October 18th is World Menopause Day, which is held annually to raise awareness of menopause and to support options to improve health and well-being for women in midlife and beyond. The theme for World Menopause Day 2024 is "Menopause and Menopause Hormone Therapy (MHT)".

What’s your experience of using local pharmacies in your local community? What works well? What could be improved?

We are pleased to advise that the Practice has scheduled our Adult flu clinics as drive-throughs at our Lake Road Surgery throughout October.  Clinic dates are:

For those considered clinically at risk* or other eligible patients aged 64 and younger:

Thursdays early evening on 3rd and 10th October

and Saturday morning the 19th of October

*  to establish if you are in an eligible at risk group, please download NHS Flu Risk Group information by following this link>>

For patients aged 65 and over:

Saturday mornings 5th and 12th October

and Thursday early evening of the 17th October.

To book online please use our Winter Flu Vaccination Request form here>>

Or call us on 01725 517272 or 01202 822825.

Separate arrangements are made for those who are housebound or living in a care home, and these patients will be contacted separately.

Further details on children’s nasal flu vaccination clinics will be published on this website and social media later in September.

People in our community may have seen reports in the media about the World Health Organization (WHO) identifying mpox as an international public health concern. 

A statement from the UK Health Security Agency has advised that the risk to the UK population is currently considered low. Nevertheless, be assured that NHS plans are underway to prepare for any cases we might see in the UK. This includes ensuring that clinicians are aware and able to recognise cases promptly, that rapid testing is available, and that protocols are developed for the safe clinical care of people who have the infection and the prevention of onward transmission.

Information and advice on mpox is available on the NHS website here>>

• Provide valuable feedback to improve health and wellbeing services
• Share your ideas and suggestions
• Help shape the future of patient care
• Connect with other patients in your community

Check out our Summer 2024 Patient newsletter, developed in conjunction with our Patient Participation Group.  In this issue: 

• Our results in the national annual GP Patient Survey.
• The latest information about vaccination services provided by the Practice
• How patients can monitor and report blood pressure readings from home

.  .  .  and more!

Download and view a copy of the Summer newsletter here>>

The Cranborne Practice, including Lake Road Surgery, is one of Dorset's highest scoring GP practices, achieving a 96% overall experience score in this year’s survey.

Our Patient Participation Group has helped us create this YouTube video to share our latest results>>

We care for over 12,900 patients, many with complex health needs. We are a Primary Care provider, not a commercial business. However, when the NHS is under immense pressure and patient demand is never higher, our satisfaction rate of 96% exceeds many private companies, such as banks and major retailers, who rely on customer service to maintain market share and make it one of their key selling points.

To our fantastic team, well done and thank you! And thanks to our Patient Participation Group members who help us shape our service to support, assist, treat, and care for the communities of Cranborne, Verwood, and the surrounding area.

Whooping cough cases have been rising in England. We recommend getting the whooping cough vaccine to help protect you and your baby. It's safe and effective and will provide important protection for your newborn in its first months.
Please contact us to let us know if you have any questions or if you'd like to schedule an appointment.

If we've invited you for an NHS Health Check, it’s important to take up the offer and book your appointment.

For over 40 years, The Cranborne Practice has provided primary healthcare services to people in Cranborne, Verwood and surrounding areas. 

In Dec 1984, the family-run Doctors practice moved to purpose-built accommodation in Cranborne, which grew and led to further opening of the Lake Road site in Dec 1988.  The Practice currently serves over 12,800 patients in the area. 

Always looking to improve, in 2011, the practice introduced online services and continued to innovate with programmes such as drive-through vaccination clinics and community engagement programmes. 

To meet the needs of a growing community, the Practice has invested in three new consultation rooms and recruited additional GPs. The additional facilities will significantly increase the capacity to provide face-to-face appointments and help reduce waiting times.

Putting the patient at the centre of operations helps the practice identify and respond to the community's needs. This approach is reflected in consistently high CQC inspection results and a 96.4% patient satisfaction score.

The new consultation rooms at the Lake Road surgery site are another milestone in The Cranborne Practice's constant development. To celebrate this, the practice invited members of the Patient Participation Group to open the rooms officially.

