MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER, 2016

Improved services for Lochee Health Centre

Patients at Lochee Health Centre are seeing a range of new services and improvements to existing services including the appointment of new GPs, since the takeover by NHS Tayside, six months ago.

NHS Tayside took over the management of the practice in March this year, following the previous partners’ decision to dissolve the GP partnership. Since then the Board has been working with community partners to ensure that patients receive high quality and improved healthcare services.

Despite the current nationally recognised challenges in GP recruitment, NHS Tayside has secured three GPs to work in the practice with a further two GPs starting in November.

NHS Tayside Chief Executive Lesley McLay said, “We are fully committed to providing GP services from Lochee Health Centre now and into the future.

“We understand that patients want to receive as much of their care as possible as close as possible to where they live. We want to further improve the range of services available at the practice including offering extended appointment times, introducing support for those living with a chronic disease and providing access to a wide range of multidisciplinary healthcare professionals such as staff from the Enhanced Community Support team, allied health practitioners and pharmacy. The current services provided at Lochee Health Centre are being reviewed with a view to providing additional services to support people to live better and manage their long-term health conditions.

“An advance nurse practitioner will also be recruited to the healthcare team to work with the GPs and increase the range of services we can provide. The advanced nurse practitioner will be able to assess, diagnose and treat many conditions including issuing prescriptions where required.

“We also want to make contacting the health centre as easy as possible and so we are investing in upgrading the current telephone system and have also appointed an additional two members of staff to join the administration team.”

NHS Tayside is committed to the future of Lochee Health Centre and in the longer term it is hoped that the health centre will become an exemplar teaching and training practice by working closely with the University of Dundee Medical School.

At the start of next year, the practice will be introducing medical students who as part of their studies will spend time in the local community alongside GPs. This will also provide GPs with the opportunity to further develop their interest in teaching and training.

NHS Tayside is very keen to involve the local community in the future of Lochee Health Centre and is looking to establish a new Patient Participation Group within the practice to help shape local health services. The group will help ensure patients are able to influence future healthcare developments in the local area.

Patients who are registered with Lochee Health Centre can volunteer to join the group. No experience is necessary to become involved, just an interest in health and healthcare services.

Patient groups provide an important role working in partnership with the healthcare teams and ensuring that the views of patients are heard. They can also help influence the future provision of services within their practice. For more information, patients can contact the Practice Manager on 01382 611283 or email wendy.calder@nhs.net.

Contact:

Anna Michie

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 424138