Help us to plan our services by sharing your experiences

Over the last year, the impact of Covid-19 has meant that we have had to rapidly change our approach to delivering general practice services whilst keeping our patients and staff safe.

As such we are asking local residents to share their views and experiences of services provided at their local GP practice and local health centres by taking part in a short online survey.

The survey has been designed to help local health providers to understand what has been working well, and equally areas that could be improved upon particularly during the pandemic. It’s vital that we hear from patients, carers and service users to help inform the planning process as we emerge from lockdown restrictions.

To complete the survey click here: www.bit.ly/PrimaryCareLLR, the survey will be open until Monday 12 July 2021 and all responses are anonymous. For further information or support in completing the survey email: beinvolved@leicestercityccg.nhs.uk.

Dear Patient,

We have updated our Privacy Policy on our website.

We would like to draw your attention to specific section concerning a Data Provision Notice issued by NHS Digital for Planning and Research. You have the opportunity to opt out and can access the form by clicking on the Type 1 Opt-out form link below.

If you have a National Data Opt Out registered you are still required to complete an Opt out form if you wish to opt out.

NHS Digital has issued a Data Provision Notice for Planning and Research. This means we are required to share your information with them unless you tell us not to.

 Video https://youtu.be/YLi9gh7RyLA

Practice Privacy Policy

DEADLINE FOR REGISTERING YOUR OPT-OUT IS THE 1st SEPTEMBER 2021

If you don't want your identifiable patient data to be shared for purposes except for your own care, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out.

This collection will start on 1st September 2021 so if you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital please register your Type 1 Opt-out with the surgery.

The data held in your GP medical records is shared with other healthcare professionals for the purposes of your individual care.  It is also shared with other organisations to support health and care planning and research.  If you do not want your personally identifiable patient data to be shared outside of your GP practice for purposes except your own care, you can register an opt-out with your GP practice.  This is known as a Type 1 Opt-out.

To register a Type 1 Opt-out, for yourself or for a dependent(if you are the parent or legal guardian of the patient) (to Opt-out) you can download the form from the link below and then return it to the surgery.

Type 1 Opt-out Form

More information about this matter can be viewed in the patient leaflet by clicking on the link below.

Patient leaflet

Open letter to patients in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland

Dear Patients

General practice is in crisis. Although often an overused word, this is currently an accurate description.

We write to raise very important issues and to ask you to work with us, your general practices, to help you and all your family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues to be able to appropriately access healthcare.

General practice remains the bedrock of the NHS as an effective, cost efficient health service. Ninety per cent of healthcare starts and finishes in general practice.

Prior to the pandemic general practice had significantly declined due to decades of underinvestment by consecutive governments. This meant that when the pandemic started there was less resilience than there should have been.

During the pandemic general practices rapidly changed how we delivered services to keep patients, their family and carers, and our staff safe, whilst continuing to provide a service without ever pausing.

During the past year practices have seen a significant increase in workload. Recent figures show that in March 2021[1] general practices in England provided over 28.5million appointments. This was 5 million more appointments than in February 2021, and 2.3 million more appointments than pre-pandemic times in March 2019. In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland the number of GP appointments since before the pandemic had increased by 54 thousand (10%) appointments per month[2].

This is at a time when there has been an ongoing significant decrease in the number of GPs and practices. The number of GP partners in England has fallen by 22 %[3].

The number of practices also continues to fall. 98 practices closed last year, meaning 263 thousand patients had to find a new practice. In the past 8 years 778 (10%) practices have closed, with 2.5million patients having to find a new practice.[4] This has been mainly due to financial instability and inability to recruit new GPs to replace those retiring.

On top of trying to cope with this increase in demand and reduction in resources, general practice has been the core of the highly successful Covid Vaccination Programme, delivering the majority of doses.

During the pandemic general practices have been falsely accused of not pulling their weight, and being ‘closed for business.’ As you can see the truth is far from this. But constant negative comments have resulted in more patients complaining about their practices and our colleagues and staff being demoralised.

When hospitals had to close whole departments, general practices were left to support those patients with complex chronic conditions. The huge backlog means that general practice will remain busy for the foreseeable future. As hospital departments restart their outpatient clinics these are often done remotely, and they frequently expect general practice to pick up their work (for example arranging blood tests and scans, prescribing medication, arranging follow up, issuing sick notes) in addition to our own workload. This further reduces general practices’ ability to help our patients.

The government is forcing through changes to general practice which we do not believe is in the interest of our practices or the majority of patients. One of these is the requirement for practices to implement digital/online services. This makes it much easier for younger IT savvy people to place ever increasing demands for advice and help about minor, self-limiting, conditions often as soon as they have started. This means that practices will have less and less time to provide services to those patients who do not have access to, or cannot use, IT but are more likely to be suffering from significant illness. The outcome will be an increase in health inequalities.

The ever-increasing workload, false negative comments, and underinvestment is having a significant effect on our colleagues with 20% more GPs presenting to mental health services during the pandemic compared with the year before.[5] The BMA report that over a third of GPs are considering early retirement in the next 12 months and 22% are planning to leave the NHS[6].

So what are we asking you, our patients, to do?

Be respectful and kind. Please respect that general practitioners and our staff are working harder than ever to provide healthcare. Being abusive and rude will not get you seen quicker or improve your outcome.

Be self-sufficient. If you or your child have a minor rash, signs of a cold, or other minor symptoms, do not think GP first. Try home remedies, look for advice from www.nhs.uk, or ask for help from a pharmacist. Only seek an appointment if you have serious symptoms, or advised to by a pharmacist.

Be prepared. Keep simple remedies including paracetamol or ibuprofen at home. Order your repeat medications well in advance. Think about signing up to the NHS App or other App provided through your practice.

Be thoughtful. Practices are receiving a massive increase in complaints. Each complaint takes staff away from patient care to respond to. Before complaining, think whether it is appropriate. Is it due to an error or mistake which practices should know about to change or improve their services, or is it relating to the significant reduction in the current capacity to provide services by practices or hospitals and therefore no change is possible?

Be Covid aware. If you develop a new cough, high temperature or loss of taste or smell, it could be Covid. Do not contact your GP unless you have done a Covid test first. Do not attend at the surgery, as this could cause an outbreak, infect vulnerable patients or staff, and lead to the practice having to close all their services for a deep clean.

Be patient. All health services have been significantly affected by the pandemic with huge backlogs. Your GP cannot change this. Do not expect your GP to get an appointment or investigation brought forward unless there has been a significant change in your condition. You can only be moved up the list by making another patient wait longer.

Be cancer aware. We are concerned that the number of patients presenting with symptoms of possible cancer or other significant illnesses has reduced during the pandemic. If you or someone you know have worrying symptoms, then please do not delay but make an appointment as soon as possible. See https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cancer/symptoms/

How the Access your COVID-19 VACCINATION STATUS

 You can access your COVID-19 vaccination status through the free NHS App from 17^th May. You can access the app through the mobile devices such as a smartphone or by tablet. Proof of your COVID-19 vaccination status will be shown within the NHS App. We recommend that you register with the app before booking international travel.

 The NHSapp can be downloaded from https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/nhs-app/id1388411277 for iPhone or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nhs.online.nhsonline for android

If you do not have access to a smartphone and know that the country you are travelling to requires COVID-19 vaccination status, you can call the NHS helpline on 119 (from 17 May) and ask for a letter to be posted to you. This must be at least 5 days after you’ve completed your course of the vaccine. We expect the letter to take up to 5 days to reach you.

Do NOT contact your GP surgery about your COVID-19 vaccination status. GPs cannot provide letters showing your COVID-19 vaccination status.