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Welcome to the latest edition of the My Tenterden email newsletter. What's On in & around Tenterden, What's On in Tenterden. Please forward this Newsletter to all of your friends, family and colleagues so they can subscribe to future Newsletters 
Sue Ferguson
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The Ivy Court Update

From Dr Neil Pillai
Monday 4 October 2021

Welcome to what I hope will be a regular update to what’s going on at your Surgery.
Ivy Court Surgery
I have wanted to improve the communication with you, our patients, for some time now, but you may have noticed we’ve all been a bit busy recently!

But the dust is hopefully settling on what has been the most turbulent period we have faced in our recent history and so now seems a good time to look forwards to what we all hope will be a brighter future here in Tenterden and the surrounding villages.

My aim, and that of the Partners and staff at Ivy Court, is to support you and your family’s health and wellbeing and to deliver to you the very highest standards of care. I can assure you that we will continue to work tirelessly to achieve this aim.

But as you know, it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

It wasn’t easy working for 18 months in portacabins on laptops, in the Pavilion and in football changing rooms through the Covid pandemic. We coped with lightning strikes on East Cross, regular power outages, heatwaves, noise pollution as Recreation Ground Rd was dug up, hotdesking and the PPE crisis. The amazing Covid vaccination programme lifted all of our spirits and gave us hope that there was an end in sight to the never ending lockdowns.

Despite moving into our wonderful new building, we struggled with significant GP shortages as well as record demand on GP appointments as we came out of Covid. Despite extensive efforts we could not get sufficient GPs or even locums to help us. We were in the midst of a perfect storm yet we continued to work hard behind the scenes on improving our service.

The circumstances we found ourselves in meant that we were forced to make some short term changes to our systems that we know were not universally popular. We know it hasn’t been easy to get through to the surgery nor to book an appointment.

But I am pleased to say that I think we have weathered that storm…. not to say there won’t be little showers from time to time…. this is England after all!!

We have been as keen as you have to increase our face to face consultations and these have been expanded over recent weeks so that now over ½ of all GP appointments are face to face.

Many of our patients also want the flexibility that telephone, or video consultations offer and so these will remain an option.

We know you have wanted to be able to book appointments in advance with the GP of your choice and these are also being re-introduced, as are the booking of appointments online.

With regard to the Covid Booster jabs we WILL be offering these to our patients at Ivy Court, but the process of procuring them has not been straightforward and there are challenges to how they are transported from Charing surgery too. We have just heard we will be receiving our first doses in the second week of October but please do not call the surgery to book. As soon as we have delivery we will contact you to book your jab. If you do not wish to wait you can book your Booster jabs through the mass vaccination sites via 119 or the NHS website.

We are delighted that in the last month we have had 4 new GPs join Ivy Court despite the national GP recruitment crisis. We were able to persuade two of our GP trainees, Dr Shankar Gupta and Dr Jolisha Singh, many of whom you will know, to stay on with us. Dr Toby Holland will be also be doing regular sessions with us, as will Dr Becca Stone. Dr Stone will be taking on her own list so if any patients would like to transfer to her list then please email the surgery at kmccg.patientliaison@nhs.net and we will be happy to arrange this.

Ivy Court has a long history of training our future GPs and this will continue to be an important aspect of our work. Dr Davis has joined me as a GP Trainer, with Dr Watts completing his training accreditation next year. We currently have 5 GP Trainees at the Surgery and are very excited to be welcoming the first medical students from Kent’s new medical school to Ivy Court in November. Ivy Court invests significant time in training these doctors as we hope some of them will choose to stay in the area and perhaps become your future GPs, and so securing healthcare provision in the Tenterden area, whatever the national climate may be.

So, we continue to strive to move with the times and reflect on our journey and the lessons we have learned along the way, so that we can provide you with the care and support you need. My journey at the surgery started in January 2003. The time has flown. Tony Blair was Prime Minister back then, and Girls Aloud were Number 1 with Sounds of the Underground. My eldest son Zak was 2 and my first daughter Olivia was just 3 months old.  Zak is now in his third year at Medical School and Olivia is working as part of our expanded reception team.

18 years ago, there were just 2 telephone lines into the practice, now there are over 8, with up to 50 held in a virtual cloud based system. Back then, apart from surgeries and letters, all my extra calls for the day were able to be written into a few lines of a little red leather bound diary which sat beside the telephonist.

Times really have changed as we now have a dedicated GP working all day every day, just on these extra calls and administrative queries that come into the practice. Although the ethos at Ivy Court has never really changed over the years, the external environment we live and work within has, and that is reflected in the sheer demand and complexities of the cases we as GPs are required to manage.
 
But some things don’t change. Despite the challenges, I still feel very privileged to be working as a GP in such a beautiful part of the country, supported by a brilliant team.

I can’t promise we will always get it right, but I can promise you that our aspiration is, as it always has been, to deliver high quality, safe personalised care to all our patients.

And I can promise that we will continue to listen and communicate openly and honestly with you.

Till next time then....
Dr Neil Pillai
Monday 4 October 2021
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