* WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2024 *

 Urgent & Important Patient Notices

Reminder please:  if you have respiratory symptoms with cold/and or cough please wear a face mask when visiting the Surgery

For Urgent morning appointments, ring from 8am-10am & from 10am onwards for all Routine appointments/other requests - thank you 

All prescriptions require 72 hours or 3 working days for processing

              We operate a strict Zero Tolerance Policy for aggressive, abusive or threatening behaviour - See policy statement below

Welcome to the New Folly Surgery Website

This website is updated regularly to provide all patients and those wishing to register with updates, helpful information and news about the practice.

Please note we are not a walk-in or drop-in centre.  We have finite appointments, some pre-bookable, some released on the day.  Mondays are extremely busy with additional demand and in the event we don't have any same day urgent appointments, you may be advised to attend the Harold Wood Urgent Treatment Centre, St Clements Ave, Romford RM3 0FE. 

To help the GPs and Clinicians, we kindly ask you keep your appointment to the one single main issue you booked in for; we are noticing a number of patients present with multiple issues, pushing the appointment and waiting queue back.  Therefore it must be one appointment, one medical issue please. 

We also recommend/strongly advise all patients with "non-urgent" issues to use the eConsult service (see bottom of this page); it is a simple to use online access tool that arrives in our email box and is then forwarded to one of our GPs that morning for review and actions and saves time and effort visiting or calling us.

If you have anything relevant that could be added to this site or news of things taking place in the local community area that have healthcare benefits, please contact the Practice Manager so we can add this in under “News” or other appropriate parts of the site.

As stated in more detail below (Complaints/Feedback), we take all forms of feedback seriously, fully in accordance with NHS Mid & South Essex ICB guide/time lines.  Similarly we respond to all NHS Choices postings but we do not monitor or respond to any social media platform postings.  We recommend patients contact us by letter or at the main desk for these type of matters.  

We hope this site offers you the information and awareness that will help you with your local Primary Care services.

Kind regards

Dr S Bailoor, Dr S Chatterjee & Dr T Rashid

GP Partners & Staff at New Folly Surgery.

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GENERAL STANDING NOTICES

Care Quality Commission (CQC) - Statement of Purpose (SOP)

In line with the regulatory requirements of the CQC, all GP Surgeries and Healthcare providers must issue and post their "Statement of Purpose" - our updated SOP is attached here:

CQC Statement of Purpose 2024

SOME USEFUL INFORMATION TO ASSIST PATIENTS WHEN VISITING THE SURGERY:

PATIENTS ARRIVING FOR THEIR BOOKED APPOINTMENTS

All patients with pre-booked appointments should "check in" using the Check In Screen by the main reception desk - this helps the staff and GPs/Nurses know you are here and ready.

ON THE DAY TELEPHONE CALL APPOINTMENTS

A note for all patients having GP or Nurse Telephone appointments - please bear in mind that the GP or nurse could be running late so please keep your phone close as the call could be sometime after the actual appointment call time - we thank you for working with us on this.

REQUESTS FOR URGENT HOME VISITS TO PATIENT HOMES

BB Healthcare provide our urgent patient home visiting service. The Duty GP each morning sees the requests, reviews and when approved, requests the appropriate urgent home visits.  BB Healthcare have reverted back to pre-Covid 19 operating with their cut off time set at 1200 daily.  Therefore all requests must be with us as early as possible each morning in order we can review, approve and send the visit requests before 1200 that day; after this time the outcall will be made the next working day - this applies to all Brentwood PCN Practices under their revised operating orders.

PARKING AT THE SURGERY (ACCESS BAYS)

There is very limited parking close to the Surgery due to the use and take up of parking bays in Bell Mead by our patients, dog walkers and other visitors to the town.  Every day, some of our staff have to use the Bell Mead Public bays due to our own limited staff parking.

For those patients with access needs and driving to the surgery for pre-booked appointments, please ensure you make the reception team aware so an access parking bay can be made available for you at that time - thank you.

HEARING LOOP FOR THOSE WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENTS

The new Hearing Loop box is situated at the reception desk area to aid/assist those patients with hearing impairments (note: please bring your hearing device(s) aids when attending the Surgery).  

FACE MASKS

All patients with heavy flu and/or respiratory/chest conditions/symptoms are recommended to wear face masks/coverings when attending the surgery - this is to protect you as well as our GPs/Nurses/staff as we are now again experiencing higher than normal patient numbers presenting with these conditions - thank you.

URINE/STOOL SPECIMEN BOTTLES

These MUST NOT be pushed through the letter box but MUST be returned in "sealed" clear bags & placed into the Samples Box at reception (Infection Prevention Control) - thank you for adhering to this.

