News

IMPORTANT PATIENT INFORMATION

Major Service Interruption

Monday 20th May – Friday 24th May

Due to a major IT upgrade the practice will be operating on an urgent contingency basis only for the week 20th-24th May. This means you will be unable to order any routine repeat medications. If your repeat medication is due during this period of time then please order well in advance (you can order up to 2 weeks before it is due).

When using Patient Access for online prescription orders, if you receive a reply saying ‘Rejected by your GP’, then please remember to click on the link titled ‘See order details’. This will then display a message explaining why your order has been rejected.

The Bernera Surgery will now be open 9am – 1pm on a Monday for clinics and collection of medication

Dr Rigby will be leaving the Partnership of Langabhat Medical Practice on Thursday 30 November. Going forward he will be doing occasional Locum work for the Practice.

We are hoping to email the majority of our appointment letters in the future. Do you have an email address? Are you happy to receive appointments via email? Do you have a printer should you need to print off a Home Blood Pressure form for example? Please email us via [email protected] to let us know.
Remember to add our email address to your contacts.
For those who are unable or don’t wish to be contacted via email, then contact will be maintained by means of post or phone.
Don’t forget to update us if you change your address/phone number/email address.

As per our announcement last month, the opening times for our Borve and Carloway surgeries will be changing next week.

Out of Hours Services – NHS Western Isles | Serving the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

If you have any questions regarding Flu or Covid Vaccinations, then please use the contact details in the link below, rather than phoning Langabhat Medical Practice

https://www.wihb.scot.nhs.uk/vaccination-clinics/

Dr Rigby announced as Health Award finalist for helping to ensure Western Isles patients receive ‘Gold Standard’ care

Dr Dave Rigby from the Western Isles has been selected as a finalist in this year’s Scottish Health Awards!

Dave, who is Realistic Medicine and Therapeutics Clinical Lead for NHS Western Isles, was selected as a finalist in the Leader of the Year category out of more than 900 nominations to the Scottish Health Awards this year.

Dave, who is also a GP at Langabhat Medical Practice, was nominated by an NHS colleague for ‘true dedication to the continued development and progression of patient care in the Western Isles’.

Dave’s appointment to the role of Realistic Medicine and Therapeutics Clinical Lead has seen him work over various services across NHS Western Isles.

His nomination stated: “He has a passion for service development and his leadership, guidance and unwavering support has enabled groundbreaking developments in the Western Isles services. Dave has a passion to support staff development, empowering colleagues, encouraging learning, role development and further education. He provides an immense level of support behind the scenes, encouraging colleagues and services to grow and achieve, and generally sits quietly in the background, choosing to highlight colleagues and services rather than take any credit himself.”

Dave has been working in the Western Isles for 27 years. arriving in 1997 to take up the post of Associate GP between the independent Uig and Bernera, and South Lochs Practices.

He worked at North Lochs Medical Practice for the next ten years. With support from local physicians (Dr Vishu and Dr Achar) Dave became more involved in the emerging Managed Clinical Networks, bringing together multi-disciplinary working in areas such as Diabetes, Stroke and Cardiac Medicine. The early realisation of the benefits of working closely with colleagues across all sectors of health and social care emerged, to achieve better patient journeys and a patient centred approach.

This led to the role of Clinical Pathways Lead for Dave, alongside working as a GP. The arrival of the Realistic Medicine programme was a natural progression as this supported the development of services with the patient at the centre and staff at all levels being involved in development.

Whilst having no direct involvement in delivery, the role has allowed Dave to help staff develop services in areas such as Bone Health/Fracture Liaison/DXA scanning; Cardiac Diagnostics; Stroke Thrombolysis (and soon Thrombectomy); the Virtual Ward (Hospital at Home); and the programme to bring MRI scanning to the Island. All these with the aim of allowing patients to get as much investigation and care locally without the need to travel, which in turn helps with recruitment and retention and job satisfaction of staff in NHS Western Isles.

