February can be a tough month! Christmas is well in the past and, despite the emergence of the daffodil shoots in the garden, there is still a long way to go before spring. There has been a lot of doom and gloom reporting about viruses circulating in the population and many of us will have had the ongoing misery of runny noses and coughs. We all know how down in the dumps we can feel in cold weather and how easy it is to get into the habit of watching TV all day. The link between long-term ill health and being depressed is well known in the medical profession, but we’ve been thinking about how our mental well being impacts on our physical health, and how we can perhaps prevent some of those trips to our overworked NHS. Here are a few self care tips:-
– Good relationships are important to us so make the effort to be in touch with family and friends. Try to meet up with those ‘we must meet sometime’ friends and family members and don’t leave it to chance. Try to take time to talk and not rely on technology to keep those relationships going. How about joining our Knit and Natter group or having a look at what’s on in the local community centres?
– Be active. This doesn’t just mean working out at the gym, but something as simple as a walk round the park, or for those of us who are less active, classes such as seated dance or yoga – yes there are such things!
– Learn new skills. This can be something as simple as DIY, or baking a cake (not sure that’s simple!). The major thing is finding activities we enjoy and making them part of our life. Age doesn’t matter here – we know of people who’ve taken up dancing in their 70s and 80s.
– Acts of kindness can really improve our feeling of self worth and boost our mental well being. This can be a heart felt thank you to someone who has done something for you, a smile to a shop assistant, or something like volunteering in the community. We all know the difference it makes when the surgery receptionists smile at us and make us feel we matter!
– Mindfulness. This is a buzz word for paying more attention to the present moment and has been shown to improve general mental well being. Research shows it can change the way we feel about life and how we overcome the stresses and strains of every day living. It takes a bit of effort to think that way but might be worth a bit of looking into.
If you’d like to find out more, you could try some of these:
A mindfulness app like Headspace or Calm
MIND website
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Dummies
Let’s hope you have a good 2025
As your committee, we regularly put forward your queries, concerns and feedback to the surgery management. Here are some of the top concerns you’ve raised with us, and the responses we’ve received from the surgery.
Telephone lines
New software has been obtained, designed to speed up call handling by routing patients to the right help, including the automation of appointment
booking for some (not all) clinicians, such as the nurse or physio. This new software needs to be configured with an implementation date to be confirmed.
Obtaining appointments
The surgery is aware that the current system poses issues for patients, and is looking into alternatives, including visiting other surgeries to see their models. The surgery has also begun meeting with local pharmacies to discuss which services could be provided via these health professionals.
Privacy in the waiting room
The surgery is aware of acoustics issues in the waiting room and has made attempts to improve this, with limited success. Patients are able to ask to discuss things with receptionists in the privacy room to avoid sharing personal information with the wider public – just ask.
Request for feedback on satellite surgeries
Parkwood Surgery has asked the FPS committee – as your patient representatives – to help seek your input on how the two satellite surgeries in Boxmoor and Gadebridge should be used going forwards, and more specifically whether you would attend those surgeries for routine appointments rather than the specialist clinics they’re used for at the moment, such as physiotherapy.
Please answer this short survey to let us know and to help to shape how the surgery meets our needs.
Check out the minutes of our meetings
The minutes from FPS’ monthly meetings, including our most recent January meeting, are available here. We hope this will improve the transparency for patients so you can see your concerns and queries are being raised.
Knit and Natter Group
The Knit and Natter group continues to meet on Tuesdays from 2-4pm at the Community Hall on Great Sturgess Road. If you’d like to come along to it, or know someone who would like a chat and some company, please contact Val on 01442 255449.
Want to stay up to date?
One easy way to keep up to date with FPS’ events is to follow us on our Facebook page. Every time we update the website, we’ll post a link there!
Unsubscribe from FPS communications
If you wish to unsubscribe from receiving communications about FPS, you will need to contact the surgery to ask for this note to be placed on your file. FPS does not hold any data on patients other than that provided directly by them, such as emails sent to the FPS mailbox.
February is the month for thinking about our hearts – both romantically and medically!
Looking after your own heart is important, but have you ever thought about helping someone else in a life threatening situation?
RevivR is a free online CPR course, commissioned by the British Heart Foundation, which only takes 15 minutes to complete.
Every year in the UK, 30,000 people have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital, with only 10% surviving. Performing CPR and using a defibrillator can double someone’s chances of survival.
You can complete the training and find out more here.
As for defibrillators, have you ever checked where your nearest available one is? Visit the Defib Finder website and pop in your postcode – here’s where the 10 nearest defibs are to Parkwood Surgery:
2025’s Time to Talk Day is on Thursday 6th February. It’s a chance for all of us to be more open about our mental health and talk about how we really feel.
But those conversations can be hard to have, and rely on us all taking the time to really listen.
Mind have produced 5 tips to help us to be better listeners so our loved ones can ‘talk’:
