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For a number of years now, I have been asked by some patients of the practice “when am I going to retire?” and, more kindly. “you’ve been here a long time, haven’t you?”.I’ve also heard “are you still here?” and “I thought you retired ages ago”, as well as the occasional and somewhat confusing “have you been at the practice long?”. I should say that I have heard these questions long before any thoughts of actual retirement had ever crossed my mind!

First, the bad news – I’m not retiring! Second, the worse news – I’m staying on! I am leaving the partnership as of 31.03.2022 but am remaining as a salaried GP with a lesser time commitment for the foreseeable future.

Ever since Oliver Cromwell transplanted my south Wales ancestors to the wild west of an adjacent island, their successors have wasted no opportunity to cross the Irish Sea and re-emigrate back to Britain. In my case, it was via a slightly aged (rusting, actually) Sealink ferry to take up a post in London in 1989.

I could never have imagined then that my ultimate destination would be Stubbington. But, via a succession of jobs in London, Somerset, Bedfordshire and finally Southampton, I arrived in Stubbington three years into John Major’s premiership and have been a willing inhabitant as a full time GP and (latterly) GP trainer ever since.

In my almost three decades here, I have been very fortunate to work with a succession of excellent, hard-working and dedicated colleagues within the practice who have made coming to work a pleasure and never a chore. If I could single out one group for special mention, it would be our Reception Team, who in the face of unremitting and increasing pressures, especially in pandemic conditions, have remained extremely effective, professional and good-humored throughout. For their hard work, their patience and their resilience, they all deserve our admiration and our thanks, and they certainly have mine.

The intervening years since I joined during the John Major/Kenneth Clark era of the 1990s have seen a lot of changes in our practice, and in the NHS more generally, and the current pandemic has been a challenge to us all in how we deliver services, train GPs and especially in how we interact with you, the patient. The increasingly vital role of our nurses and health care assistants in same day and routine care, the recently developed and much appreciated role of our social prescribers in assisting in care assessment and advice, as well as our involvement in and the support of our local Coastal Primary Care Network in the COVID vaccination programme are but some of the highlights to my mind.

As many of you may know, we are very fortunate in having recruited two new GPs in the past year, at least one of whom will be a partner shortly. This is in the face of a well-publicized national recruitment and retention crisis in many healthcare professions. Dr Omar Farooqi and Dr Emma David are most welcome to our team and the practice looks forward to many more years of personal list-based effective and professionally-rewarding healthcare with their energy, skill and enthusiasm, carrying on in the tradition of our forebears when they founded the practice over 50 years ago.

I should also mention you, the patients. It has been an honour and a privilege to have been able to serve you in times of illness and strife and to have been entrusted with the responsibility of tending to your health and well-being. Your courtesy over the years and frequent kind words of thanks and encouragement has been much appreciated. Such sentiments really do give wind to all our sails for the long haul.

I look forward to a few more years of being a GP in Stubbington and despite my possibly shy and retiring nature, have no intention of actually retiring anytime soon!

Yours sincerely

Dr Noel Hopkins

September 2021

Blood Specimen Tubes Supply Issue Update - 20th September 2021

There is no longer a supply issue with the blood test tubes and blood test have now resumed at the surgery as normal.

Booster COVID Vaccine

We are currently planning our COVID vaccine booster programme and will start to contact eligible patients from this week. Please do not contact the practice to request or enquire into the booster COVID vaccine, we will contact patients once eligible.

Those eligible for the booster COVID vaccine are:

Anyone aged 50 or over
Heath and social care workers
Those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19
Adult carers
Adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals

Booster vaccine can be administered 6 months after the second dose.

August 2021

Data reveals intense pressure on GPs

New data released by the NHS covering Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and part of Somerset has thrown a spotlight on the huge increase in workload faced by GP practices as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of appointments offered has risen by an average of 11.8% compared to July two years ago – with Hampshire facing the biggest increase at 16.4%, followed by Wiltshire and part of Somerset combined at 13.2%. The increase was less, but still sizeable, in Dorset at 8.8%. The data includes towns such as Swindon, Fareham and Gosport, Southampton and Portsmouth, as well as the Isle of Wight.