Dave’s nomination highlighted that Dave has dedicated his time and guidance (beyond that of his role) to support development of NHS Western Isles services, working alongside service leads and colleagues to provide guidance, develop pathways and create many ‘First for Scotland’ services.

“His guidance and leadership has ensured that patients in the Western Isles not only receive a level of care comparable with mainland boards, but often exceed it,” said the nomination. “NHS Western Isles has proven time and time again that rurality, geographical challenges and patient demographics are no barriers to achieving gold standard care across services, and there is no doubt that Dave has played a fundamental role in achieving this.

“Dave’s continued leadership and support to these services [Bone Health/Fracture Liaison/DXA scanning, Cardiac Diagnostics, Stroke Thrombolysis, and the Virtual Ward] has enabled thousands of NHS Western Isles patients to receive Gold Standard care both in the hospital and in their own homes.”

On hearing he was announced as a finalist for a Scottish Health Award, Dave said: “I must admit I am surprised as I see this as part of my job. I’m humbled and rather embarrassed to be honest, but delighted to help raise the profile of NHS Western Isles and the staff who work here at a national level whatever the outcome on the evening of the awards.”

NHS Western Isles Chief Executive, Gordon Jamieson, said: “Collaboration, innovation, vision, and good clinical leadership are the hallmarks of our best performing networks. Dave has been at the forefront of some of our most person-centred clinical innovations to improve the experience of those we serve. A well-deserved nomination.”

All at NHS Western Isles wish Dave the very best at the awards ceremony on November 2.

Monday 2 October

From Monday 2 October our appointment triage line will be available 8:00-13:00 Monday-Friday.  Non-urgent appointment requests received after this time may not be dealt with until the next working day.  Please call us as early as possible in the day in order for us to help you get the right care, at the right time.  Our phone line will continue to be available 8:00-17:00 for all other queries, including prescription requests.

Between  17:00-18:00 we will be available for urgent requests only.

Monday 30 October

From Monday 30 October there will changes to the opening days and times at our Borve and Carloway sites.  Please note, for medication collection, the sites will be unmanned on their closed days.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Please remember that that Flu & COVID Clinics are not arranged through the practice but by NHS Western Isles. Their contact number is 0800 030 8013.

Therefore, please wait for NHS Scotland to contact you about your winter vaccines. This will be by email, text, or post. Postal invites will arrive in a white NHS Scotland envelope which replaces the blue envelopes used previously.

Find out if you’re eligible at: http://nhsinform.scot/wintervaccines

The Well North Clinic, run by the Western Isles Health Board is no longer happening; therefore, as part of our Health Promotion and Screening programme the practice is setting up Healthy Heart Screening.

You may receive a letter inviting you to make an appointment. This will be some basic health tests including blood pressure, height, weight, some blood samples to look at Heart and Diabetes risks, and include discussion and advice. The appointment will take about 15 minutes and a clinician will contact you with your results when available.

There have been several recent changes relating to Covid Status including: 

• Change of helpline number from freephone number (0808 196 8565) to 0345 034 2456 
• Removal of recovery certificates  
• Inability to order paper copies online 
• Changes to access routes dependent on age 

Any future changes will be announced on the NHS Inform site NHS Scotland COVID Status | NHS inform

Due to exceptionally high number of prescription orders this week, we have had to extend our turnaround time to 5 working days. For example, if you ordered on Monday 12th Dec, then please collect on Monday 19th Dec.

Working abroad or travelling on a remote holiday?

Please contact the practice for advice on latest travel regulations and vaccination rules.

The local Covid Help line can be contacted by email [email protected] or phone 0808 196 8383. The schedule for clinics is on https://www.coronavirus.wi.nhs.scot/

https://www.langabhatmedicalpractice.co.uk/files/2022/06/Langabhat-Registration-Form.pdf

NHS Western Isles has put together the following vaccination information guide to help provide an overview of current programmes and arrangements here in the Western Isles.

