Nightingale News - Winter 2024

The Nightingale Practice will be open as usual over the holiday period EXCEPT FOR Christmas Day (25 December), Boxing Day (26 December) and New Year’s Day (1 January 2025). If you need a doctor urgently while the surgery is closed, please call the NHS 111 service. 111 will direct you to the best place to get help if you cannot contact your GP during the day, or when your GP is closed (out-of-hours).

Join us for the Hackney Downs Festive Family Fun Day on 12 December, at the Nightingale Community Centre in Olympus Square, from 3pm to 6pm. There will be family activities, a visit from Santa, free food and health checks. We will be promoting good health, and ideas and tips for making sure you look after yourself this winter. We can also help you with downloading the NHS app.

Contact Ellie for more info on 07305 016640

Until now, texting patients has been free of charge to the practice. This is changing, so we have to make a few changes so as not to exceed our texting budget. You will now get just one appointment reminder 24 hours before your appointment, rather than the three reminders we have been sending until now. Also, where possible, we will email you instead of texting. Please make sure that, if you use email, you have given us an up-to-date email address.

The festive period can be challenging for lots of people. Many are without loved ones, and others simply won’t be in the so-called Christmas spirit. It’s important that we look out for these people, so they know there is support available and that others are feeling the same as they are. The East London NHS Foundation Trust has a web page that gives good advice. You can find it here. 

The Nightingale wants to encourage as many patients as possible to contact them via our website or the NHS app. This frees up the ‘phones for people who are unable to use online methods. Also, sending messages via the NHS app is free for the practice – so it would help us if as many patients as possible downloaded the NHS app and enabled ‘Notifications’. Please then open any messages we send you promptly. If not opened within seven days, the app automatically triggers the message to be resent by text. You can download the NHS app here.

If you need help with the app, contact Nightingale Reception.  

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is increasing employers’ National Insurance (NI) from April 2025. Hospitals will not have to cover this cost but GP surgeries will. The government has explained this by saying GP surgeries are small businesses. Unfortunately, unlike other businesses, we cannot put our prices up to cover our increased expenses. So, unless the government can be persuaded to cover the cost of the increased employers’ NI there will be less money available in 2025 to provide GP care for patients. The Nightingale has written to our MPs to ask the government to consider reimbursing GP surgeries for this increased cost. If you would like to support us, you can do so here.

126 people responded to the Nightingale’s latest Friends and Family survey. 120 of those people said they would tell their friends and family to join the Nightingale. Five responses were not so good and included complaints about phlebotomy (blood) tests. The issues raised by these patients have been heard and will be looked into by the practice.

The Nightingale now has a new cloud-based ‘phone system. We can now call people back, so patients have the option not to hold on the line. Staff are aware that ‘phones are still not answered as quickly as they would want them to be, but they hope this new system, the recruitment of two new receptionists, and the return of an experienced receptionist who was on extended leave has helped. 

We are using money we have been given from the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to fund some improvements to the surgery. These include glass screens in Reception and new desks in consultation rooms. There will also be frosting for the windows in the waiting area that will increase patient privacy. We also hope the ICB money will allow for the purchase of a new vaccine fridge and air conditioning in Reception.

The next Friends of the Nightingale Practice meeting will be in January 2025 with Dr Eleanor Jacob. Dr Jacob will be talking about our Primary Care Network (PCN) and also about the pharmacists and physiotherapists who now support the Nightingale’s medical team. Please feel free to join the meeting – online or in person. All Nightingale patients and carers are very welcome. There is more information here.

The Together Better Christmas Party is on 19 December 2024 in the back room of the Nightingale Practice. There will also be a Christmas Quiz! We suggest a £5 donation, please, for food and drink, but give whatever you can. This is just one of the fun activities organised throughout the year by Together Better at, or near, the Nightingale Practice. Our local coordinator is Tom Fearon. You can contact Tom on 07305 617 421 or find out more here.

More great news from our Together Better friends at the Nightingale … the Volunteer Centre in Hackney recently won a national award from the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). Well done and thank you to everyone involved! Find out more about Together Better at the Nightingale here.

The Nightingale’s Together Better group visited the British Museum recently, joined by Somerford Grove patients. To mark Black History Month, the group specifically went to look at the Africa collection, including the stunning Benin Bronzes. Everyone also got to explore the Ancient Egypt gallery too. Find out more about Together Better at the Nightingale here.

A Macmillan Coffee Morning held at the Nightingale this autumn raised a magnificent £390 – a great effort for a very worthwhile cause. Macmillan Cancer Support aims to help everyone with cancer live life as fully as they can, providing physical, financial and emotional support. Remember you don’t have to wait until the next coffee morning. You can donate on line at any time here.

Did you know that the new Nightingale website (which is still in the process of being built, by the way, has a page telling you how to get in touch with us about a range of non-medical queries – for example, how to get a fit note or how to tell us if your contact details change. You can find out more here.