Commenting on the new rooms, Managing Partner Jo Morris said, “We constantly look at opportunities to improve patient care. We are pleased to invest in our community and create three new consultation rooms. These will provide more face-to-face GP appointments and enable us to provide a wider range of health care services for local people.”

Chair of the Practice’s Patient Participation Group,  Julie Saunders, says of the developments, “From a patient perspective, we are pleased to see The Cranborne Practice increasing their capacity to deliver healthcare and the benefits from the additional face-to-face GP appointments available.”

The Cranborne Practice is trialling a new online consultation system that enables patients to access some of our GP online services such as requesting a fit/sick note or asking about your test results.  Members of our Patient Participation Group helped us to test the system (called SystmConnect), and it was positively received.

Follow this link to find out more about SystmConnect>>

Please note that the SystmConnect service is NOT for booking appointments or ordering repeat medications, which can be done online using a SystmOnline Services Patient Access account.  However, we invite you to try the online consultation services we are trialling through SystmConnect and let us know what you think. 

Inside the Spring 2024 edition of The Doctors Notes, you will find:

• Staff updates – we say farewell to Dr Woollard and hello to a few new faces
• A look back at the Practice’s performance and the feedback we’ve received from patients over the past year
• News on the latest health awareness campaigns, and
• More on our work to promote wellness in our community through our Community SWITCH programme.

Thank you to our amazing Patient Participation Group members for their input and support in creating this newsletter.  

Don’t forget you can let us know what you think of our patient communications using the Patient Communications Feedback form on our website here>>

Did you know that approximately 1.6 million medicine items are wasted unnecessarily in Dorset every year?  We are asking our patients for help to reduce this.

At The Cranborne Practice, we want to do all we can to help you with your well-being needs. 

As is being reported in the media, there has been an outbreak of measles in the West Midlands, which is likely to spread rapidly across more parts of the UK unless more people take up the MMR vaccine.

We are delighted to share some exciting news regarding our ongoing efforts to enhance and improve our patients’ healthcare experience.

Our proposal to develop three additional consulting rooms at our Lake Road Verwood surgery site has received approval. This expansion project will utilise the space previously occupied by the pharmacy, and work is set to commence on January 21st, 2024.

The decision to expand our facilities is a testament to our commitment to providing you with the best possible care. With these new consulting rooms, we aim to enhance our ability to accommodate patient appointments more efficiently, reducing wait times and ensuring you receive timely and personalised attention.

We understand the importance of a seamless and comfortable healthcare experience, and this expansion aligns with our dedication to continuously improve our services. Throughout the construction process, we will make every effort to minimise disruptions to your visits to our Lake Road branch.

Thank you for your ongoing support and trust in The Cranborne Practice as we embark on this programme to enhance our facilities.  We look forward to its positive impact on the quality of service we provide.

As part of our continuing commitment to improving patient access, we are pleased to advise that we are installing a new and improved telephony system at our Cranborne and Lake Road Surgeries.  This upgrade is designed to optimize patient access and streamline communication, enabling us to serve you better.  Find out more here>>

From November 2023 all patients in our network who are over 16 will be able to view notes and health records. This includes notes from GP surgery appointments, test results, medications, and letters we receive from hospitals. These can be viewed online via the NHS App, NHS website, SystmOnline or the Airmid app. If you do not want your record to be available online, please speak with the Reception or Patient Services team at your surgery. For more, please visit the Crane Valley PCN information web page here>>

The NHS want you to have the best possible experience of care. The NHS Friends and Family Test is a way of gathering your feedback, so we can continually review and improve our service to you. Between April and the end of July, our Practice received 328 FFT responses.

We are delighted to learn from our recent NHS Friends & Family test results that 99.4% of respondents said their recent experience of visiting the Practice was Good or Very Good.

Find out more including patients' feedback comments on our website here>>

5 July 2023 marks 75 years of the National Health Service. Treating 1.3 million people a day in England, the NHS touches all our lives.  The Cranborne Practice, along with the other GP Practices in our network are proud to be a small part supporting the people in our local community to obtain, regain and maintain a healthy quality of life. 

