Patient Involvement Group
Church Street Practice, The Health Centre,
Mably Way, Grove, OX12 9BN

We all carry our mobile phones with names and numbers stored in its memory. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but would not know whom to call first.

Hence this "ICE" - IN CASE OF EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN

It is a method of contact for emergency situations. As most of us have mobile phones all you need to do is store the number of person or persons who should be contacted in an emergency under the name ICE.

The idea was the inspiration of a paramedic who found that when he went to the scene of accidents there were usually mobile phones with patients but he did not know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there were a nationally recognised system of contact.

In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialling the number you have stored as ' ICE'. For more than one contact name, simply enter ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.

The more people who know about this the better. It really is very useful.

Next meeting: Tuesday August 4th, 2.00pm, Health Education Room. For further details please contact jean@jcsutherland.wanadoo.co.uk or 868396.

We had hoped to include a report on the last three meetings but owing to lack of space I have not been able to do this. Please see next Newsletter.

The Butler Centre in the town has now been designated into a Children’s Centre. The Children’s centre offers support for all families in the area with children up to the age of five.

The breakfast and after school club and holiday club will all remain the same. We have just finished our refurbishment and now we are able to offer a sensory area for children with special needs!

All members of the staff are fully trained and willing and able to offer support and advice on a wide range of problems that families face.

Among our staff we have a -
Centre manager- Madelyn Parsons
Senior Early year’s worker – Gillian Stanton
Family support worker – Steve Clements
Early year’s worker – So Yeun Park
And hopefully soon we will have an Outreach worker. (Watch this space)

Our family support worker can offer advice on benefits, getting back to work, job centre plus, disability benefits, tax credits etc.

The centre is keen to reach the villages that surround Wantage and to provide services to the families that find it hard to access the town. With this in mind we are planning to use the village halls in Childrey and Uffington from which to run groups. We would be keen to hear from you if you have any ideas.

The groups we have at the moment:
Monday – New drop in, for everyone with children up to five years. (Times to be finalised)
Tuesday – Twins Club – 9.30 – 11.30 Baby Club – 1.15 – 2.30
Wednesday – Drop in, 9.30 – 1.00, Lunch included. Donations Welcome
Thursday – Young parents group (with support from health visitors)
Friday – Coffee and playtime session – 9.30 – 11.30. (NCT Supported)
For all Enquiries please telephone the children’s centre on 01235 764522.
We look forward to hearing from you.

COME TOGETHER      LEARN TOGETHER      COPE TOGETHER

We are a lively group made up of carers and their loved ones who are experiencing memory problems. We meet in the Health Education Room at the Mably Way Health Centre once a fortnight, starting at 1:30, with light refreshments and concluding by 3pm.

Our aim is to create a supportive environment for carers and those they care for; to share ideas and expertise for living with the effects of memory loss. We offer practical advice to enable carers and the person they care for to make life as good as it can be and to reduce the risk of potential isolation. Each session contains room for general discussion, and a guest speaker.

There is provision for those experiencing memory difficulties to take part in a separate activity or to attend the October Club in Wantage.

We are very pleased to welcome new people; there is no need to book. If you would like to know more then please contact Paul, Anna, Alison Rich, 01235 810 575 or Sue Smith, 07833 952 514 (please leave a message).

The group is run by the Oxfordshire & Bucks Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, The Alzheimer’s Society and the October Club, Wantage.The next meeting is on May 22nd and meets fortnightly thereafter. Please do come and join us.

Sue Smith, Carer Support Worker,
Vale of White Horse Branch, The Alzheimer’s Society.

A Day in the Life of Church Street Practice was printed in early February. The project took about 5 months from start to finish and could not have been completed without the help and enthusiasm of PIG members and the staff of Church Street Practice. I hope that you have now had a chance to read a copy. It was publicised in all the local papers including the Wantage Herald and Oxford Times and was available in the local pharmacies, library, museum as well as the surgery. It also went to the PCT and has even found its way into the Careers Library at King Alfred’s where it is seen as a good insight into careers available in the health service. It received a tremendously positive response from patients and the public.
"Fascinating!" "So much interesting information." "I don’t know how they find the time to do all the things they do..." "I learnt a lot about what goes on behind the scenes,"
are just a few of the comments received. These comments came from far and wide and there were reports of people reading it not just in Wantage but all over the country!

