Advice and Practice News
Friends of St James Surgery
The Friends of St James Surgery is a group run by patients of the surgery to foster good communications between the GPs, surgery staff and patients. Among their many activities, to raise funds for medical equipment for the surgery, are quizzes, supper evenings, raffles and Bric-a-Brac sales. If you have any suggestions to make, would like to serve on the committee or require any further information please contact the Chairperson, Mrs J Traverse-Healy.
Forthcoming Events
Quiz No.12 is now on sale. Entries cost £1.00 each and there is a prize of £10.00. The winner will be announced at the supper in November (see below).
A Coffee Morning will be held at the Crown Centre in Devizes on Saturday October 20th between 9.00am and 1.00pm. It will include the sale of Cakes and Bric-a-Brac.
Raffle tickets for the Grand Xmas Draw will be on sale in the Autumn during Flu Clinic sessions. Tickets (£5.00 each) for the Christmas Supper will also be on sale at that time. The supper will be held at Slade House on November 23rd at 7.00pm and will include the Raffle Draw and the announcement of the winner of Quiz No.12.
November sees the launch of a “100 Club”. Details will be announced later in the year.
Second-hand books are still on sale in the surgery foyer at 10p each for paperbacks and 50p for hardbacks. All monies raised will be used to help buy more equipment for the surgery.
Intermediate Skin Surgery
Dr John New, the senior partner at the surgery, is now providing this operating service on a regular basis, normally on a Tuesday morning. Referral is via a GP, so please let any family and friends who are not registered at this surgery know that we now provide this service so that they can speak to their own GP about it.
Electronic Sign-in System
The Surgery has now purchased an electronic sign-in which can be used by patients to indicate that they have arrived for their appointment and thereby decrease waiting times at the reception desk.
Pre-school Immunisations
All pre-school children are now routinely offered a Pneumoccal Conjugate vaccine at 2, 4 and 13 months of age to protect them from pneumoccal infection which can cause pneumonia, blood poisoning and meningitis. For children under 2 years of age who were immunised before this new vaccine was introduced in September 2006, a catch-up programme is being provided for them.
Also available are Hib Booster immunisations for children born between 13th March 2003 and 3rd September 2005. A catch-up campaign is being organised so that these children can receive the extra protection they need against the diseases caused by Hib infection such as blood poisoning (septicaemia), meningitis and pneumonia.
Flu Clinics 2007
Flu Vaccination Clinics will start during the week commencing 1st October 2007 and bookings can be made through the surgery from that date.
There will be one Saturday clinic, on 3rd November 2007, and these appointments will be available ONLY for those patients whose working life dictates that they are unable to attend on a weekday.
Those patients who are over 65 years of age and those with the following chronic problems should make an appointment once clinic dates are announced: Diabetes, heart disease, neurological disease, respiratory disease, liver disease, kidney disease and immuno-suppressed problems. Also carers and those resident in care homes.