Read more about the NHS and how its met the health and wellbeing needs of successive generations>>

As recently communicated, Verwood Pharmacy has relocated from the Lake Road Surgery site to new premises.  Our Lake Road Surgery is still open as usual, and the departure of the pharmacy enables The Cranborne Practice to expand its consulting rooms at the site, adding three more consulting rooms for face-to-face appointments.  Work is now underway to convert the rooms in readiness for patients.

These changes have enabled the Cranborne Practice to continue to develop and offer more services, including increased availability of face-to-face appointments for our patients.  The surgery is proud of its same-day appointment service, where 86% of patients calling for a GP appointment will get to see or speak to a GP on the same day.  With this increased capacity, the surgery is pleased to continue to be able to take on new patients.  For more information on how to register with us, please visit our website by following this link>>

Our reception teams are receiving enquiries concerning our Lake Road Branch and Verwood Pharmacy.  So may we clarify that our Lake Road Surgery site remains open, but we cannot assist with queries about Verwood Pharmacy operations.  Pharmland Ltd, trading as Verwood Pharmacy, is a separate entity not owned or operated by our Practice.

Verwood Pharmacy has made available information about the move and its services. You can find out more by visiting their website (pharmland.co.uk) for updates.

The British Heart Foundation offer free online CPR training. Find out more in this video created by our Patient Participation Group (PPG) members.

Our veteran patients have free access to Togetherall - Togetherall is a safe anonymous online community where members can share what’s on their mind, take comfort reading the thoughts of others or browse the many resources available. 

Find our more on our dedicated Armed Forces Support page here>>

May we stress that people do not need to let us know about their hospital consultant letters, as details are already provided to us directly from the relevant secondary care provider. Contacting us to provide copies of consultant letters duplicates our work.

If you have registered to use SystmOnline or the NHS App, you can view your medical records to check what we have received, and only contact us if you think something important is missing. Find out more about online access to GP services on our website here>>

Thank you for your support.

A reminder to our patients booking appointments with our Health Care Assistants (HCAs) via SystmOnline, Airmid, or the NHS App that that the slots offered are for blood tests only.

We offer routine blood test slots through SystmOnline etc because they are of a defined duration. Other medical issues may take longer, but patients may still book quickly and easily using our Nurse/HCA Appointment booking form by following this link:>>

Booking a non routine HCA appointment this way enables our Reception team to find the right appointment slot for the patient. Thank you.

From Monday, the 6th of June, a new gateway will change how you book GP appointments.

The changes are intended to improve the accessibility of GP services, reduce waiting times and support our patient needs, creating opportunities to access a GP on the day of need. 

From this date, GP appointment bookings will only be able to be made by telephone or online using a Systmonline account or through the NHS app or Airmid App. In person bookings may also be made at our Lake Road Surgery branch.

For more information on what is changing and why, please visit our Patient Services and Information page here:>>

Please note that there is no change to other appointment booking types.  Appointment arrangements to see a Nurse, Health Care Assistant or for vaccinations remain unchanged.

For patients who use social media, please note we have Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts (@CranborneGP).  We often post breaking news on Facebook earlier than it is posted on this website, so please follow us so these posts appear in your news feed.  

As well as the ways in which you can get in touch with us published on our Contact Us page, you can also send us a message from our Facebook page.

The practice is required by the Government under the terms of the latest GP contract to allocate all patients a named accountable GP. Individual patients will be informed of their named accountable GP at the first appropriate interaction with the practice. For convenience, if you have a medical card your Accountable GP will be the named doctor you are registered with.

Patients registering over the last 2-3 years will not have received a medical card as these are no longer routinely sent when registering with a new GP. However, the practice does keep a record of your registered (accountable) GP. If you wish to be told the name of your Accountable GP, please ask the receptionists when you are next in the surgery.

Please note: there is no need to telephone the practice for this information. Where a patient expresses a preference as to which GP they have been assigned, the practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request. Having a named GP does not prevent you from seeing any other doctor in the practice. Your named GP will not be available at all times and if your needs are urgent, you may need to discuss them with an alternative doctor.