As well as a GP shortage, there has been further pressure caused by population growth, a rise in people seeking mental health support and a backlog of routine treatment. GP surgeries have also had to adapt to new ways of working, introduced new technology for online appointments and given Covid patients oxygen saturation equipment to monitor them remotely. They have also carried out far more flu jabs than ever before.

Wessex Local Medical Committees (LMC), which represents the region’s GPs and practices, is urging patients to be far more understanding of the pressure their local surgeries are under.

Dr Gareth Bryant, Acting Chief Executive of the LMC and a GP in Wiltshire, said: “We are not looking for sympathy, just a better understanding of what we are coping with. Our GP practices have faced unprecedented demand, partly due to delivering the Covid vaccination programme and supporting patients who are ill with coronavirus, and also because they are being affected by the backlog elsewhere in the NHS.

“At the same time, there is a national shortage of GPs and practices are adapting as best they can by recruiting other staff to their teams such a physiotherapists, mental health practitioners and pharmacists. They are trying to get through appointments as best they can but there may be some delays. The Government has promised that more GPs will be recruited but it’s not happening at the speed or the levels we need.

“Our teams have put themselves in the frontline and been exposed to considerable personal risk, sometimes at the expense of their own physical, mental, and families’ health. We have sadly lost colleagues and loved ones to this terrible virus too. Many staff in the NHS are stressed and burnt out.

“We want to encourage people to give their support to their GP practice, whose staff are being kind, patient and responsible, and who are doing everything they can to support their local communities in such difficult circumstances. Our practices in the Wessex area are rated as good by over 83% of the public and even higher in most places – above the national average.”

One of the reasons for the increase in appointments undertaken, even taking into account that over 50,000 people a month fail to attend their appointments, is the rise of email, phone calls and video appointments, up 132.77% from 276,590 in July two years ago, to 643,807 this July. Face-to-face appointments are down 11.43% on average.

LMC Medical Director Dr Andy Purbrick, a GP Partner in Dorset, added: “As independent businesses, GPs have responded extremely well to the challenges of the pandemic and shown themselves to be resilient, adaptable and innovative in the way they protect both patients and staff. They should be praised for the ways in which they have adjusted, including introducing additional technology and communication channels. However, the appointment can often take longer online and result in asking someone to come in to see their GP, duplicating the time involved.

“GPs much prefer to see people face to face, recognising that many ailments cannot be effectively picked up over a phone call or email, and over half of the appointments are being done this way. However, their priority is to keep everyone safe and for many people, online technology or phone call is a more effective way of communicating when it comes to issues that are less serious.”

We will be following this up with more resources for you to use shortly and we hope this is helpful.

Kind Regards

The Wessex LMCs Team

July 2021

What is happening at Stubbington Practice?

We have resumed all of our services at the practice but the way we access these services has changed. The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has forced us to work differently to help slow the spread of the virus. All healthcare settings are taking special measures to protect their patients and staff although working differently.

Where possible, we want to avoid lots of patients sitting in the waiting room together, as we know this increases the risk of the virus spreading and therefore we have had to change the way we offer our services to you.

If you are invited to attend an appointment, we want to ensure that there are minimal numbers of people in the practice so that we can maintain social distancing and keep patients and staff safe.

We have reduced the restrictions for patients entering the building. You will now be able to drop off and pick up paperwork as you did before, although prescriptions will still be sent electronically to the pharmacy.

There is a limit to two patients queuing at the reception desk so please queue outside if busy.

We have now opened our arrival checking screen. Please use this if you are attending for an appointment. There are wipes to clean the screen before using.

We will no longer take your temperature when you enter the building but to protect staff and other patients, please do not enter the building if you have any covid symptoms.