurgery.nhs.uk

Southam Warm Space, every Wednesday 11am-4pm

Come along and join us at the Southam Warm Space, we are incredibly proud to be sponsoring the events by providing 10 weeks of the running costs for this wonderful community facility!

Welcome To Our New GP Trainee's

St Wulfstan Surgery is proud to be a GP Training Practice. We have loved having Dr Hayward and Dr Maharjan, but unfortunately for us it is time for them to move onto their next training post and we wish them the best of luck!

As they depart, we welcome Dr Mulligan and Dr Nangia to the practice. They are both excellent Doctors and we wish them both a warm welcome!

National Grief Awareness Week - 2nd-8th December

Better Housing, Better Health

Better Housing Better Health (BHBH) is a charity working locally to improve our domestic warmth and wellbeing. In a preventative approach, their free helpline provides us with a single point of contact for services, advice and financial support in order to help improve the energy efficiency of our properties.

Financial Support

BHBH’s team of experts can with with households to apply for grants and funding to help with your home energy. Schemes like the Warm House Discount can take £150 off your bills and ECO Funding can replace heating systems as well as install insulation. Give them a call on 0800 107 0044 to see if you’re eligible and start the process.

Priority Services Register

If you’re of pensionable age, have long-term medical conditions or live with children under 5 years old, the BHBH team can assist you with checking your eligibility and signing your household up to the Priority Services Register so you find out about any issues and outages with your home energy immediately.

Free Home Energy Visits

A trained home energy advisor can install free small energy-saving measures such as draught-proofing and LED light bulbs, advise on bills and debt, help you understand your heating system, and much more during a free home energy visit. They will assess your property and signpost you to other services that can help you save money and stay warm in your home.

All advice is free, confidential, and tailored to the resident. To speak to one of the team, please call the number below Monday-Friday between 9:00am and 5:00pm.

www.bhbh.org.uk

Your baby now comes with an instruction manual!

If you’re pregnant or have a baby, the Start for Life emails are NHS-approved and tell you everything you need to know from bump to birth and beyond

If you’re pregnant, you can trust the NHS-approved emails from Start for Life. They can help you every step of the way through pregnancy and beyond.

From coffee to cheese, find out what you can eat and drink , plus lots more advice.

It’s normal to have pregnancy questions. Sign up below to weekly Start for Life emails for everything you need to know:

Good Boost Starting at Southam Leisure Centre week commencing 27th November 2023

Good Boost is an In-centre app-based therapeutic water exercise programme and has been specifically designed for people with mobility and musculoskeletal conditions.

It is also a great programme to support with arthritis and back pain and has proved to support people with managing day to day activities. The programme has been designed by clinical experts and has seen to reduce their pain and improve mobility.

 There are 4 sessions a week:

• Monday 12:15pm-1:15pm - Land based

• Thursday 9am-10am - Aqua

• Thursday 10am-11am - Aqua natal

• Friday 12pm-1pm

Attendees are advised to arrive 30 minutes early for their first session for registration,

It is also just £4.50 per session.

Please see links below to the Everyone Active website on the offering available and also Good Boost’s direct website to view.

What is Good Boost? - Everyone Active

About Us (goodboost.ai)

World Diabetes Day 2023

1 in 10 adults have diabetes, over 90% have type 2 diabetes, close to half are not yet diagnosed

In many cases, type 2 diabetes and its complications can be delayed or even prevented by adopting and maintaining healthy habits. Knowing your risk and what to do is important to support prevention, early diagnosis and timely treatment.

Do you know if you are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes?

No further covid vaccination supply - please read

Unfortunately, we have run out of covid vaccines and we have no delivery expected for further supply.

You can still get a covid jab by checking online: Book, cancel or change a COVID-19 vaccination appointment - NHS (www.nhs.uk) or by calling 119.

We are still doing Flu vaccinations, and have 2 clinics left! The details of these are:

• Saturday 18th November
  8:00am-12:30pm for under those under the age of 65, and then 1:00pm-4:00pm for those aged 65 and over

• Saturday 25th November
  8:00am-12:30pm - session open to both age groups (under 65’s & 65 & over)

We have lots of Flu vaccines left for those under 65 years, if you are eligible and have not yet been vaccinated, you only have 2 weeks left to get this with us - call the surgery today on 01926 810939 to book! If you are not sure if you are eligible, or think you are but don’t know for sure - give our fantastic reception team a call and they will be able to advise you!

Warm hub at the Community Hub every Monday from 2:30pm

Chatty Cafe Scheme at The Community Hub and Cafe

Vaping amongst children and young people has increased in recent years.

NHS figures for 2021 showed that 9% of 11-15 year old children used e-cigarettes, up from 6% in 2018 (NHS Digital, 2022)

In response to this, Warwickshire County Council is working with schools and parents to encourage open conversations with young people about vaping, raising awareness of the risks associated with vaping and equipping them with the facts so they can make informed decisions.

