Sedgefield Doctors
Sedgefield Doctors (Dr Jones and Partners) have their own website.
www.doctorssedgefield.co.uk
The staff and students of Sedgefield Community College collaborated with highly respected local artist, Brian Sutherland, in the production of a large painted mural that now hangs in the foyer of Sedgefield surgery.
The concept was to depict the history and progress of healthcare in general, and general practice in particular, in the area.
The College commented:-
'We were excited to have this opportunity to work with and in the community. Students benefited from developing many skills and importantly, experienced working with a professional artist. All the students in the mural team were required to work on developmental ideas and a smaller number of dedicated students worked on the final mural.
Our thanks go to Brian for sharing his passion and skills with students and staff; to Maxine Robinson in her capacity as mayor for sponsoring and initiating the project; and finally to the surgery for providing the opportunity for students to work on a professional piece of community art work.'
The practice is delighted with the mural and to have been a small part of its production. It is striking, colourful and has prompted many admiring comments from patients.
Colin C Miller
Practice Manager
A word of thanks …
The doctors and staff of Dr Jones and Partners would like to pass on their thanks to Mr and Mrs J Amlin who, following their recent 60th wedding anniversary, purchased and kindly donated a nebuliser to Sedgefield Surgery. Donations such as this are always gratefully received and are used to directly benefit the patients within the local community.
Congratulations to you both, and many thanks once again for your generosity.
Doctors & Staff, Sedgefield Surgery
BOOKING APPOINTMENTS AT THE DOCTORS
We have received a number of reports that people find it hard to get through to us on the telephone first thing in the morning.
In order to meet the national targets of patients being able to see a health care professional in 24 hours, (a nurse or a professional allied to medicine) or a doctor, (not named) in 48 hours, we have to work in a particular way. How we do that, in an attempt to strike a balance between having available pre–bookable appointments and also sufficient to cope with the daily workload is as follows:
There are pre-bookable appointments that can be booked up to 2 weeks in advance, by telephoning the surgery anytime between 0830 and 1800. For these appointments we will try to allocate you your doctor of choice – even if that occasionally means that you have to attend a surgery other than the one that you usually attend.
Calls from patients who feel that their condition is such that they need to be seen, 'on the day', are accepted from 0830. To meet these demands, we hold back appointments. They are only released at 0830 daily. (In Sedgefield only requests for on the day appointments will normally be prioritised by the nurse practitioner between 0830 and 0900.)
These patients will be seen on that day – but it is impossible to offer a specific doctor. We do try to accommodate morning or afternoon appointments according to the wishes of the patient.
If the demand is unusually high, or we have the balance of appointments wrong, then the doctors have to have additional patients put on to the end of their morning surgeries. The knock on effect of which is to delay visits, community hospital commitments and afternoon surgeries.
It is quite difficult to get the equation right. Please be assured that we constantly monitor our provision of appointments and try to organise our resources in a way that is the most efficient for all of the patients involved.
The Sedgefield surgery also operates a repeat prescription telephone line between 1000 and 12 noon, and 1400 to 1600, Monday to Friday. The number to ring is (01740) 629679
Colin Miller
Practice Manager
17th March 2006
