Update on Premises Options in Seaford - The Shore Bar - 24.05.2023

Dear patients,

I am writing to update you with regards to the proposed extension of premises of Old School Surgery into The Shore pub. You may recall the pub was purchased in December 2022 by the partners of Old School Surgery in order to provide a medium term (~10 years) solution to increase the availability of clinical space required to improve patient access. We had also hoped that there would be further space to accommodate other community teams to enable Seaford Medical Practice to utilise the full extent of their premises, for their patients.

Talks have been regularly held with NHS Sussex (the Integrated Care Board (ICB), formerly known as a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)) in order to secure funding for the development to take place. The local MP, Maria Caulfield and local Seaford councillors have also been approached to help with this project. Unfortunately, following lengthy discussions and the submission of a business case, it has been concluded that this project is no longer viable. This is due to the rising costs of proposed building work with the funding available. We are unable to convert The Shore pub into premises for NHS purposes.

NHS Sussex remain committed to finding a long term solution to create more space and update healthcare facilities for the population of Seaford. We want to thank you all for your support. We also would like to thank the team who work tirelessly to provide excellent care for our patients. We remain dedicated to working with NHS Sussex and our neighbouring practice, Seaford Medical Practice, in order to establish the long term Seaford plan.

Kind regards, Dr Joe Ljevar On behalf of the partners at Old School Surgery

Collaboration with Grove Road Surgery - Commencing May 2023

Our practice has always had a culture of working in collaboration with others in the NHS. The partners will be working with Grove Road surgery in Eastbourne from 1st May 2023. In terms of changes for our patients at Old School Surgery, Dr Raj Chandarana will no longer be seeing patients in a clinical capacity at Old School Surgery. His role in overviewing and managing the practice will continue.

Dr Khaiber Akbari will be the GP managing Dr Raj Chandarana patient list.

The collaboration with Grove Road surgery will not affect our patients at Old School Surgery in any other way. There will be no requirement to be seen at Grove Road Surgery.

We look forward to our collaboration with Grove Road Surgery, which we feel will help ensure the stability and resilience of both practices.

Easter Egg Collection April 2023

The team at Old School have been busy collecting Easter Eggs to support the Seahaven Storehouse. They have recently managed to donate 42 eggs. This year Old School have nominated Seahaven Foodbank for their charity of choice. We will be assisting with having a collection box due to be located in the reception area of the surgery, as well as fundraising for them. We are also hoping our patients will be happy to donate items to the foodbank by dropping them into our collection box.

 Patient Participation Group

We hold a regular Patient Participation Group meetings to discuss ideas about how to improve our services.

The group is made up of patients across our branches and they help us with ideas, collating survey results and obtaining views from our patients.

This group is important at driving the practice forward, and we are always looking for new members who want to get involved.

If you would be interested in joining the group, please pass your name and contact details to one of our reception team or contact the PPG via their email address - oldschoolpatients@outlook.com 

Greener Practice

At Old School Surgery we have been working with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare to find ways in which we can reduce our impact on the environment whilst continuing to provide high quality care.

In general practice 60% of our carbon footprint is accounted for by prescribing.  This figure includes the use of inhalers for treatment of respiratory conditions like Asthma and COPD.  Some MDI inhalers have the equivalent carbon footprint of driving 175 miles from London to Sheffield!

However we can reduce the impact on the environment, without affecting the quality of treatment, by switching patients to a different brand of inhaler with a lower carbon footprint.   We are currently contacting our patients prescribed Ventolin inhalers to let them know about our plans to switch to them to Salamol inhalers.  Both inhalers work in the same way, contain the same medicine and have the same number of doses. However, Salamol inhalers have a 60% lower carbon footprint than Ventolin inhalers.  If you would like more information please refer to this video and leaflet. For a reminder of how to use your inhaler please go to: https://asthma.org.uk/advice/inhaler-videos/pmdi/

Old School Surgery is fully committed to becoming a Greener Practice and will posting further updates here about our progress.