PIG was concerned that the document was much longer (and bigger) than the newsletter and that patients would be reluctant to take a copy but the speed with which copies disappeared showed that this was not a problem and all the initial 500 copies were taken in the first couple of weeks. Our thanks go to Sheila and her team for battling with the photocopier. Subsequently another 250 copies went out and nearly all of these have gone so more are planned over the next few months! To cover printing costs, we applied for a grant from the PCT Charitable Trust and were awarded £325. We have now applied for more funds from the Co-Op to cover the cost of the additional copies. The document is still available here on the website where you can browse or download it and we plan to continue to have copies available in the practice for the foreseeable future.

We would like to receive any feedback on the document particularly what you enjoyed or a fact you learnt from it. We would hope to use this to highlight areas we can include in future newsletters. To leave your comments either contact PIG via the comments box in the waiting room or e-mail sue.m.hannon@googlemail.com. Or use contact details in this Newsletter. Or use the feedback form on the Day in the Life pages.

I hope you enjoyed ‘A Day in the Life of Church Street Practice….’ and hope it portrayed just how lucky we are to have such a wonderful and caring (and busy) practice.

Sue Hannon

"Please thank all concerned for its completion as it must have been an endeavour!"
A quote from Fred Hucker, Chair PCT, who was very impressed with his copy.

A Note from PIG. Finished with your copy? Then please pass it on to others (we know of one copy that was rescued from the Green Box!).

In January 2008 an elderly patient was struck by a car as she crossed at the Pelican Crossing on Mably Way, and tragically died from her injuries. As a Practice we wrote to Oxfordshire Highways asking if the speed limit could be reduced to 30mph to improve safety, but were told that technically the limit was correct at 40mph. Almost exactly a year later, a young woman, also one of our patients, was struck in exactly the same place. Thankfully, despite very serious injuries, she survived and is making a slow but good recovery. Both victims were attended by staff from the Church Street Practice, so we witnessed at first hand the horrors of their injuries.

The evidence is overwhelming that pedestrian safety is increased by lower speed limits, which is the reason for the recent Government announcement to lower them. If a pedestrian is struck by a car doing 30mph or less, 8 out of 10 of them will survive: if the car is doing over 30mph, 9 out of 10 will die. We therefore would strongly urge the Highways Authority to reduce the speed limit on Mably Way to 30mph, to significantly improve the safety of all pedestrians crossing the road. Many of them are elderly, or mothers with young children who are attending the Health Centre. The road links two 30mph limits, and the current limit of 40mph is both unnecessary in terms of traffic flow, and dangerous in that vehicles tend to accelerate as they enter Mably Way. Those travelling eastbound have measurably higher speeds as they pass the Health Centre since they have had longer to reach it and may be unaware of the crossing. Both pedestrians were struck by cars travelling in that direction.

We have again approached the Highways Authority who attended meetings organized by local councilors here at the Health Centre and at the Traffic Advisory Committee. They have assessed the road and again take the technical view that the correct speed limit is 40mph, and seem totally opposed to lowering it to 30mph. Whilst we respect their technical competence, I did not get the sense that they respect the views of the local community, nor their elected representatives who have been very supportive of our campaign to see a lower speed limit. The councilors are now starting a petition, and we would urge everyone to sign that and use any legitimate and democratic means available to them to have the matter reviewed at as senior level as is necessary to move this matter forward.

Dr.Phillip Ambler

Just because it is a 40 mph speed limit we don’t have to drive that fast! Let’s impose a voluntary 30mph limit when driving along Mably Way. Also please sign the petition which is on the reception desk or look out for a volunteer in the Foyer.
Editor

The Practice has used the recent Swine Flu pandemic alert to test some of its plans for handling this type of crisis and you may have noticed the absence of magazines and toys in the waiting room and the introduction of hand cleaning gel dispensers. These precautions are to help stop the spread of the disease and will be the first to be re-introduced when the threat of a pandemic increases again, which is very likely to be in the coming months.

