SURGERY NEWS

Patient Partcipation Group (PPG)

We would like to invite you to join our Patient Participation Group.

A Patient Participation Group (PPG) is a group of patients, carers and GP practice staff who meet to discuss practice issues and patient experience to help improve the service.

Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) work in partnership with their practices to:

• help patients to take more responsibility for their health
• contribute to the continuous improvement of services and quality of care
• improve communication between the practice and its patients
• provide practical support for the practice and help to implement change

We would like to grow the PPG, ensuring that it reflects our diverse patient population.

If you would like to join the Patient Participation Group, please ask at reception for further details.  Alternatively, you can contact the surgery by telephone or by email brownhill.surgery@nhs.net

 

How to access your GP practice

The way you access your GP is changing to ensure you get the best possible care safely and quickly. We only want people to attend the practice when they need to, in order to keep you and our staff safe from Coronavirus.

This video explains how you can contact your GP practice and the different ways care will be delivered to keep you safe. Your general practice is here for you. Help us help you. For more information also visit NHS.uk - Health at Home

 

Digitalisation of Medical Records

Lancashire and South Cumbria has been chosen by NHS England to be a national pilot for the digitisation of Medical Records.  Scanning these paper based records and making them digital will enable better utilisation of space, creating more clinical space, staff areas, multi team space and video hubs, removing the need for some practices to build extensions. In addition it will also make your record more easily and speedily accessible to clinical staff within your practice.

Your complete GP medical record will be digital and stored in a secure cloud based clinical system (only accessible by your GP practice) with the paper based records being securely destroyed following BS EN 15713:2009 Secure destruction of confidential material.  Your GP will still be able to access your records easily within this system. The scanning and destruction of the paper records will follow strict data protection guidelines adhered to by the NHS.  As with paper based records, digital records are stored for the durations specified in the Records Management Codes of Practice for Health and Social Care. For GP patient records, this states that they may be destroyed 10 years after the patient’s death if they are no longer needed.

If you wish to discuss the scheme, please contact the Practice direct either by letter or via e-mail.

Email address: brownhill.surgery@nhs.net

 

Annual GP Patient Survey Results

Patients in Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire have revealed their best and worst GP surgeries. The annual GP Patient Survey asked residents for their opinions on practices, measuring their experiences on a range of topics including the ease of making appointments, waiting times, the quality of care given, practice opening times and out of hours services.

The most recent NHS Blackburn with Darwen CCG survey saw 8,761 questionnaires sent out with 2,389 patients completing them. For East Lancashire CCG, 18,619 questionnaires were sent out with 5,903 patients completing the survey.

Brownhill Surgery received the 2nd highest satisfaction rating with 98% believing the practice to be good or better.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our patients for their continued support. All the staff at Brownhill Surgery strive to deliver an exceptional quality of care to all of their patients and will continue to do so.

 

Patient Participation Group Meeting

The next Patient Participation Group meeting is TBC. This will be held at the Surgery. All patients are welcome to come along and get involved.

 

Christmas Appeal 2018

In 2018, the number of people who were homeless in Blackburn was on the increase and the town centre especially had become the home to many of these. With the winter months fast approaching and the temperature dropping, these people were in desperate need of more help.

Also, in 2018, 8,642 three day emergency food supplies were given to people in Blackburn who were in crisis. 1 in 5 people in the UK live below the poverty line.

Brownhill Surgery decided to combine 2018s’ Christmas Appeal to help with both of these issues. We sent out messages to our patients asking for donations of non-perishable food, selection boxes, warm clothes, gloves, hats and scarves, socks, toiletries and other things that would benefit people in need. 

AND THE RESPONSE WAS OVERWHELMING!!!!

The staff room upstairs was filled with the above items and every time someone brought something else in, the feeling of overwhelming emotion was evident.

So…. Where did it all go?

We contacted the Blackburn Food Bank who provide help to vulnerable people and families in need. They staff there were delighted to receive food items and chocolate boxes for the children. We literally filled a whole car full of goodies which Jenny and Susan took down to the food bank.

Some of the food was also given to The Community Spirit in Blackburn who do an absolutely amazing job. This service is run completely by volunteers and these people feed the homeless community and provide them with much needed items such as the above collected ones. This is done every Tuesday at Wesley Hall in Blackburn town centre. They also go out into the street every night during the winter months to find and help our homeless community and provide them with warm food and clothing. We donated all of the toiletries and warm clothing to this service and we also gave a £100 cash donation that was left from the monies given to the surgery by our generous patients. This cash donation will help to buy trays, cutlery, plastic bags etc. to help pack the food donated every week. Neil from the Community Spirit came to the surgery and filled his van with the donations and that evening our very own Jenny went down to sing at their Homeless Christmas Party which was a huge success.

All the staff at the surgery would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated and what a difference this has made to people who genuinely need our help.

If you would like information on any of the above services then please contact Jenny at the Surgery. Community Spirit are always happy to see new volunteers every Tuesday at Wesley Hall, Blackburn. They have a Facebook page called Community Spirit.

Thank you once again for all of your help. It just goes to show that even though we are a small surgery, collectively,we have a huge heart.

 

The Macmillan Coffee Morning

Brownhill Surgery takes great pride in assuring that we promote Cancer Awareness at the highest levels. It is important to the Practice that our patients are aware of all the benefits of having regular check ups and attending appointments for screening such as cervical, mammograms and bowel amongst others. We also like to do our bit to help raise money for Cancer Services which can help, not only people dealing with cancer but also for their families and friends who can also be affected mentally and emotionally.

So, on Thursday 25th July 2019, the Practice opened the doors once again for the Macmillan Coffee Morning event. The weather was very hot but this did not stop our patients from popping in. We asked for donations of cakes, raffle and tombola prizes. Once more we had a huge response from our patients and friends of Brownhill and our family members. As well as the above, we also had one of our patients selling hand knitted toys and decorations as well as aprons. All proceeds were kindly donated to our Coffee Morning. Amonst all the fantastic cakes was a Macmillan designed cake donated by another one  of our patients which took pride and place in the centre of the cake table. We also had cancer awareness boards up in the Surgery for people to view and leaflets available upon request.

The event was a huge success and we made a whopping £572.50.

We would like to thank everyone who donated cash, prizes and cakes. Also, to everyone who purchased raffle tickets, and to the staff, friends and family members who came down to help on the day and helped with the preparations. This event would not work if it wasn't for your continued support. There are too many people to thank individually but you know who you are!!!. 

We will no doubt be doing it all again next year. So once again, THANK YOU VERY MUCH from all the staff at Brownhill Surgery.

      

          

 

Patient Survey Results 2019

Patients in Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire have revealed their best and worst GP surgeries. The annual GP survey asked residents for their opinions on practices, measuring their experiences on a range of topics including the ease of making appointments, waiting times, the quality of care given, practice opening times and out of hours services.

Brownhill Surgery received the 2nd highest satisfaction rating with 98% believing the practice to be good or better.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our patients for their continued support. All the staff at Brownhill Surgery strive to deliver an exceptional quality of care to all of our patients and will continue to do so in the future.  

 

If you need medical attention

The short video below is all about Choosing the Right Service.