News

Ramadan Mubarak!

Wishing our staff, patients, and all who are observing Ramadan a peaceful and blessed month. May this special time bring reflection, good health, and prosperity to you and your loved ones.

Ramadan Mubarak! 🌙

RAMADAN & Diabetes Campaign

Meet “Andi” – Our New Virtual Care Navigator

We’re pleased to let you know that we’re trialling a new virtual care navigator called Andi to help improve how we manage patient requests and phone calls.

Andi is our virtual call taker — helping patients who prefer to submit their Anima requests over the phone rather than complete an online form themselves. This means that if you call the practice and need help submitting an Anima online request, Andi will take down your details and pass your request directly to the right team.

What this means for you

• You can still submit your own request online through Anima as usual.

• If you’d rather submit your request using the telephone, you’ll now be able to go through to Andi, who will help complete the Anima request on your behalf.

• Your request will then be sent straight to the appropriate team, ensuring it’s handled quickly and efficiently.

Benefits for our patients

• 📞 Reduced phone queues – less time waiting to speak to someone.

• ☎️ Easier to submit a request by phone – no need to go online if that’s not convenient.

• 🎯 Faster routing – your request goes directly to the right team.

Benefits for the practice

• 🕒 Frees up staff time to focus on patient care.

• ⚙️ Improves efficiency in managing patient requests.

• ☎️ Reduces waiting times and eases pressure on phone lines.

👋A Quick note:

Andi isn’t a robotic sounding voice; he sounds quite natural.  This may feel a bit unusual at first and you may think you are speaking to a real person, but rest assured it’s just our  new automated system working hard behind the scenes making it easier for everyone.

We’re introducing Andi as part of our commitment to making it easier for all patients to access our services whether online or over the phone.
Thank you for your patience and support as we pilot this new system.

Type 2 Diabetes Know It - Check It.

What is it?

Type 2 diabetes happens when your body doesn’t make enough insulin or insulin doesn’t work properly. This causes high sugar level in your blood.

Who’s at risk?

• Over 40s and White background.
• Over 25 and African Caribbean, Black African or South Asian background.
• If you’re overweight or obese.
• Spotting the signs Type 2 diabetes can go unnoticed for years.
• You might have no symptoms, or they may be easy to miss.
• Take the FREE 2-minute online test to check your diabetes risk.

View more & translated posters here.

GP Patient Survey Results

View Here

Tirzepatide Information Update

You might have seen online or on the news that GPs can now give out a medicine called tirzepatide (Mounjaro®) on the NHS to help people lose weight. While this is true in some parts of the country, it’s not yet available in South Yorkshire.

That’s because the people in charge are still making plans for how the service will work. This includes making sure additional support for physical activity, diet and nutrition is ready too.

We know this might be disappointing, but we ask for your patience while everything is being sorted out.

It’s also important to know that not everyone will be able to get tirzepatide, even if they want it. The NHS has very strict rules about who can have it, and some people might not meet those rules—even though the medicine is approved.

In the meantime, we’re here to help. Please keep talking to us about the other ways we can support your weight loss journey and we’ll let you know as soon as there are any updates.

Thank you for understanding.

Snow and Anima Update 6th January 2025

Due to the snow some staff are struggling to get into work, and others may need to leave as schools close or the weather gets worse. Therefore Anima is closed and please only contact us today over the phone if the issue is urgent.

New Service for Hard of Hearing Patients.

From 25th October 2024, our GP practice is partnering with SignLive to offer a secure, live British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation service. This will make it easier for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients to communicate with us.

Simply use the SignLive app or website to connect with a BSL interpreter who will assist with your GP appointment.

To learn more and get started, visit https://ow.ly/pZHn50TPF5o or check out the video below:

https://vimeo.com/1014834083/c99ed65c62

Dr Welch Parting Words

As many of you may already be aware, Dr Rosie Welch retires from Sothall later this week. Before she leaves she has some parting words she would like to share with our patients.

PARTING WORDS
On 20th March 1991, at 1pm, I met in the Belfry pub with Drs Bailey, Roscoe and Ellis for an interview for the post of maternity locum cover for Dr Bailey. I got the job; no alcohol was consumed.
Over 33years on, I still seem to be here (and the child is well grown). Much water has flown under the bridge since then, so I am indulging in a brief reflection and a few parting words.

When training, it took me a long time to realise I was a generalist, to appreciate the true value of the role in medicine and to realise that this was my calling: what I was put here to do. The vast range of people and problems, and never quite knowing what might happen on any day, have been the continuous challenge, interest and ultimately the reward of the job.

It has been a privilege over the years to have played a small part in so many lives.

While governments and organisations may come and go, for me the essence of General Practice has continued. Despite all the pressures and changes, (and it certainly hasn’t got easier), I feel we still have an amazing, if struggling, NHS. But, as so many treatments are available and we expect to live longer, the population ages and demands increase, we will need to value it and use it as fairly and wisely as we can. (do feel free to join the patient focus group!).

My retirement is a work in progress: I will not be regularly employed at Sothall Medical Centre after September but may do an occasional locum session or some medical student teaching: you may not have quite got rid of me yet!
Many will be pleased not to have to suffer my endless anecdotes about how things were in years gone by, or my apparent need to “have a finger in every pie”!

But I know I will greatly miss all the staff colleagues it has been an honour to work alongside all these years, and especially all the patients it has been my privilege to care for and serve.
With my very best wishes,
Rosie Welch

PS Just in case anyone wants to celebrate my departure, I would really love you to consider a small contribution to Médecins Sans Frontières (a charity which works in needy, neglected or war-torn areas, providing health care for those so much less fortunate than ourselves), or a charity of your choice.

We wish Dr Welch all the best and can’t thank her enough for the tireless dedication throughout the years. Sothall won’t be the same without her.

Anima is coming to PCS Sothall

From 18th September you can go online to request appointments or call the practice. You will not be able to book at the front desk any more for anything other than nursing appointments.

To sign up for an account or for further information please go to https://www.animahealth.com/patients . It’s simple and it means no more waiting in phone queues.

If you can’t use the internet don’t worry, you can still call but we will ask a few more questions than normal. The aim is to improve access.

All requests will be triaged by a clinician e.g GP to decide what needs to be done. If its not urgent you can be sent a link to chose your own appointment time and date.

In out other sites it has
• Reduced phone waits by 19%
• Increased the patients treated by the team by 7%
• Increased patient satisfaction

However as with all new systems it will take a while to embed.

Nasal Flu Clinic Children Age 2-3

If you have a child aged 2 or 3 years on 31 August 2024 (born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2022) you will have been sent an invitation via text message to book their Nasal Flu appointment online.

For details regarding vaccinating your child visit https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/child-flu-vaccine/

Clinics are filling up quickly so don’t delay in booking an appointment.

We are also finalising plans for our adult flu clinics. Details and invitations will be shared asap.