Friends of Parkwood Surgery

Friends of Parkwood Surgery Newsletter - February 2023

January always seems a long month following the Festive Season but the rain of the end of the year stopped and it’s been nice to see the sun and those beautiful sunrises and sunsets along with the first bloom of daffodils. We know, though, that the cold weather has brought added worries for many of us about the basics of keeping ourselves warm along with the general cost of living increases. Trawling through my new Patient Access app- (yes it does work!) I came across the word ‘ permacrisis’ – a buzz word from 2022 –  which seems to sum up succinctly how truly awful that year was for many of us. There are lots of things none of us can change but for those of you who follow our FPS Facebook page and look on our website, you’ll have seen that we’ve posted some really helpful links about some of things we can all do to look after ourselves. We’re taking this theme into our first health talk of the year, when we’ll hear about mental health.

The FPS committee has met monthly as usual and Lloanne, our secretary and I, have been able to meet with Augustina Badu, the surgery practice manager to discuss some of the issues which have arisen with the new Patient Access. This is something we hope to be able to continue to do – we are very aware how worrying how any changes are for many of us.

Remember FPS is YOU! The committee members are all patients of the surgery and we are there to support you all and act as a bridge between patients and the surgery. We’re always happy to hear from you on any subject connected to the surgery, but remember we can’t deal with any specific complaints or medical issues.

Yvonne MetcalfFPS Chair

Logo of Parkwood Surgery - a green filigree tree with the words 'Parkwood Surgery' next to it

News from the surgery

From 1st March 2023, Parkwood Surgery will no longer accept repeat prescriptions sent by email, either by patients or their nominated pharmacies.
This is because this method adds extra work for practice staff and delays the processing of your request.
To make the repeat prescription request process more effective, patients should submit their requests through the Patient Access website.
FPS has created this guide to help patients register and use Patient Access for this purpose; we’re hoping to offer more support in the coming weeks, so watch this space!

What’s been happening with FPS this month?

In-Person Health Talk: How a PCN Mental Health Nurse can support you

Our February health talk will be held at the surgery on Thursday 16th February, focusing upon mental health. Find out more and book your place here.

Supporting you with Patient Access

As the surgery moves to using Patient Access as the primary way of ordering repeat prescriptions, we’ve produced this guide to help you register and use this website.

Health Matters Webinar: Vericose Veins

The next Health Matters webinar is on Varicose Veins on Thursday 23rd February 2023 from 6.30pm – 7.30pm. You can register on EventBrite here for free.

New Year, New You

Over on our social media sites, we’ve been posting throughout January to offer suggests over support with changes people often like to make in the New Year, such as weight loss, getting fit or quitting harmful habits. We’ve collated all of the posts here  – if you’re starting to flag now we’re a month into 2023, see if any of the suggestions help!

The winners of our Christmas raffle

We drew our Christmas raffle on Monday 19th December; you can find our lucky winners here – congratulations to all of them! This event raised £175 for FPS.

Want to stay up to date?

One easy way to keep up to date with FPS’ events is to follow us on our social media. We’re on Facebook and Twitter. Every time we update the website, we’ll post a link there!

Unsubscribe from FPS communications

From 19th September 2022, the surgery took over communications on FPS’ behalf, in order to reach a wider number of patients. You can find out more about this on the surgery’s website, including how to unsubscribe if you would like to stop receiving communications from FPS.