Many of you will be aware that Dr Ishac Jalisi has been on secondment away from the practice since late 2018 and that Dr Ranette O’Sullivan relocated to be closer to her family this Spring.
Having worked at the practice for 13 years Dr Jalisi has decided that he is ready for a new challenge and we are sorry to inform you that he has decided not to return to Wokingham Medical Centre. He thanks his patients for all their support over the years and wishes you all the very best for the future.
Over the past few months there have been a lot of media reports regarding the national shortage of GPs. We, at Wokingham Medical Centre, are not immune to this and despite our best efforts we have been unable to recruit replacement GP’s. Those patients who were registered with Dr Jalisi and Dr O’Sullivan will now be reallocated to the list of one of the remaining Partners. Please be aware that our salaried GP’s, Dr Hadfield, Dr Hext and Dr Murray, will not be taking on any more existing patients.
If you are one of the patients affected by this change then you will be informed whom your new GP is the next time you make contact with the practice.
We understand that this news may concern some of you, but the NHS General Practice Forward View and NHS Long Term Plan documents outline how primary care is changing and will continue to change. The General Practice team will consist of more allied healthcare professionals who will bring their expertise and skills to bear. We have been extremely fortunate to have recruited high calibre individuals and many of these will now be your first clinical contact. Again, as part of the NHS strategy, we also offer digital appointments through our collaboration with Push Doctor.
For the avoidance of doubt, NHS strategy is for more and more patient care to be conducted by allied healthcare professionals and remotely eg digitally. This therefore means that you will – inevitably – see your GP less and will be offered alternatives when you request a GP appointment.
Our GP Pharmacists, Graham Edmunds and Bianca Andrews, deal with medication queries and reviews, and are both training in treatment of minor illness. Our two paramedics, Adrian Doyle and Julia Kelsall, are fully trained in dealing with minor illness, home visits and care planning. Along with our existing excellent nurse practitioners they are likely to be your first port of call.
Finally, this is a time of profound change and all of us, staff and patients alike, are having to adjust to a new general practice landscape, one in which the traditional model – ie the GP deals with everything – no longer applies. Please be patient with our staff and especially so with our receptionists if they have to perform the difficult task of informing patients that their own GP is unavailable.
We appreciate your understanding.
The Partners