Please have a look and share::

https://www.coronavirus.wi.nhs.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Vaccination-Booklet-with-hyperlinks.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0NF0oOnIWuRkmifN4zQJjjUziS1GvyjrFl0Xqm5GX4jeePuv9E2R_u1bc

Patient Access have received reports from both Patient Access users and people who have never registered for the service, that they have received Covid passport emails purporting to be from Patient Access.  

We would like to share the following guidance from Patient Access for your information, and for you to share with your patients where appropriate. 

We advise users of Patient Access to check the name and email address of the sender, all emails from Patient Access will come via an email address that ends in @patientaccess.com. We advise users never to click on any log in links that you receive via email but to visit the site via the address bar of your browser instead so that you know you are on the genuine Patient Access log in page. You can find more information and guidance on our information security page here: https://www.patientaccess.com/security  

We strongly advise users to set up their Memorable Word security feature, as well as using biometrics (fingerprint ID) if they use the app.

Email addresses used to register for Patient Access account are secure. We do not share any data and no data is ever saved or stored on any device you use to access Patient Access.

Due to an increase in calls over the last few months, we have now introduced a call waiting queue system.  This means that when you call the Practice and all our telephony staff are busy your call will be placed in the call waiting queue. Your call will be answered once a member of staff becomes available.

We do hope that this will help reassure you that your call is important to us.  Remember you can order your repeat medications online or by email.  Just ask at reception or email [email protected] for details.

Thank you for your patience.

Please remember the Practice is still working under Covid Lockdown conditions and there still is a 72 hour (3 working day) turnaround time between ordering a prescription and collection.

We have had a significant number of patients this week trying to collect prescriptions after just one or two days.

72 Hour Rule – for example if you ordered on a Monday morning, then please collect Thursday morning. Or if you ordered on a Friday afternoon, then, three working days later would be a collection time of Wednesday afternoon.

Remember – please do not contact your GP practice about your coronavirus vaccination status. GP’s cannot provide letters showing your coronavirus vaccination status.

Instead please follow this link to obtain your vaccination status online or by phone:
https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/after-your-vaccine/get-a-record-of-your-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-status

If you have an enquiry about COVID-19, or to book a test or access a drop-in clinic, contact the local COVID-19 Health Concern Helpline open from 9am-7pm, seven days a week.Tel. 01851 601151 or email them at [email protected]

https://www.coronavirus.wi.nhs.scot/

NHS Western Isles and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar are appealing to our local communities, who demonstrated resilience and goodwill at the same time last year, to help protect and preserve our health and social care services during the autumn and winter months ahead.

Health and social care services across the country are already experiencing extreme pressure on services for a variety of reasons, and we are appealing to our local communities to do what they can to support their own local services. That could include a range of measures – from avoiding unnecessary attendance at already stretched Emergency Departments; to helping to provide additional support to friends and relatives who require care or assistance at home. We can all play our part to help.

The resources we have on the Western Isles are finite and taking simple steps to help us avoid pressure will benefit the wider community and ensure that the services remain available and responsive for those who need them. Western Isles Health and Social Care Partnership Chief Officer, Nick Fayers, explained: “Already this year we are seeing unprecedented pressure on community health and social care systems nationally – and this is reflected in the Western Isles too.

We need our services to be preserved and protected to ensure that those in greatest need receive the necessary care and support as quickly as possible. “In the community and in social care, we have seen a higher number of people requiring more nursing and social care input at home than usual. Staff absence and a number of vacant posts that are proving challenging to fill, together with recruitment difficulties, means that these services are very stretched. “We want to be upfront with our communities about not only the current pressures, but also the real challenge facing us over coming months as additional winter pressures approach. The good news is that there are ways everyone can help, and our assurance to you is that services will be there for those who need them.

” Help safeguard your local services…

* Only attend the Emergency Department if your condition is left-threatening, e.g. conditions including suspected heart attacks or strokes, severe breathing difficulties, severe bleeding, or severe injury should continue to attend the ED or call 999.

