This practice is delighted to be signed up to the Green Impact for Health Toolkit and is actively taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint. The climate emergency is also a health emergency, and health care in the UK contributes 5.4% of the UK's carbon emissions. We need to enhance the health of our current population without compromising the health of future generations, and this means operating within the sustainable boundaries of the planet. Fortunately most of the solutions for the planet also make our health better - for example eating a mainly plant-based diet, engaging in active travel and exercise in nature, avoiding smoking, reducing pollution etc all enhance our health and reduce our need for medications, with further benefits to the NHS, your health and the carbon footprint of healthcare. Take a look at www.greenerpractice.co.uk to learn more about this.

WHAT RESTRICTIONS WILL LOOK LIKE AT AYTON & SNAINTON MEDICAL PRACTICE after 19th July

For the time being there will be no changes here at the practice. Patients coming to the surgery will still need to wear a mask, use the hand sanitiser and socially distance. Our staff will continue to wear appropriate PPE and medications will still need to be collected from the door under the canopy at Ayton.

We have made this decision as often patients coming to the surgery are sick, vulnerable and may be unvaccinated due to medical reasons, so we feel that these precautions will help to protect everyone. We also need to minimise the number of our staff catching Covid in order to remain functioning as a service, so for this reason alone these measures are vital.

GP appointments will continue to be triaged by telephone, if necessary patients will be offered a face to face appointment. We will also continue to consult by online consultation and video. Nurse team appointments will be either via telephone or face to face depending on the type of appointment requested. It is worth noting that we are consulting with higher numbers of patients than we ever did before the pandemic whilst also playing a big part in the Covid vaccination programme.

We hope you will understand why we need to continue with these measures to keep the surgery as safe for everyone as we can. We have all come so far in trying to minimise the impact of Covid, let’s continue to stay safe together.

Thank you and please share this information.

The data held in GP medical records of patients is used every day to support health and care planning and research in England, helping to find better treatments and improve patient outcomes for everyone. The new data collection, known as the General Practice Data for Planning and Research, reduces burden on GP practices, allowing doctors and other staff to focus on patient care. NHS Digital has engaged with the British Medical Association, Royal College of GP's and the National Data Guardian to ensure relevant safeguards are in place for patients and GP practices.

From 1st September 2021 pseudonymised (non-identifiable patient data) data from GP medical records will be shared with NHS Digital. NHS Digital will not collect patients' names and addresses. Any other data that could directly identify patients (such as NHS Number, Date of Birth, full postcode) is replaced with unique codes via de-identification software before the data is shared with NHS Digital.

If you do not want your identifiable patient data to be shared with NHS Digital you can opt-out by registering a National Data Opt-out via the below link:-

https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/

If you have any further queries please visit the following link for more information:-

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research/advice-for-the-public

The NHS prescribes 50 million inhalers in England a year, 70% of these inhalers are metered-dose inhalers (MDIs). MDIs contribute to nearly 4% of the entire NHS carbon footprint and about 25% of the General Practice prescribing carbon footprint.

Dry Powder Inhalers (DPIs) are an alternative that do not contain a propellant and have a small fraction of the carbon footprint of MDIs.

The most commonly used inhaler in the UK has a carbon footprint of 28kg per inhaler. That’s the same as driving 175miles in a car. DPIs on the other hand typically have a carbon footprint of less than 1kg, that’s only a 4 mile drive! If you would like to discuss switching your current inhaler(s) to a more environmentally friendly alterative, please get in contact with the surgery.

We would also like to ask our patients to return all used inhalers to our dispensary or a pharmacy for safe disposal. They should not be put into household waste as even after the inhaler is empty it still contains significant amounts of these environmentally damaging gases.