When a Flu pandemic is declared, information will be issued to explain how the local surgeries will operate jointly to try and ensure we can offer a service to patients throughout the crisis. Please ensure you are prepared by having a thermometer and paracetamol or other over the counter cold and flu treatments ready at home and that you have a “Flu Friend” who could go and collect a prescription if you needed one.

Sheila Dearman

Dear Editor,
Please include this copy of a letter to Councillor Mrs Jenny Hannaby

SPEED LIMIT IN MABLY WAY    15th March 2009

When the Health Centre was planned and opened, PIG, the Patient Involvement Group of Church Street Practice, made representations with regard to the 40mph speed limit for Mably Way.

We were told that the road was designed as a 40mph road and that, in order to be 30mph, there should be building on both sides of the road.

• This criteria does not seem to apply to Grove road where there is a 30mph speed limit In fact there are 30mph restrictions on the roads at both ends of Mably Way.
• The 40 mph was appropriate when it was first built and there was no Health Centre
• Our recent survey shows that in a week some 1053 patients visited Church Street Practice alone. The Newbury Street Practice numbers were probably similar. This means that in excess of 2000 people enter and leave the site, many by car. In addition there are the staff who come and go and the many patients who visit the PCT, the opticians and the pharmacy. The regular bus service together with the many delivery services make for more traffic. This usage would easily equate to that of a group of houses built on that side of Mably Way.

Accessing and exiting the Health Centre

• With the current speed limit, one feels very vulnerable sitting in the middle lane waiting to make a right turn into the Health Centre. Equally it is often difficult to turn right leaving the HC.
• There is an increasing volume of traffic and the current speed limit is often not observed with cars, vans and lorries travelling well in excess of 40mph.

Traffic lights

• The current pedestrian crossing is close to the end of Mably Way. If Mably Way was also a 30mph road, traffic would not be building up speed approaching the crossing.

Accidents

• We know that there have been two serious accidents in the last year or so and have been made aware of several "near misses". While speed may not have been the major cause of the most recent accident, it could well have been a contributory factor.

It is stated that people involved in an accident with a vehicle travelling at 40mph are likely to die, whereas people in an accident with a vehicle going at 30mph are more likely to survive.

For all the reasons given, we would ask that the speed limit in Mably Way be reduced from 40mph to 30mph.

Yours sincerely,
May Paul, Chairman
Church Street Practice Patient involvement Group

Dear Editor,
For the last years of his life Granpop was kept going with a multitude of pills. Physically unable to do very much, he spent a lot of time sitting under the old apple tree in the garden. One day his tired body cried “enough” and he quietly left us. After the funeral Grandma opened the door to the medicine cupboard, removed all the bottles of pills, tipped them into a bucket of hot water and stirred them vigorously until they had all dissolved. She poured this mixture under the apple tree. The village people had told her that this tree had not flowered nor borne fruit for a long time. The following spring the old apple tree was smothered in flowers and produced a small crop of fruit!
This is a true story. Granpop was my father-in-law. He died in the early 1960s.
Joyce Wardingley

Dear Editor,
We are most impressed with the Appointments On-line service both for appointments and repeat prescriptions. It would be interesting to learn more about the system. Was this developed "in-house" or a bought-in commercial package? How many other surgeries have this facility? It seems remarkable that we have a simple, useful system that really works and yet the NHS is spending millions on a country wide system which has taken years to develop and is still not working. Our surgery always seems to be at the forefront of useful ideas and long may it be so. Congratulations to all concerned.
Olive and John Price

Dear PIG
So pleased. Thank you for my copy which is an interesting read! Fred (Hucker) was very impressed with his copy and asked that all the Non Execs received a copy, which were well received at the board workshop today. Please pass on the feedback to your editorial team......I would suggest the project has been a great success.
Kind regards,
Fiona May Perkins PCT Non executive.

The editor thanks the above for their letters, a record!. Let’s have more!