* Your GP Practice is open. You can contact your local GP practice during the day for an appointment (may be virtual in the first instance) or over-the-phone advice.

* Call 111 day or night when you think you have a non-life-threatening, but urgent, issue.

* If you have friends or family in receipt of care at home or a care package – try and help where you can – whether by assisting with medication, helping with meals, or assisting with getting up and going to bed. This will help reduce the current significant pressure on social care services.

* Where available, attend your local pharmacy for questions on medication.

* Call 111 and select the Mental Health Hub to access mental health advice and guidance or call the Breathing Space telephone helpline on 0800 83 85 87.

* If you have queries about symptoms, use the NHS inform website to access advice on common symptoms, guidance for self-help and where to go if further medical care is needed.

Did you know, there are many local health services you can access directly, without contacting the surgery first

Have you considered ordering your prescription online? No more phone calls…Order 24/7… easy to do in FIVE simple steps

1. Sign-Up in the surgery or by email [email protected]

2. Be given or sent initial password

3. Complete registration at home and set your own passwords

4. Login to Patient Access website or app and order your regular prescription.

5. Collect from surgery as normal.

Dressing Cupboards, Dressing Bags and New Wound Formulary 

NHS Western Isles is delighted to announce that its Dressings Project was made live today (Wednesday 18th August).

A total of 26 “Dressing Cupboards”, or locations across NHS Western Isles sites e.g. primary and secondary care clinical areas, including Podiatry, have been developed as part of the project.  The Dressing Cupboards will enable healthcare professionals to access wound care products for patients under the care of NHS Western Isles.

In addition, Community Nursing staff have also been provided with dressing bags, to enable them to store and carry dressings for use during their community visits.

Dr. David Rigby, local GP, said “The move to all wound care being provided by the Health Board Community Nursing Teams under the new GP contract created the opportunity to review how patients were assessed and managed for wound care in the Western Isles. The production of a mutually agreed central formulary will ensure that patients get the right dressing at the right time in all healthcare locations. This will also aid in easing the workload on Primary Care teams as the Community Nursing teams will have direct access to all the supplies they need direct from NHSWI stores with stocked dressings cupboards placed at all necessary locations”

“The dressings project has shown great innovation and teamwork from Rosemary Macritchie, the Primary Care Pharmacy Team, the Stores Team and Community Nursing. Their perseverance to bring this to fruition will ensure that patients receive a consistent, efficient supply of appropriate, evidence based wound care across the Western Isles.”

“By centralising the provision of dressings and creating a dedicated formulary, this project will help reduce waste and variation in line with the principles of Realistic Medicine, and ensure consistency of approach across all healthcare settings in the Western Isles.”

All healthcare professionals will also adhere to the new NHS Western Isles Wound Care Formulary, which has been created based on evidence and experience gathered locally, and has a specific focus on effectiveness and wear-time to minimise the amount of face-to-face contact with patients.  However, it is expected that occasionally the need for “off formulary prescribing”  will arise.  On these occasions, community pharmacies will continue to receive prescriptions for these items as well as compression and Lymphoedema garments. 

Rosemary MacRitchie, NHS Western Isles Clinical Nurse Specialist Tissue Viability/Continence Adviser, said “’We are thrilled to be launching the Dressings Project today, and the partnership working on this project shows how much can be achieved together.  This is a major service change to benefit staff and patients alike, and will ensure a patient-focused, point of need system, and guarantee an effective, efficient, and seamless wound care service across the Western Isles’. 

There are many benefits to the Dressings Project, including ensuring the provision of an evidence-based, cost effective and patient focused local service, and enabling wound care leads the opportunity to review current local practice. 

In addition, Clinical Reasoning forms will now be used to monitor the use of antimicrobial dressings, and Transfer of Care forms have been designed to ensure continuity of care for patients being transferred between any area e.g from hospitals within the Western Isles to care homes or the patient’s own home (and vice versa).  All forms can be accessed on the Intranet via the Tissue Viability & Continence section, located within Dressings Project link. 

