MAY 2008 News

Extended Surgery Hours

We are pleased to announce that we now offer additional GP appointments as follows:

Mondays 7.00-8.00am
Fridays 6.30-8.00pm

These appointments are all bookable in advance, so no book on the day or walk-in appointments will be available during these times. A large number of our patients are commuters or patients who find it difficult to come to the surgery during our normal opening hours, so we aim to give priority to this group. Please bear this in mind when booking an appointment.

This is a voluntary arrangement by the practice and our plan is supported by the Primary Care Trust. We will not be reducing the total availability of GP consultation time during core hours and will ensure that our usual high standards of care are maintained. However, at the present time, we cannot offer any support services, such as nurses, dispensary or blood tests.

To see the range of appointments we offer, visit the Appointments page.

DNA (Did Not Attend)

Please help us to help you! We do our best to offer GP or nurse appointments as soon as possible but one problem we face is the number of patients who do not turn up for their consultation. In the last quarter there were over 300 wasted appointments! Please cancel your appointment so that we can offer this to another patient.

Doctor Changes

Dr Rita Codlin

Many of you will know that Dr Codlin is currently on maternity leave. She had a baby boy on 13 March, called Monty, 8lb 12oz, and both mother and baby are doing well. She would like to thank everyone for their good wishes. Many of you will have met Dr Tim Cantor, who has been with us for some time and he will be covering for Dr Codlin until she returns in September.

Dr Swathy Alexander and Dr Kate Holden

Dr Alexander passed her final examination with flying colours and has now left her GP Registrar post with us to take up a substantive GP post. Dr Holden was with us for a 4-month period as part of her paediatric training in hospital.

Dr Gordon Cheung

Dr Cheung joined us at the beginning of February as GP Registrar. He will spend a year with us, under Dr Hagan’s mentorship, whilst doing his GP training. Dr Cheung is a fully qualified doctor who has spent the previous 5 years gaining experience in various hospital posts.

Dr Suhail Jan

Dr Jan will be joining us as GP Registrar in August for one year. This means that we will have a 6-month overlap with two registrars.

Staff Appointments

Jenny has recently joined us as a dispenser.