Author: Andrew Taylor

At the Swan Mead Activity Centre, Queens Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex. RH19 1BE

A talk on Guinea Pig Club – Rebuilding Bodies & Souls
By members of the East Grinstead Museum

Thursday 3 August 2017 at 11.00 am

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) plan and buy healthcare services for the local population in your area.

National funding is available from 2018 to improve access to GP services. This includes ensuring that everyone has more convenient access to GP services, including a mixture of same day and routine appointments, on weekday evenings after 6.30pm, and at weekends based on local needs. This piece of work is known as ‘delivering extended access to GP services’.

As local CCGs we are currently considering how best to deliver extended access in your area so that it meets the needs of our population; is affordable and is realistically deliverable within the budget we have been allocated to provide this additional service. There is a national and local shortage of GPs and other clinicians who work in general practice. This means that extended access services could be provided at a venue other than your own surgery and that you may not see your own GP or even a GP from your usual practice. Should that GP need to access your medical records, your consent will be sought when you book the appointment.

The CCGs would like to find out more about your views on extending access to GP services in the evenings and at weekends.

By completing the survey you have the opportunity to tell us:

• How likely you are to access GP appointments in the evenings and weekends.
• The kind of services you might want to use in the evenings and weekends.
• Whether you would consider alternatives to face to face consultations.

In deciding what level of extended access provision is needed for the local population, the CCGs will consider the responses to this survey, alongside evidence of how GP appointments are currently used; current levels of usage of other services during extended access periods such as GP Out-of-Hours, A&E and local urgent treatment centres/minor injuries units. We will also look at intelligence from neighbouring CCGs on their experience of delivering extended access and nationally available evidence where these approaches have been piloted. All of this information will help to inform how extended access is provided in your local area.

The survey will take around 5 minutes to complete and is anonymous.

http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/GPExtendedAccessSurvey

Extended access to GP Services FAQs

GP Services Extended Access Survey 2017

During one of his regular trips into East Grinstead from his home in Mitcham, Artist Barry Weekley was very taken with the High Street flower beds  which had been recently planted for the summer. Since 2012 East Grinstead Town Council has been responsible for maintaining the beds with displays changing three times a year for Winter, Spring and Summer. The annual Summer planting commemorates notable anniversaries, both local and National and celebrates local organisations.

This Summer, one of the beds near the War memorial commemorates the Suffragette movement and because it was very active in East Grinstead, the Anti –Suffragette movement! Barry was particularly drawn to this one as he had just completed a painting of the Suffragette Emily Davison. Emily was mown down by the Kings horse and killed after she walked onto the track during the Epsom Derby in 1913.

Town Promotions manager Dawn Spalding was intrigued to see Barry’s painting and invited him back to the town. ‘We are always delighted to know that East Grinstead’s floral displays are attracting attention and we are meeting people from all over the country who have connections to the themes chosen each year’ she said. ‘It was great to see Barry’s painting with the High St as a back drop and while I was photographing him a tourist from Holland began to take photographs of us! Perhaps he will return next year to see what the Town Council have come up with’

The many props  for summer beds are designed by EGTC head gardener Jenny Watson with themes being chosen by Town Clerk Julie Holden. Ferrings Nursery from Worthing  interpret the designs, supply and plant the bedding plants and the Town Council’s outdoor staff prepare, maintain and water all year.

Barry Weekley’s painting of Emily Davison is for sale and is available as a print too from www.barryweekleyart.com

He can be contacted for further information on this and other paintings  barryweekley@btinternet.com

It’s that time of year again when we ask for your help and full commitment with the annual canvass of electors. It’s a full canvass, so lots to do and again we are making it easier with an App on a simple hand held device. Please see the main points to be aware of below:

 Annual Electoral Canvass

• Full district-wide canvass – started during July we currently have an excellent return rate of over 63% with the first reminder stage commencing in a week’s time.
• All Mid Sussex properties to receive a Household Enquiry form (HEF)
• Residents must reply online or complete the paper HEF & return to ES within 28 days
• ‘Changes’ and ‘no-change’ can be notified online
• Text, telephone and internet reply channels for ‘no-change’ only
• Non-responder properties visited by Canvassers from Sept until mid Nov
• New 2017 Register to be published 1^st Dec 2017

Opportunity to help & earn Extra Cash

• An hourly rate of £9.10 per hour. For this, our expectation is for canvassers to complete at least 8 household enquires in an urban area per hour and 5 per hour in a rural area.  Timesheets are required to be completed each time you canvass and submitted to us at the end of each working week via email.
• ES looking for Temp Electoral Canvassers – Please see all the background information here: http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/elections/annual-canvass/
• Full training will be given at the Council Offices, Oaklands, Haywards Heath to successful candidates.
• Canvassers will commence from 1^st September through until mid-November
• Canvassers will assist residents by completing HEFs with them online/offline using a smart device (tablet) – very quick and easy App
• Canvasser devices and Electoral database continually synced with secure data centre keeping canvass areas up to date
• Improved earning potential as assigned households are definite non-responders