Category Archives: Practice News

The Green Impact Scheme

This practice is delighted to be signed up to the Green Impact for Health Toolkit and is actively taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint.
The climate emergency is also a health emergency, and health care in the UK contributes 4-5% of the UK’s carbon emissions. We need to enhance the health of today’s population without compromising the health of future generations, and this means operating within the sustainable boundaries of the planet. Fortunately, most of the solutions for the planet also make our health better – for example eating a mainly plant-based diet, engaging in active travel and exercise in nature, avoiding smoking, reducing pollution etc.
These all enhance our health and reduce our need for medications, with further benefits to the NHS, your health and the carbon footprint of healthcare. Take a look at www.greenerpractice.co.uk to learn more about this.

Upcoming Website Maintenance Window on 11/04/2024

Dear Patients

We wanted to inform you about an upcoming period of scheduled website maintenance on 11/04/2024

What to expect:

  • Website downtime: During this process, we anticipate the website may be unavailable for up to one working day. Every effort is being taken by our website service provider to keep this to a minimum.
  • Temporary Form Disabling: Online forms will be temporarily disabled during the maintenance window. This is a short term measure to facilitate the maintenance.

For medical assistance during this time please call 111 or 999 for emergencies

Thank you

Covid Vaccination Update – Spring 2024

Vaccination Service Update

Spring 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign

The following patient groups have now been announced and authorised for vaccination:
• Residents in care homes for older adults
• Adults aged 75 years and over (This includes those who turn 75 years old by 30 June 24)
• Individuals aged 6 months and over who are immunosuppressed.

Visits to older adult care homes and eligible housebound patients should begin on 15 April. For all other eligible cohorts, vaccinations should start by 22 April and end on 30 June.

We will update this news thread as we are given more information.

Community Corner at Violet Melchett Health and Wellbeing Hub

Your Neighbourhood Navigators are here to help.

They can discuss issues you’re facing, explore what is important for you, and help you navigate the health service.

They can also connect you with a range of wellness activities and community events taking place locally.

Find them at Violet Melchett Health and Wellbeing Hub, 30 Flood Walk, SW3 5RR
on
Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am-4pm.

Upcoming events:
Thursday 8th February 2pm-4pm
Painting Still Life
Relaxed art session for all abilities with a focus on still life painting and drawing

Thursday 15th February 10.30am-12.30pm
Tea, Book Exchange and Puzzles
A chance to connect with your community over refreshments, puzzles and an exchange of books

Thursday 22nd February 2pm-4pm
Workshop: Maintaining Wellbeing
NHS mental health professionals lead a workshop all about what ‘wellbeing’ is and techniques we can all use to improve it

Thursday 29th February 2pm-4pm
Chair Yoga
Gentle, chair-based exercises with professional yoga teacher Gigi

Thursday 7th March 2pm-4pm
Painting Patterns
Relaxed art session for all abilities with a focus on patterns

Thursday 14th March 10.30am-12.30pm
Wellness Walk: Tea & Tour of Chelsea Physic Garden
Enjoy a free walking tour of London’s oldest botanical gardens (see more here)

Patients can sign up (or be signed up!) in person at Community Corner, by calling our new phone line on 020 3621 4434, online through our Eventbrite, or by emailing us at nhsnwl.vmcommunitycorner@nhs.net.

Flu Season 2023

This year the practice is offering flu vaccines to our 2-3 year old patients, those medically at risk and all patients over the age of 65 years old.

We will be inviting our over 65 year old patients to attend the practice and the medically at risk patients from week commencing 18th September.  If you have not heard from the practice team by Wednesday 20th September and fall into this category then please call the reception team on 0207 349 7330 to book an appointment.

All vulnerable housebound patients will be receiving the vaccination in their homes via the West London Federation team.

Children aged between 2-3 years (on 31st August 2023) will be invited to attend the practice for a Nasal Flu Vaccination.  For children aged 4 and over their school will be offering the flu vaccination.  If your school does not offer the flu vaccination or your child missed their vaccination then please contact the school vaccination delivery team on 0203 317 5076 to book an appointment (after October 2023).

Please use the links below to arrange an appointment with a pharmacy if you are unable to attend the practice.
Book your vaccination at Boots online at https://www.boots.com/online/pharmacy-services/winter-flu-jab-services
If you would like to book your flu vaccines with your local pharmacy please visit them directly to book.

Top Tips for Winter for those with COPD
The London Respiratory Clinical Network have created a top tips leaflet for COPD patients. It gives you 10 top tips to help stay well in Winter and signposts you to assistance with food/fuel poverty or depression and loneliness etc.  Please follow this link for further details: Top Tips for Winter 2020 (apologies that this reads 2020 – the information is still very useful)

The Chelsea Practice team are working hard to ensure all eligible patients can have the flu vaccination either at the practice or at a local pharmacy.  Please keep checking our website for further updates.

