Mark Stubbings, Managing Partner of Portsdown Group Practice has been presented with the CFH Docmail Flu Hero of the Year Award by Stephen Morgan MP, in recognition of the practice’s innovative approach to maximising the uptake of the flu vaccination in 2018/19
The judges commended the efforts not only to target eligible groups but also to create a programme to improve and increase winter health checks designed to keep patients well and to avoid attendance at A&E and hospital admissions.
The CFH Docmail Flu Hero Awards Programme is a national initiative designed to support all GP practices in the UK to achieve vaccination targets and to broaden awareness of the importance of everyone taking responsibility for preventing the spread of flu during the winter.
Christina Cleworth, Group Business Manager at Portsdown Group Practice, who managed the programme, said:
“We started planning in April 2018 for this year’s approach, reviewing the previous year’s campaign, in order to learn from what went well and what we could improve.
We introduced walk in / no appointment necessary clinics, saving 1,000s of unnecessary phone calls (we look after 44,000 patients). All clinicians, including GPs, agreed to vaccinate any patient who needed a flu, shingles or pneumonia jab, whether or not they had an appointment. Chairs were put outside their consulting rooms and they provided the ‘jab’ in between appointments and all our reception staff wore specially designed t-shirts promoting the immunisation campaign!
We also created a special template to be able to provide a health check when we were immunising the patient which allowed for the efficient collection of BMIs and blood pressure as well as validating their mobile and email addresses, online service registration, smoking status and offering cessation advice if appropriate. We were also able to give verbal reminders for outstanding long- term condition reviews, e.g. asthma, diabetes. This process optimises the value of the patient contact and progresses our objective in optimising a holistic approach to primary care.
The whole team pulled together for the Immunisation Season Campaign and we’re delighted that despite having 3 different flu vaccines (aTIV / Quad / Child) rates are up on target achievements”.
Mark Stubbings said:
“I am delighted that the extraordinary effort put in by the team during the course of the last 12 months has been recognised in such a public way. As one of the largest GP Practices in the country, we strive to deliver the best patient care possible in an environment of incessantly increasing demand, higher patient expectation and the well-documented shortage of a GP workforce.
Our innovative approach, highlighted by this award, is replicated across many areas of the practice and we are constantly exploring ways to deliver better patient care.”
Stephen Morgan MP, Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, who presented the award said:
“The fresh, innovative approach adopted by Portsdown Group Practice is commendable. Their willingness to re-write the rule book by moving to a non-appointment style acts as a testament to their proactive ethos.
To create a system that saves time, improves service standards and optimises a holistic approach to primary care is no mean feat. It is right that the Practice is congratulated for their services to the community and I would like to extend my thanks to the whole team for securing Portsmouth on the map as a leader in this field.”
Nicholas Wilton, Marketing Manager from leading hybrid mail provider CFH Docmail, which produces GP letters for over 3,000 practices across the UK and runs the awards, said:
“We had more entries and of an even higher standard than ever before this year. It’s a testimony to the practice team that despite increasing patient numbers and workload they are able to constantly rise above those pressures and use a combination of outstanding commitment and creativity to produce campaigns that go above and beyond the requirements of immunisation and provide enhanced healthcare and improved patient outcomes.
In a very competitive field Portsdown demonstrated how joined up thinking, the willingness of every member of the team to commit to the campaign and be completely flexible had a huge impact on results. The decision to share the prize (the value of which has been matched by the Partners) and spend it on a team lunch speaks volumes about the ethos of the Practice”.
