News from the Patient Participation Group

Welcome to our summer edition

Those of you who are reading this online will notice that our newsletter now appears in a different format on the new practice website.  We hope that you will find this easy to follow and of course informative.

We were pleased with the good turnout for our last PPG meeting on April 29th, both face-to-face at the Practice and online.  Our quarterly meetings are usually scheduled in the afternoon during autumn and winter, but in early evening in the spring and summer when it stays lighter longer.  Any members who can’t attend, still receive the meeting notes.

The new Practice website

A great deal of time has been spent on creating the new website with input from the web providers, the Practice and the PPG Steering Group.  It is now live and aims to be easy to use, but improvements will continue to be introduced.   One new feature is the Accessibility Menu.  Have a look around – meet the Team, read about the services on offer, the NHS App, how to take more control of your health and wellbeing and the role of the PPG.

Booking appointments online

The Practice will be changing the system it uses for the online booking of appointments.  This means you will need the NHS app or Patient Access.  The advantage will be that you will require only one set of log in details for all you do online with Paxton Green.  If you don’t already have the NHS app, to find out more and how to download it, go to The NHS App website.

You can also access the same services in a web browser by logging in through the NHS website.

The Premises

As mentioned in our spring newsletter, the PPG has been contributing suggestions for refreshing the public areas of the Practice.  Many of you will have noticed the new display of photographs taken at the first Covid vaccinations clinics of which the Practice is justifiably proud. They are a wonderful record of an amazing achievement resulting from brilliant organisation and an extraordinary team effort.

Lynn Maclean

Talking of achievements, at the end of last year, assistant practitioner, Lynn, was one of five finalists out of 930 nominations in her category at the National Nursing Awards.  She was nominated for always looking for ways to develop her skills to give people an exceptional service.  She learnt British Sign Language to support those with hearing disabilities and developed the Practice’s annual reviews for people with learning disabilities.  The Care Quality Commission recently rated this service as outstanding.

Lynn also trained to do bladder scans so that the Practice could run a urinary flow clinic reducing waits and identifying cancer cases early. She obtained a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) diploma, carries out the initial stage of COPD reviews and sees patients for part of their annual checks.  

Congratulations, Lynn. 

Smoking and vaping

The Steering Group attended a Public Health Communities briefing in March where Professor Kevin Fenton, the Public Health Regional Director for London, addressed this subject. He said that smoking is the major cause of preventable illness and smokers’ life expectancy is reduced by 10 years.

London has lower rates of smoking than the rest of the country, but there are still 1 million smokers in the capital, 55% of whom want to give up. Vaping under supervision can help them to do this because it cuts out the harmful tar in cigarettes. However, while vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, it is unlikely to be totally harmless and it does contain nicotine which is addictive. So those who are vaping in order to quit smoking should also aim to stop vaping eventually.

For more information and where to get help with smoking cessation visit the NHS Better Health website or contact the Lambeth community team via:

• email: gst-tr.stopsmokinglambeth@nhs.net
• telephone: 0800 856 3409 or 020 3049 5791

Non-smokers should not start vaping and most especially not young people as it can impact on their psychological development and attention span. It can lead to addiction and overdose.   In addition, the quality of illegally obtained vapes is unknown and may contain other harmful drugs.

Air quality alerts

Air pollution can cause both short term and long term negative effects on health which is of concern to many people. Transport for London broadcast air quality advice across London whenever pollution is high or very high. You will see notifications at Tube stations, bus stops, river piers, on digital signs and along major roads.  

The London Air Quality Network website gives current pollution levels and the forecast for tomorrow. In addition, you can sign up for free alerts (text, email or voicemail) or download a smartphone app at www.airtext.info . (The sign up message for text alerts will be charged at your standard text rate. Text alerts for Central London are then free.) 

On bad air quality days, people who are most vulnerable such as those with asthma, lung and heart disease are advised to stay indoors if possible, avoid strenuous exercise and wear a mask. And fresh air filters in the home can maintain good air quality.

Love Your Doorstep – Community Patrol

This is a volunteer group providing an adult presence in the community after school to help children feel safe. The scheme has the backing of the Metropolitan Police and involves patrolling round schools (locally Kingsdale). For safety reasons, if 4 adults cannot be found for a session, there is no patrol.

For more information  or to volunteer email via: Communitypatrol@loveyourdoorstep.co.uk  

The next meeting of the PPG is on Monday July 29th at 5.30pm. You can enrol with the group via Reception or using our PPG Enrolment Form

Published: Jun 4, 2024