Gillian McCannon, NHS Western Isles Chair, said “I am delighted to support the launch of the new dressing and wound formulary project.  It brings together evidence-based research and practice and will improve continuity of care which is patient focussed.

“Thank you to the project team for all your hard work in bringing together such an important aspect of patient care within NHS Western Isles.  It demonstrates what can be achieved through collaborative working and partnership.”

All patients that currently have wound care products on repeat prescription will also be reviewed to ensure continuity of care.

Patients who have historically managed their own wounds and do not currently have regular input from a healthcare professional, will be referred to their GP Practice or Community Nurse for review as appropriate, if wound care products are required.

Information on local changes to Social Security Scotland

Podiatry have launched an updated leaflet outlining the services they offer.

Please remember the Practice is still working under Covid Lockdown conditions and there still is a 72 hour (3 working day) turnaround time between ordering a prescription and collection.

For example if you ordered on a Monday morning, then please collect Thursday morning. Or if you ordered on a Friday afternoon, then, three working days later would be a collection time of Wednesday afternoon.

KJ Macdonald Pharmacy have lateral flow test kits available for patients free of charge. Each kit contains 7 tests allowing a patient to test twice weekly for three weeks and one test spare in case of a void result. KJ’s just need the customers’ name, address and contact phone number. They will not be delivering them and they need to be picked up by customers 18 years and over.

Have you experienced any serious safety concerns with NHS Scotland’s services. Then Healthcare Improvement Scotland are seeking patients views. Full details here:

DATA ‘OPT OUT’ ONLY APPLIES TO NHS ENGLAND

You may be aware of NHS England’s current national data ‘opt out’ policy.

There has been a lot of publicity about patients ‘opting out’ of their confidential patient information being used for research and planning. This is commonly being referred to in the media as a ‘digital scrape’ or ‘data scrape’, which is the process of extracting information and importing it on to a spreadsheet or database.

We wish to reassure our local communities that what is being referred to ONLY APPLIES TO THE NHS ENGLAND SYSTEM. There is no equivalent automatic ‘opt-in’ system for Scotland, therefore there’s no corresponding need to ‘opt out’.

There is therefore no need to contact your local GP Practice to ‘opt out’ if you are registered with a GP Practice in Scotland.

If you wish to register with the practice as a full-time, regular patient, then download Registration Forms part 1 and 2, from the Patient Links and Downloads section of the website https://www.langabhatmedicalpractice.co.uk/forms/

Alternatively, you can pick up the registration forms in any surgery.

In order to improve the service to patients the practice are making a slight change to the way they triage patients looking for GP/NP appointments. From Monday 14th June when you phone the Practice you will be given these options:

Option 1 will be a dedicated line for appointments, so if you press 1 you will be transferred directly to the triage team.

Option 2 will be for anything else, repeat prescription requests, changing appointment dates and general enquiries etc.

Our phone number remains the same 01851 860222

Prescription deliveries to Lower Barvas and Brue have now ceased. Please collect from your nominated surgery Borve or Carloway.

Deliveries to Shawbost continue on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon

Deliveries to Carloway and Tolsta Chaolais continue on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday

As of Monday 7th June, opening times have changed in Borve, Bernera and Uig. Please visit the Opening Times page for more details.

COVID vaccination status can now be accessed via NHS Inform webpage

Get a record of your coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination status | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot)

or the freephone number 0808 196 8565, which is open every day from 10am to 6pm.

If accessing the online system, you will need to create a new user account and then log in using these details to request a ‘Covid-19 Vaccination Status’ document.  To be able to create an account you need to know the date of your first vaccination.  Please note that the name and address on the vaccination status will match the information on the GP patient record at the time of the first vaccination.

