At the moment the NHS is under extraordinary pressure. This is particularly true of General Practice, especially as the share of NHS funding General practice receives is now only 8.4%, the lowest for a decade. There are also increased expectations from government about what we should be doing. Increasing hospital waiting lists have a big impact on us: patients who are waiting to see specialists or for treatment or operations need more input from us. We want to let you know about the effect all of this is having on your Woodley Centre Surgery and what we are doing about it.

Over the last few years, the medical centre has been under increased financial pressure. Like all your households we have had increases in all our costs – everything we buy costs more, our energy costs have increased, and our staffing costs have also increased. The funding we get from government has increased by 2.1% each year. This increase does not get near to covering our current costs. You may have read about “new” money that has come into primary care networks. Some of this money pays for staff that are making a significant difference to patient care. However, the funding does not help the medical centre finances.

The impact of the financial pressures is already being felt. As a result of the increased costs, our clinical and administrative teams are smaller. We can no longer afford to pay for locums. Woodley Centre Surgery is a team of fantastic people that we are all very proud to be part of. It is the team that makes the surgery such a great place to work and why our patients get good care. We are also very well supported by our patients which we value hugely. We think it is important that we are honest with you about what is happening. There are some things that you will notice have had to change and we need you to know why things are continuing to change.

Some of the key pressures we are facing as a surgery:

• Increased Medical Need: People are seeking care more often, leading to longer wait times for appointments and a strain on our capacity to provide timely care to all.
• Complex Healthcare Needs: Many patients require comprehensive care for chronic conditions, mental health issues and preventive services. Addressing these needs requires additional time and resources.
• Limited Resources: Despite our best efforts, we are operating within a healthcare system with finite resources. This means we need to prioritise care and make difficult decisions to allocate these resources carefully.

All our staff are working extremely hard to provide the best level of care they can for you. We cannot work any harder. The current financial pressures and change in staffing levels mean that we will not be always offer the same level of service you are used to. We can only afford to offer the level of service we are funded for.

You may notice that waiting times for appointments may be longer. There will be times that we may need to ask you to access healthcare elsewhere. For example, the Pharmacy First (insert hyperlink to www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/pharmacy/pharmacy-services/pharmacy-first/) referral scheme is now able to assess and treat a number of minor conditions. Our Care Navigation team can refer you to the local pharmacies for these conditions.

The way you contact and access us has changed. We are doing everything we can to try and minimise the impact on the services we offer. We are looking at different ways of delivering services so that you can still access good quality care with us, we have increased the number of group consultations we offer and are looking at offering these across other conditions.

You can help us by trying to self-manage minor illness, by using other services when they are offered to you, by attending the health checks you are invited to, by using the online platform to contact the surgery where possible as this leaves the phonelines open for patients unable to use the online platform.

We have to protect our staff from burn out and pay attention to guidelines and recommendations. We have followed the BMA guideline to move to 15-minute appointments for our GPs and Paramedics. This has unfortunately had the knock-on effect of slightly reducing the number of appointments we are able to offer, although this is also designed to reduce the number of appointments a patient may need as they get more quality time with the patient.

Despite these challenges, please know that we are committed to providing you with the highest quality care possible. We are continually exploring innovative solutions, collaborating with other healthcare providers, and advocating policies to support Primary Care.

In light of these pressures, we kindly ask for your understanding and patience. Here are a few ways you can help:

1. Use resources wisely: If your concern is not urgent, consider alternative options such as 111, self-care, or Pharmacy First. Update us if you no longer need an appointment, in the first two months of the year we had 277 missed appointments. Which more than likely were re-booked again. Be aware of the most appropriate person or service you may need to see.

2. Plan Ahead: Schedule routine appointments in advance to help us manage our availability more effectively.

3. Be Patient and Respectful: Our staff are working diligently to address your needs. Kindness and understanding goes a long way in fostering a positive healthcare environment for everyone. Be aware that are staff may live locally and be members on social media groups and can see what is being said about the surgery.

4. Provide Constructive Feedback: Your input is invaluable. If you have suggestions for how we can improve our services, please share them with us in a respectful manner. Not all change is possible given the limited resources we are working within.

5. Patient Education: If there is an issue you are worried about, high blood pressure or cholesterol, we have a Health and Wellbeing Coach who is able to talk you through this. Often medical issues a linked to a good diet and exercise or the lack of these, if guidance is needed, please request a referral to the Health and Wellbeing Team.

If you feel strongly about the issue of general practice funding, you may wish to contact the politicians that control it – we are in an election year.

We will keep you up to date with changes at Woodley Centre Surgery. We will do everything we can to continue to provide you with good quality care. We are very grateful for all the support you offer us. Thank you for entrusting us with your healthcare needs.