Latest Practice News

STAFF CHANGES AT THE WHITE HORSE MEDICAL PRACTICE

Dr Fiona MacKenzie will be leaving in July to begin her maternity leave. She is expected back in January 2011. We wish her well and look forward to welcoming her back next year.

Dr Tim McAllister will be joining the practice to provide cover during Dr MacKenzie’s maternity leave. He will be working for us on Thursdays throughout June and early July and will be full time from July 26th.

Practice nurse Cheryl Probert will be retiring in August 2010. Cheryl has been at the practice for twenty three years and the partners and staff all wish her a long and very happy retirement.

Another of our practice nurses, Becky Eyre will be returning to work in August after the birth of her son in February this year. We look forward to welcoming Becky back to work.

EXTENDED HOURS

We’ve stretched our opening hours to provide you with a better service!

As from October 2008 the practice is open for longer hours on some days to improve access to appointments to patients for pre-bookable appointments.

The practice will be open on varying evenings and occasional Saturdays for appointments with the Dr or Nurse that have been booked in advance. You will not be able to telephone the practice during these hours as the staff will be dedicated to the extra surgeries. There will be no change to the dispensary hours.

Any requests for urgent medical treatment outside of our normal hours (Monday to Friday 8am to 6.30pm) should go to the Out of Hours service by telephoning 0845 645 8995 as usual.

We hope that the extended surgeries will be of particular benefit to those patients who cannot get to the Drs during working hours.

RETURN OF KINGSTON BAGPUIZE CLINIC

IMPORTANT CHANGE TO CLINIC TIMES: As from 7th January 2009 the clinic at Kingston Bagpuize will be held from 10.30am to 11.30am on Wednesdays due to commitments at the main surgery.

The clinic at Kingston Bagpuize/Southmoor Village Hall will return on Thursday 11th September. The clinic will run weekly from 10.30am to 11.30am and appointments must be booked in advance by contacting the main surgery at Faringdon on 01367 242388. There may be times, as was always the case, when the clinic may not be scheduled due to doctors being on leave to ensure that cover is maintained at the main surgery.

The clinic is ideally aimed at those who have problems getting to the main surgery because of transport or mobility problems and who need to see a doctor. We hope that patients will make use of it as demand had dramatically reduced after the move to the new surgery building in Faringdon. Please remember that the clinic is not there for patients to order repeat prescriptions which should be done through the main surgery or Post Office.

CONGRATULATIONS

It’s not often that we like to congratulate ourselves but the results of a recent National GP access survey shows that our practice scored above the National average in England!!

Daily Deliveries

In February 2008 we introduced a daily delivery service from our dispensary to the Post Offices in Kingston Bagpuize/Southmoor, Stanford in the Vale and Uffington. The service runs Monday to Friday at around lunchtime and patients can use it to both drop off their repeat prescription requests and pick up their dispensed items. What could be more convenient?! Please make sure that if you pay for your prescriptions that you provide a cheque (payable to the White Horse Medical Practice) with your repeat prescription request. Prescriptions are now £7.10 per item.

Target Performance

The Government introduced a new GP Contract in 2004 which contains quality targets for General Practice. We are assessed against the targets at the end of each March. We are very proud to have scored 100% for the first 3 years following the introduction of these targets and only narrowly missed getting 100% this year due to a change to the target for recording smoking status, mainly amongst teenagers.

New Website

Welcome to our new website! We hope that you will find this new improved version easier to navigate and would welcome any feedback or comments on what you think we could do to improve it further. Just use the feedback form. One of the improvements that we have made is that the online repeat prescription facility is now provided through a secure webpage – so we recommend that you use this rather than sending us an email. We will receive your request just as quickly!

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