Dr O Z Qureshi’s Surgery
Taylors Avenue Medical Centre
146 Taylors Avenue
Cleethorpes
DN35 0LN
Tel: 01472 572400
Email: nel.b81642@nhs.net
Taylors Avenue Medical Centre
146 Taylors Avenue
Cleethorpes
DN35 0LN
Tel: 01472 572400
Email: nel.b81642@nhs.net
Winter Pressures / NHS 111 Communications Toolkit
Winter is the busiest period for the NHS, with increases in the number of people needing help across all services. Throughout Humber and North Yorkshire, accident and emergency departments in the region’s hospitals have been extremely busy.
Using services wisely can help to reduce pressure on the NHS and may help patients to be treated sooner than attending local hospital emergency departments, allowing medical staff to focus on treating those people who need it most.
To help staff priorities care for those who are sickest and most vulnerable, the NHS is urging people who need urgent medical help to use NHS 111 via phone, the NHS App or online to 111.nhs.uk.
Highly trained advisors at NHS 111 will assess and direct people to the most appropriate local service, including urgent treatment centres, GP practices, and consultations with a pharmacist. If needed, staff can also arrange a call back from a nurse, doctor or paramedic.
NHS 111 is an easy and convenient way for people to get urgent help for a wide range of health problems from the comfort of their own home.
However, people should still call 999 or go to A&E in an emergency – when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.
Did you know you can manage repeat prescriptions from our surgery in the NHS App?
You can easily choose where your prescriptions are sent. So, if you know you’ll be away from home or you are moving home, you can change your nominated pharmacy from within the app.
You can also order your prescription at any time that suits you. There’s no need to wait to join a telephone queue or wait until the GP surgery opens.
It’s easy to use, and, if you hit a snag, you can go to ‘help’ in the top right-hand corner of the app or visit www.nhs.uk/helpmeapp.
Find out more about the NHS App at www.nhs.uk/NHSapp
Important information for patients currently on hospital waiting lists
The NHS has been working hard to address the backlogs built up during the COVID pandemic. As part of these plans, the NHS will be proactively contacting patients who have been waiting a long time for NHS funded treatment to remind them of their right to request to move to an alternative hospital where they may be seen quicker.
From Tuesday 31st October new digital portal called the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System (PIDMAS) will be introduced. Patients who have been waiting 40 weeks or more can use this portal to request an alternative choice of hospital.
Any patient who is eligible will receive either a SMS text message or a letter from their current hospital explaining how to request to choose a different hospital.
Please do not contact the practice regarding this process as we have no information regarding individual patients.
The hospital will contact you if you are eligible. Please do not contact them either.
Further information about alternative choice is available on hospital websites.
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We try to give the best service possible at all times, but there may be occasions when you feel you wish to express dissatisfaction.
How to complain
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days, or at the most a few weeks. This will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If this is not possible please let us have details of your complaint within twelve months of discovering that you have a problem.
Complaints can be sent either by mail or email for the attention of Melanie Carr, Practice Manager melaniecarr@nhs.net
Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and ensure that you concerns are dealt with promptly.
What we shall do
We shall acknowledge your claim within 3 working days and aim to have investigated your complaint within 10 working days of the date that you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved.
On investigation we shall aim to:
• Establish what happened and what went wrong
• Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like to do this
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. Written consent from the patient will be required, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.
Complaining to the Clinical Commissioning Group
We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our Practice Complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. This does not affect your right to approach the local Clinical Commissioning Group, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. In this instance you should contact the Clinical Commissioning Groups complaints manager for further advice. Using the procedure does not affect your rights to complain to other bodies if you so wish and the appropriate contact address for the CCG is:
Customer Care Team
North East Lincolnshire CCG
Municipal Offices
Town Hall Square
Grimsby
North East Lincolnshire
DN31 1HU
Tel: 0300 300 0500
Email: hnyicb-nel.askus@nhs.net
Or alternatively you can the Health Service Ombudsman at:
Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower, Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Tel: 0345 015 4033
Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk