■ ORDER YOUR REPEAT SCRIPTS
■ SAVE YOUR FAMILY DOCTOR INITIATIVE
■ MANAGE MY HEALTH PORTAL
…. Order your repeats scripts before Christmas – please do it as soon as possible. Support Primary care with the ‘Save Your Family Doctor’ initiative. A new portal ‘Manage My Health’ is coming soon.
■ ORDER YOUR REPEAT SCRIPTS
Now that December has arrived, it really does feel like the festive season is upon us all. We know that this is a busy time of year for everyone with end of school activities, functions and deadlines to meet. However, with the holidays fast approaching, we suggest that you think ahead and check that you have enough prescription medication to see you through. Please order any repeat prescriptions as soon as possible, via the patient portal or by phoning in, to avoid pre-Christmas congestion. If it’s time for your next check-up, or it will be due during the holidays, please think about booking for this soon as appointment slots before Christmas are filling up fast!
Appointments
As with many businesses this year, it has had its challenges and frustrations. We are sure you have all seen recent media coverage of the significant issues facing the health system. This is of course affecting general practice as much as other sectors with workforce shortages, underfunding and increasing workloads. As a result, people are waiting longer to see their family doctor as well, as increased times to be seen in outpatient clinics and even many private specialist are booked out until April 2023. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any support coming our way anytime soon and this is putting essential family doctor services at risk. These things are out of our control so please be patient, we are trying our hardest to deliver the best service we can within the current constraints. Our GP Owner’s organisation GenPro has launched a campaign called Save Your Family Doctor to highlight the threat to essential frontline services and the impact it is having on our patients. If you would like to add your support and help to send the Government a strong message please sign the petition
■ ‘SAVE YOUR FAMILY DOCTOR’ INITIATIVE
Please follow the link to save your family doctor… Save Your Family Doctor service
■ ‘MANAGE MY HEALTH’ PORTAL
We will soon be moving our patient portal to Manage My Health. This will add in more features and ease of communication including online bookings, repeat prescription requests and access to test results via your computer or mobile phone. We will be sending more information to our patients on the transition to this before the end of the year.
OTHER NEWS
Old Notes
We are having a bit of a spring clean and, as part of this, we are sorting out old paper notes which are no longer required. Clinical records have been computerised for many years now so these old files are no longer relevant. You may be contacted soon and asked if you would like to collect your old hard copy notes.
Staff
Recently we welcomed Rachel who joins Annette and Denise as part of our practice nursing team. Our lovely senior nurse Annette has now been with us for 10 years and we would like to acknowledge what a wonderful team leader she is and we are very fortunate to have her running such a high calibre team.
However, we are sad to be losing our receptionist Amanda as she is returning to Australia to be closer to family. Amanda has been with us for three years and has been invaluable over a very challenging time. We send our very best wishes and we will all certainly miss her. Although Emily and Rachel have joined Denise (yes, we now have two Rachels and Denises) on reception, we have not yet been able to find a replacement for Amanda, so please be patient and understanding when contacting the practice as our reception team will be under a bit of pressure.
Meadowbank General Practice Holiday Opening Hours:
With another exhausting year behind us our practice team will be taking a break over the Christmas
New Year period.
The Practice will close from Friday 23th December 2022 @ 12pm
Normal business hours will resume on Monday 9thth January 2023 8.30am – 5.00pm
Please note that some of our doctors and nurses will still be on leave after this date.
If you are an enrolled patient with this practice and need healthcare when we are closed, please call our usual practice phone number (09) 521 5128 to speak to a registered nurse.
If you need a virtual consultation, we recommend CareHQ. CareHQ provides urgent and booked appointments with a real GP from 7am-7pm, 7 days per week. For more information, or to book, visit www.carehq.co.nz
If you have a medical emergency, please dial 111.
The closest accident and medical centre (A&M) to this practice is: White Cross Urgent Care, 110 Lunn Ave, Mt Wellington
For more information, please see our website www.mgpdoctors.co.nz
We wish you a happy, safe and restful holiday season. Take care on the roads.
From the team at Meadowbank General Practice