Your January 2023 Patient Update

January tends to be a tough month for many of us. We often feel out of shape, short of cash and pretty low on cheer. We feel it with you! But we’re trying to start positively with a quick monthly update to keep you up to speed with how the Apex team are working hard to help you.

As you can imagine, hundreds of patients got in touch with us last week after the break, many more than in previous years. Quick access is something we always strive for. If you were one of them, we hope we’ve sorted your request out quickly enough and thank you for your patience if we haven’t quite managed to yet.  

Struggling to get appointments?

Talking more about demand, we delivered 2,356 appointments, all of which were face to face unless a telephone call was requested by the patient in December – that’s 354 more appointments than last December. If you’ve been watching BBC News recently, you’ll have read GP practices across the country are under massive pressure to meet demand for appointments right now. 

So it’s sad to report that in December, 99 appointments were booked but not attended at Apex. That means 99 other patients had to wait longer for an appointment, equal to 21.75 hours of consultation time.

Please call us on 01634 720220 to cancel your appointment if you no longer need it. We can only offer it to someone else if we know that that time slot is available. A few seconds to you could be life-changing to someone else.

Time-savers

Great to see 510 of you used our online service, Econsult last month to save time waiting on the phone to request an appointment or for an admin query. It’s checked multiple times throughout the day and we get back to you before the end of the next working day but usually same-day. You can access Econsult here.

What we’re seeing most right now and when to see a GP

Troublesome coughs, colds that aren’t clearing up for weeks on end, strep A, flu and COVID are all mixing and making life miserable for many at the minute. Even our staff and their families have been hit.

Most of these conditions can be managed at home, without needing to see us. They often need 10-14 days to peak and then leave your system. 

Your local pharmacy can recommend the best medicines to relieve your symptoms during this time. Antibiotics are only used for bacterial infections and won’t relieve symptoms or speed up recovery for colds or flu.

If your symptoms don’t improve after 3 weeks or you or your child suddenly gets worse, call our team or 111 when we’re closed. This is a great website we’ve been sharing with parents about what to look for in children and babies.

With best wishes for the month ahead.

Dr Okafor and the team at Apex Medical Practice.