PRESCRIPTION REQUESTS 

Please note, these CAN NOT be taken over the phone at any time

SHARPS & USED NEEDLE BINS

Please ensure all needles/sharps bins or containers are fully sealed & secured before handing back to our staff - thank you

Safe Surgery Policy post the Covid 19 Pandemic

To help keep all patients and staff as safe as possible please follow these guidelines when visiting the Surgery:

• Wear a face mask or covering if suffering from flu, a bad cold, cough etc especially when in the waiting area and consulting rooms
• Maintain good, regular hand hygiene using the hand soap and liquid sanitisers available throughout the Surgery
• Keep a safe distance from other patients, where possible and with waiting room area seating allowing
• Please comply with all staff requests and instructions at all times.
• We thank you and appreciate you complying with this advice now we are out of the Covid pandemic.

Brentwood and Ingatestone's Extended Hours GP Hub - ACE Limited

We are a member practice of ACE (Accountable Care Enterprise) Limited, the GP Hub we share with the 7 other Brentwood PCN practices and which is based at the Brambles Surgery, Greenwich Avenue, Brentwood, CM15 9DY

The link leaflet below gives full details on the support and out of hours services they offer our patients and how you can access them.  ACE also run the various housebound vaccination programmes and we ask that all housebound patients ensure they check/confirm they are on our housebound list at your next appointment or telephone call with us.

Reminder to all patients:  ACE Hub do not administer general vaccinations, these must be done at our Surgery.

ACE GP Hub Patient Info Leaflet 2024

How we work with and fit In with the NHS Integrated Care Board and Brentwood Primary Care Network

We are one of the 8 GP practices that comprise the Brentwood PCN (Primary Care Network), which in turn is one of the 27 PCNs that are part of the Mid and South Essex ICS (Integrated Care System). The ICB (Integrated Care Board) based in Chelmsford which took over from the old CCGs in 2021/22 is responsible for deciding how NHS funds are spent in the Mid and South Essex region as well as performance and service delivery.

The commissioner can be reached at the below address, which also accepts post;

NHS Mid and South Essex ICB
Phoenix Court
Christopher Martin Road
Basildon
Essex SS14 3HG

Complaints and feedback/comments made to the Surgery

All patients are entitled to make a verbal or formal complaint to the Surgery about an issue or event that they feel they wish to make representation about.

Patients should put their complaints in writing addressed to the Practice Manager in the first instance; your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 days of receipt giving clear indication of how the complaint will be dealt with, the timelines involved and anything else specific to your particular complaint.  When patients receive their formal response this also highlights how and where to represent further in the event the patient is not satisfied with the formal response to their complaint.

All complaints are logged and seen by the Lead GP and the Surgery reports annually on the number and type of complaints received each year.

Please note we do not monitor/respond to Google, Facebook or other social media posts/comments, however we do monitor/respond to NHS Choices comments and take all feedback, comments and formal complaints seriously, in line with NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board guidelines.

Zero Tolerance Policy for Rude & Aggressive behaviour

We ask and expect all patients to treat all our staff with courtesy and respect at all times.  We will always try and deal with your enquiry or issue as best we possibly can.

All Practice staff are working under intense pressure dealing with excessive demand that we and other GP practices are encountering this Winter - we will not and do not tolerate any negative, rude or aggressive behaviour and this could leave to removal from the patient list if this occurs and is evidenced.

Newly Pregnant Patients

To assist new/recently pregnant patients, in the very first instance please can you access and refer to the local Chelmsford area Midwives services, sponsored by our local NHS authority, Mid & South Essex ICB

https://www.mse.nhs.uk/maternity-services

At the 10 -12 week point, you should book a GP/Nurse Practitioner appointment to check all is going to plan but please be directed by the midwives services.

Zero Tolerance Policy for all rude & aggressive behaviour - we ask and expect all patients to treat all our Staff with respect

All Practice Staff work under intense pressure dealing with the excessive patient demand & they will always do the best they can for all patients with the resources and appointments available - we thank you for being polite and respectful.

We are confident that our website will provide clear and concise help and give our patients the information they require in an easy and convenient format. It has been designed with the patient’s needs at the forefront of everything, from checking surgery times to letting us know what you think of us.

Serving You

Our dedicated team are here to treat those minor ailments that occur as well as providing specialist management of long-term conditions and clinics covering a wide range of healthcare issues. The technology also means you can now do a lot of things from the comfort of your home such as order a repeat prescription or cancel an appointment.

Partners in Care

Once registered, patients and healthcare professionals work together to ensure the most appropriate care is provided. This partnership philosophy extends even further and our active patient group exists to make sure that patient needs and the practice offering are always heading in the same direction.

New community Transport

Link