New Shingles Vaccine from September 2023

From September 2023 we will be able to offer the Shingles Vaccine to more patients.

Please follow this link to read about Shingles – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/shingles/

Although Shingles can occur at any age, the risk and severity of Shingles and its complications increases with age and is high in individuals who are severely immunosuppressed.  It is important to ensure that those at greatest risk are vaccinated at an earlier age and from September the practice will be able to offer the Shingles Vaccine to more at risk patients.

Immunocompromised individuals represent the highest priority for vaccination given their risk of severe disease, and therefore this programme aims to offer all immunocompromised patients aged 50 years and up to 79 a vaccine from September.  The practice will be contacting each patient that is immunocompromised and over 50 but if you believe you fall into this category and have not heard from us by October please call the reception team on 0207 349 7330 to request a vaccine.

We will be offering patients that will be turning 65 years old on or after 1st September 2023 the Shingles vaccine.  Over the next few years we will also be offering the vaccine to those falling between 66-69 years of age once we have been notified by NHS England.

The vaccine we will be offering is also changing and is called Shingrix which is a non live vaccine and requires 2 doses 2 months a part.  Please read this patient leaflet for further details regarding the vaccination: Shingrix patient leaflet

Latent TB Testing for our Patients

The Chelsea Practice is participating in the national Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) testing and treatment programme that aims to reduce TB in England.

Please visit the nhs website to read more about the symptoms of Tuberculosis:  https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tuberculosis-tb/

People with latent TB infection do not feel sick and do not have any symptoms. The only sign of TB infection is a positive reaction to the tuberculin skin test or TB blood test and the practice is now offering at risk patients the opportunity to be tested for latent TB as well as support patients with a positive result.

TB rates in England remain high and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality.

If you aged between 16-35 and were born in the following countries or have spent more than 6 months in one of these countries we can offer you a test to identify if you have latent TB:

Afghanistan

Algeria

Angola

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Benin

Bhutan

Bolivia, Plurinational State of

Botswana

Brazil

Brunei Darussalam

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cambodia

Cameroon

Central African Republic

Chad

China

China, Macao SAR

Congo

Côte d’Ivoire

Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Djibouti

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Fiji

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Ghana

Greenland

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Guyana

Haiti

Hong Kong SAR, China

India

Indonesia

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Korea: Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea: Republic of

Kiribati

Kyrgyzstan

Lao, People’s Democratic Republic

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Madagascar

Malawi

Malaysia

Mali

Marshall Islands

Mauritania

Micronesia, Federated States of

Moldova, Republic of

Mongolia

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria

Niue

Northern Mariana Islands

Pakistan

Palau

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Romania

Russian Federation

Rwanda

Sao Tome and Principe

Senegal

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Somalia

South Africa

South Sudan

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Taiwan

Tajikistan

Tanzania, United Republic of

Thailand

Timor-Leste

Tokelau

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Uganda

Ukraine

Uzbekistan

Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of

Viet Nam

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Please call our reception team on 02073497330 and ask for a latent TB test or respond to the text message we have sent you

Online Access to your Medical Records

The NHS wants to give people better ways to see their personal health information online. We know that people want to be able to access their health records. It can help you see test results faster. It also lets you read and review notes from your appointments in your own time.

We’re now letting you see all the information within your health record automatically. If you are over 16 and have an online account, such as through the NHS App, NHS website, or the our medical software (The Chelsea Practice uses Systmone), you will be able see all future notes and health records from your GP from 30th November 2022.  Some people can already access this feature, this won’t change for you.

This means that you will be able to see notes from your appointments, as well as test results and any letters that are saved on your records. This only applies to records from your GP, not from hospitals or other specialists. You will only be able to see information from 30th November 2022.  For most people, access will be automatic, and you won’t need to do anything.

Your GP may talk to you to discuss test results before you are able to see some of your information on the app. Your GP may also talk to you before your full records access is given to make sure that having access is of benefit to you. There might be some sensitive information on your record, so you should talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.

These changes only apply to people with online accounts. If you do not want an online account, you can still access your health records by requesting this information through reception. The changes also only apply to personal information about you. If you are a carer and would like to see information about someone you care for please speak to the reception staff.

The NHS App, website and other online services are all very secure, so no one is able to access your information except you. You’ll need to make sure you protect your login details. Don’t share your password with anyone as they will then have access to your personal information.

If you do not want to see your health record, or if you would like more information about these changes, please speak our reception team.

 

Patient Participation Group Meeting

Thank you to all patients and supporting staff that attended the meeting.

Please follow this link to read the PATIENT PARTICIPATION MEETING MINUTES 09.05.2022 and the plans of the premises from 16th May 2022 Position of The Chelsea Practice during the refurbishment

The practice will aim to move to our final position in the premises by July 2022.  Please view the link to see where this will be: Completion of Refurbishments

The plans will be available to view in the waiting area of the practice.