At Level 0:

• you can meet socially in groups:
  • of up to 8 people from 4 households in your home or theirs – and can stay overnight
  • of up to 10 people from 4 households in an indoor public place like a café, pub or restaurant
  • of up to 15 people from 15 households outdoors
• under 12s do not count towards the total number of people or households meeting outside but count towards the household numbers indoors
• you do not need to physically distance from family and friends in a private home
• you can travel anywhere in Scotland in Levels 0, 1 or 2 but must not enter a Level 3 or 4 area unless for a permitted reason
• you can travel anywhere in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands – before you travel you must check the travel rules in those countries
• you can provide informal childcare, for example to look after a grandchild
• up to 200 people can attend weddings and funerals
• tradespeople can carry out any work in your home such as painting, decorating or repairing
• you should work from home where possible

Testing

Everyone is encouraged to get tested, as around 1 in 3 people with COVID-19 do not have symptoms. Testing is free and results are available in around 30 minutes. Read guidance on getting tested.

What can open at Level 0

Places and business that can open at Level 0 include:

• cafés, pubs and restaurants
• all shops and stores
• all close contact services including hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons
• all sport and exercise
• tourist accommodation
• all visitor attractions
• all public buildings like libraries and community centres
• all entertainment (apart from nightclubs and adult entertainment)
• stadiums and events – with maximum numbers
• a limited and phased return to offices

What must close at Level 0

Places and business that must close at Level 0 include:

• nightclubs and adult entertainment

The Chaplaincy Listening Service will resume at Langabhat, as of this week – please note sessions below:

Borve Practice on Thursdays from 2-4pm;

Leurbost on Fridays from 10am-1pm; and

Carloway on Fridays from 2-4pm.

More details on the service can be found here

Latest Information on Hospital Visiting can be found here https://www.langabhatmedicalpractice.co.uk/files/2021/04/hospital-visiting-level-3-16.4.21-final.pdf

The Gravir Surgery in Pairc, South Lochs, will be open on Tuesdays from 10am to 1pm.

We are experiencing a high number of calls today, following the announcement below by NHS Western Isles. If you are able to, in the first instance, please contact the Practice by email [email protected]. This will allow our phonelines to remain clear for urgent calls.

On receipt of an email, we wll then reply to confirm if you are already registered as a carer or that we will update your record to include carer status. If you don’t have access to email, then please call 01851 860222.

From Monday 1st March the practice will be implementing a new policy, whereby we will only be dealing with emergency patient calls from 5-6pm.

A Covid Vaccination leaflet can be found and downloaded here:

https://www.langabhatmedicalpractice.co.uk/files/2020/12/37397-__Adult-information-covid-19-vaccine-leaflet-Dec2020-English.pdf

The impact of Corona virus has introduced many challenges for General Practice in how we continue to deliver services to our patients.  Practices are embracing Telephone Triage, Telephone and Video Consultations, alongside traditional face to face Consultations.   These measures are necessary to reduce the transmission of Corona virus and to protect patients and staff from potential exposure to it. 

Providing regular Long Term Condition review appointments has also been challenging and we are exploring ways we can improve this experience for our patients.  One way is by using home monitoring equipment and enabling patients to send their results into the practice to be reviewed by a member of the Clinical Team.  This gives patients the control to monitor and record some of their results at home and saves them from having to travel to attend appointments. 

High Blood Pressure is one condition that is very suitable for Home Monitoring.  Our Clinical Team have begun reviewing Patient records to see who may benefit from this service and everyone for whom it is suitable will be contacted by one of our Community Navigator colleagues.   In the coming months, patients who are deemed suitable will receive a telephone call from either Joan or Louise Anne from this team. They will explain in more detail how the system works, and Louise Anne will be able to come out to their home to show them how to use the equipment and help you get started, should this be required/appropriate.  

So, if you are currently receiving treatment for High Blood Pressure you may receive a call from one of our Community Navigators,  Louise Anne:  07966 259060 or Joan  07971 715009  in the next few months.