Long Term Condition Newsletter

Introduction

Bay Medical Group have a dedicated team who provide a newsletter in relation to your long-term conditions to keep you up to date with any changes, new research and potential seasonal advice.

We aim to offer additional information and advice that will help you to stay as well as is possible it may be that you have more than one condition and if this is the case, you will have access to all the relevant newsletters.

You will be contacted by letter and text reminder to make your annual appointments in the month of your birthday each year. Then you call a designated telephone line to make the appointment. (01524 511999: option 1)

Unfortunately, if you do not respond to these invites, you will miss your opportunity for the yearly review.

Do not worry, we realise conditions can change, and we provide access to our clinicians in these instances. You should never wait for the annual review if you feel unwell or are concerned about your condition. Please contact the surgery and we can ensure that you are seen.

What is a long-term condition?

There are numerous conditions that once diagnosed require ongoing management with medicines or other treatments 0ver a period of years or decades and for some are potentially with you for life. Examples include Asthma, COPD, Diabetes, Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease, Chronic Kidney Disease and Stroke. This is recorded on your patient record, and you will be contacted every year for your annual review.

Here at BMG, we see this as a partnership and therefore the more engaged you are in your long-term condition, the more positive these outcomes will be.

What will happen at my annual review?

This may include blood tests, blood pressure and other observations; urine testing, height and weight readings, questions about lifestyle and so on.

If you have access to a blood pressure machine, it is extremely helpful bringing a range of readings to the appointment. This can give us a far more accurate picture of what your blood pressure actually is rather than just the reading we take in surgery. It is also really important to bring the urine sample if you have been asked to do so however, urine samples can be done on arrival if you have no container as it is an important check for kidney function.

Once all the results are in, a Practice Nurse will review them. Depending on the result, you may be offered a telephone or face-to-face appointment with that nurse. If all the results are satisfactory and no concerns have been raised with the Healthcare Assistant, you will likely receive a letter to confirm this along with a care plan.

The BMG website has information regarding your condition is available to you throughout the year to help answer questions that may arise

VISIT THE LONG TERM CONDITIONS SECTION

We welcome feedback from patients with ideas of what you feel would be useful for the website/newsletters.

GP leads

Although going through your long-term conditions review each year you would not necessarily see one of our GPs. We do however have some GPs responsible for different conditions who oversee the work of the LTC team adding advice and clinical updates ensuring you get the best care possible we have Dr Capner who is responsible for Respiratory Conditions, Dr Price & Dr Hutchings who specialise in Diabetes we also have GP input into Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation and Hypertension