As I’m sure many of you are aware Cranleigh Medical Practice is recruiting more staff and I wanted to take a few minutes to explain what is going on.
Some of our lovely admin team are moving on in their lives and that means they are leaving the practice. As they develop in their careers they need to spread their wings. Some have gained promotions elsewhere in the NHS and others started with us before they went to university, came back in between terms and are now embarking on their careers in other areas.
However, as we have more people coming to live in Cranleigh the number of patients registered with us has risen. This means that rather than just replace the admin staff who are leaving we also need to recruit more staff right across the board, including admin. More doctors will be joining us and we are also adding to the team who provide our Urgent Care and Minor Illness clinics.
All this means we need to add to our management team to support all the additional staff.
We are very lucky to be able to attract some excellent candidates and we hope to complete this recruitment process over the coming months. There will then be a period of training for all the staff so they get to know how we work and how to provide the high level of holistic care that Cranleigh Medical Practice prides itself on.
Alongside this we are looking at how we can adjust our appointment system to introduce some more on-line booking back for you. (You can already book for blood tests that your doctor has asked for, GP telephone appointments and Cervical Screening with a nurse.) We are also increasing the number of face to face GP appointments we provide. These appointments will always need to be allocated according to clinical need so this process needs to be carefully managed. One consideration is that while on-line works for some people it doesn’t for everyone. We have also discovered that many people prefer to submit an on-line request and have a phone or video call with the doctor or nurse. There is not one standard model that works for everyone, as you are all individuals.
So, I would ask for your forbearance while we work through this process of recruitment and adjustment. Staff continue to work really hard to meet everyone’s needs but sometimes it’s just not possible.