It’s Blood Pressure UK’s ‘Know your numbers’ week this week. They are encouraging people to buy a home blood pressure monitor or share one with friends and family as many people with high blood pressure have no idea as it doesn’t usually cause any symptoms. Their website has more information including how to check your blood pressure and what the numbers mean. If you are not known to have high blood pressure and your readings are above 140/90 you should make an appointment with one of our health care assistants at the surgery. http://www.bloodpressureuk.org/your-blood-pressure/how-to-lower-your-blood-pressure/monitoring-your-blood-pressure-at-home/how-to-measure-your-blood-pressure-at-home/
Lead First Contact Physiotherapist for Well Up North Primary Care Network, Joe Waugh, starts with Greystoke on Monday 12th July 2021.
The role of the First Contact Physiotherapist in Primary Care is to assess patients with soft tissue, muscle and joint pain and is decide on the most appropriate management pathway. First Contact Physiotherapists are Physiotherapists with expertise in the assessment and management of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.
Inclusion criteria is:
- All soft tissue injuries, sprains, strains or sports injuries.
- Arthritis – any joint.
- Possible problems with muscle, ligaments, tendons or bone, eg tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, ankles sprains.
- Spinal pain including lower back pain, mid back pain and neck pain.
- Spinal related pain in arms or legs, including nerve symptoms eg pins and needles or numbness.
To book an appointment, please contact our reception team.
Versus Arthritis works with local NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and healthcare professionals to offer Shared Decision-Making services for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and/or hip. A shared decision-making service aims to provide high quality information on your health condition, in order to empower you to make informed decisions about your ongoing healthcare.
All our services are free for you to attend and are run either virtually or in local accessible venues.
Self referral is available via: https://www.versusarthritis.org/csnorthumberland
Diabetes EMPOWER
Northumberland EMPOWER Patient Information Leaflet CLI3638JAN21
CLI3640JAN21 Northumberland EMPOWER Slide
Self-referral to the ‘Healthier You’ NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme
People who are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes can now be fast-tracked into the Healthier You NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP) without having to go through a healthcare professional.
Diabetes UK has developed an online tool called ‘Know Your Risk’
https://riskscore.diabetes.org.uk/start
which can generate a self-referral to the NDPP if a person meets a certain criteria. The tool calculates a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by answering a series of basic questions including age, weight and ethnicity.
If your score comes back as moderate or high, you will now be able to refer yourself to a local ‘Healthier You’ service for support remotely or online.
Those who qualify will be able to choose how they complete the programme, either by joining group sessions by video link or telephone with an experienced coach or through digital support, which includes online peer support groups and in some areas, wearable tech.
The 9-12 month programme is designed to stop or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes through a range of personalised lifestyle interventions, including:
• Education on lifestyle choices
• Advice on how to reduce weight through healthier eating
• Bespoke physical activity programmes
The programme supports people to lose weight and adopt healthier habits and has already helped hundreds of thousands of people.
This is to complement and not to replace the support and services offered by GP Practices.
Diabetes Befriending Service – please see link: Diabetes Befriending Service
B12 Injections – All patients who receive B12 injections will be sent the following letter:
As I am sure you are aware, for the public’s safety, all routine work in the NHS has been stopped during the Covid-19 crisis. Every clinical contact between a healthcare worker and patient is being reviewed to assess if the risk it brings to all parties is justified.
We have received guidance from specialists about vitamin B12 injections. It is based on research that has shown that if any patient who has been having regular B12 injections stops receiving them they have enough B12 stored in their liver to last at least 2 years. You can, therefore, come to no harm if a B12 injection is deferred.
As a result, you will appreciate that we are unable to justify any appointments for B12 injections during the crisis, apart from for patients with a new diagnosis of B12 vitamin deficiency who have not had the required injections before.
Across the Well Up North primary care network, GPs have agreed to defer all vitamin B12 injections for 6 months.
We must, please, ask you to respect this decision and not to telephone the surgery requesting ‘exceptional circumstances’ as our specialists inform us that there are none. Please allow your GPs and nurses to spend their time instead caring for the seriously ill patients they must treat.
Your recall date will be moved 6 months on from when your next injection is due and we will contact you at that time.
Finally, please do note that evidence shows the majority of patients receiving B12 injections in Northumberland can still absorb B12 from oral vitamin supplements. We suggest you speak to your pharmacist about obtaining these. The recommended dose is cyanocobalamin 50mcg 3 daily.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Yours sincerely
GP Partners
The memory handbook – Alzheimer’s Society
The memory handbook is for people with mild memory problems. It contains information about memory problems and practical strategies on how to live well with them. please find link below:
alzheimers.org.uk/memoryhandbook