What are vapes/e-cigarettes?

Vapes are battery operated devices that simulate the sensation of smoking, they are an effective tool in quitting smoking. They do not contain as many of the harmful ingredients as cigarettes so they are less harmful than cigarettes, but they do contain nicotine and they are not completely risk free.

It is recommended by the National Institute Centre of Excellence (NICE) that e-cigarettes should not be used by people who have never smoked.

Councillor Margaret Bell, portfolio holder for Adult Social Care and Health has said:

“We know that the rate of young people vaping is increasing and we are working hard to support schools, parents and carers to work with young people and raise awareness of the associated risks.  

“Although vaping has fewer risks than smoking, it is not risk free, and our message to everyone is: if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.” 

There are also risks associated with the small batteries used in vapes. It is important to keep the batteries out of reach of young children to avoid any accidental swallowing or choke hazards. Regularly inspect vape batteries and replace the battery immediately if it is damaged, leaking or malfunctioning.

All Warwickshire Household Waste Recycling Centres have recycling facilities for vapes and batteries. They should never be disposed of in general waste bins as this is a fire hazard.

You can find out more about vaping here:

To view the school toolkit, visit smoke and vape free schools.

Lots of availability for under 65's on this Saturday's Flu & Covid vaccination clinic!

We are running another flu & covid vaccination clinic this Saturday 21st October, and we have lots of availability in the morning session from 8am until 12:30pm which is targeted at under 65s!

If you are under 65, eligible for the flu and/or covid vaccination, and haven’t had them yet, call our wonderful reception team to book in on 01926 810939.

Who is eligible for a flu vaccine?

• Under 65 year olds in clinical risk groups such as those with
  - chronic respiratory disease, such as asthma, COPD
  - chronic heart disease, such as heart failure
  - chronic kidney disease at stage 3, 4 or 5
  - chronic liver disease
  - chronic neurological disease, such as Parkinson’s or motor neurone disease
  - learning disability
  - diabetes and adrenal insufficiency
  - splenic dysfunction or asplenia
  - a weakened immune system due to disease, such as HIV/AIDS, or treatment, such as cancer treatment
  - morbidly obese, defined as a BMI or 40+

• pregnant women

• those aged 65 and over

• those in long-stay residential care homes

• carers in receipt of carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person

• close contacts of immunocompromised individuals

• locum GP’s

• frontline staff employed by the following types of social care providers without employer led occupational health schemes:
  - registered domiciliary care provider
  -Direct Payment (personal budgets) and/or Personal Health Budgets, such as Personal Assistant’s
  a registered residential care/nursing home
  - a voluntary managed hospice provider

• those living in:
  - long stay residential care homes or nursing homes
  - other long-stay health or social care facilities
  - a house bound patient

Who is eligible for a covid vaccine?

• those aged 65 and over

• aged 6 months to 64 years are at increased clinical risk

• living in a care home

• a frontline health or social care worker

• aged 16-64 years old and a carer

• aged 12-64 years old and live with someone with a weakened immune system

If you are still not sure whether you are eligible, give our wonderful reception team a call on 01926 810939 and they will be able to advise you!

You can have both jabs on the same day, or you can have them one at a time, it is entirely your choice!

NHS App access to your GP health records goes live today!

The NHS wants to give people better ways to see their personal health information online. We know that people want to be able to access their health records. It can help you see test results faster. It also lets you read and review notes from your appointments in your own time.

We're now letting you see all the information within your health record. If you are over 16 and have an online account, such as through the NHS App, NHS website, or other GP online services and apps, you will now automatically be able to see all future information entered on your medical record. Some people can already access this feature, this won't  change for you.

This means that you will be able to see records from your appointments, as well as test results and any letters that are saved on your records. This only applies to records from your doctor (GP), not from hospitals or other specialists, although you will be able to see any letters that hospitals or specialists send to your doctor (GP). You will only be able to see information from 18th October 2023. For most people, access will be automatic, and you won't need to do anything. If you want access to view your historical medical records, you will still have to apply via your GP practice, you can do this by visiting Online Services — St Wulfstan Southam Surgery and filling in our online form.

Your doctor (GP) may talk to you to discuss test results before you are able to see some of your information on the app. Your doctor (GP) may also talk to you before you are given full record access to make sure that having access is of benefit to you. If you are concerned that seeing your records is not right for you, you should speak to your practice.

These changes only apply to people with online accounts. If you do not want an online account, you can still access your GP health record by requesting this information via reception. The changes also only apply to personal information about you. If you are a carer and would like to see information about someone you care for, speak to reception staff.

The NHS App, website and other online services are all very secure.  You'll  need to make sure you protect your login details. Do not  share your password with anyone as they will then have access to your personal information.

If you do not want to see your health record, or if you would like more information about these changes, please speak to your GP or reception staff. You can also read more by going to www.nhs.uk/gp-record.