The new medication Tirzepatide (also known as Mounjaro) is being made available on the NHS for eligible patients across the UK, including Dorset.

• Around 1,000 people in Dorset are expected to qualify based on national criteria.
• However, it won't be available locally until Autumn 2025, so please don’t contact the practice yet—we’re not able to help with this currently.

For the latest local updates, visit the NHS Dorset website here>>

This six-session course covers topics such as managing stress, fatigue, improving sleep, mindfulness, dealing with setbacks, effective communication, healthy relationships, staying active, being creative, and maintaining a balanced diet. Learn to utilise your strengths to increase your happiness.
 
Led by trained facilitators, each session blends proven techniques with supportive peer discussion, helping participants discover what matters to them and build tools that last well beyond the course.
 
Learn more on the Help & Care website here>>

What was once an unused patch of land outside our GP surgery has been transformed into a peaceful green space for patients and staff, and a lasting tribute created in memory of Stephen, the Practice pharmacist, who sadly passed away at a young age late last year.

This beautiful garden is the result of an incredible community effort. Volunteers of all ages came together to donate plants, materials, time, and energy.  Local businesses and organisations also pitched in, showing just how powerful community spirit can be. 

This garden is a testament to what we can achieve when we come together as a community.  From digging and planting to donating goods and cheering us on, thank you to everyone who helped bring this vision to life.

More information on the Community Garden and our kind donors can be found online here>>

Ordering prescriptions directly through your GP practice rather than through a pharmacy offers many benefits, especially when maintaining continuity of care.

Requesting repeat prescriptions through The Cranborne Practice is quick and convenient.

Learn more about the benefits of ordering your medication through the Practice and the options we offer you to do this here>>

We’re committed to providing the best possible care for our community, and we’re pleased to share some recent performance data and patient feedback results! 

Here’s a snapshot of a typical winter month for the Practice - in January:

• Our registered patient list size in January was 13,157
• We held 11,360 appointments.
• Of these:
• 6,201 (54.6%) were with GPs
• 5,297 (85.4%) of GP appointments were conducted within 24 hours of the patient contacting the Practice.

As a comparison, in the same month, 32,981,523 (nearly 33 million) GP appointments were recorded in England. The percentage of GP appointments recorded as being carried out within 24 hours across England is 29%.

While we are pleased that this appointment data compares very positively to the national average, we are always keen to learn patient feedback on your experience of the care or treatment you receive when we see you. 

In our latest newsletter, stay updated with important NHS changes, health news, and what’s happening at the Practice. The Doctors Notes is developed in partnership with our Patient Participation Group.

We hope you find this issue informative and helpful.

Follow this link to download and view the Spring issue of The Doctors Notes newsletter>>

If you’re aged 40 to 74 and receive an invitation for an NHS Health Check from us, say yes! 

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to share their views on local pharmacy services!  We received over 900 responses, and your feedback is invaluable in helping shape how pharmacies meet the needs of our community.

You can download and view the results here >>

Your voice matters, and we appreciate your support!

Thank you. 

• Provide valuable feedback to improve health and wellbeing services
• Share your ideas and suggestions
• Help shape the future of patient care
• Connect with other patients in your community

The Cranborne Practice, including Lake Road Surgery, is one of Dorset's highest scoring GP practices, achieving a 96% overall experience score in this year’s survey.

Our Patient Participation Group has helped us create this YouTube video to share our latest results>>

We care for over 12,900 patients, many with complex health needs. We are a Primary Care provider, not a commercial business. However, when the NHS is under immense pressure and patient demand is never higher, our satisfaction rate of 96% exceeds many private companies, such as banks and major retailers, who rely on customer service to maintain market share and make it one of their key selling points.

To our fantastic team, well done and thank you! And thanks to our Patient Participation Group members who help us shape our service to support, assist, treat, and care for the communities of Cranborne, Verwood, and the surrounding area.

If we've invited you for an NHS Health Check, it’s important to take up the offer and book your appointment.

For over 40 years, The Cranborne Practice has provided primary healthcare services to people in Cranborne, Verwood and surrounding areas. 

In Dec 1984, the family-run Doctors practice moved to purpose-built accommodation in Cranborne, which grew and led to further opening of the Lake Road site in Dec 1988.  The Practice currently serves over 12,800 patients in the area. 

Always looking to improve, in 2011, the practice introduced online services and continued to innovate with programmes such as drive-through vaccination clinics and community engagement programmes. 

To meet the needs of a growing community, the Practice has invested in three new consultation rooms and recruited additional GPs. The additional facilities will significantly increase the capacity to provide face-to-face appointments and help reduce waiting times.

Putting the patient at the centre of operations helps the practice identify and respond to the community's needs. This approach is reflected in consistently high CQC inspection results and a 96.4% patient satisfaction score.

The new consultation rooms at the Lake Road surgery site are another milestone in The Cranborne Practice's constant development. To celebrate this, the practice invited members of the Patient Participation Group to open the rooms officially.

Commenting on the new rooms, Managing Partner Jo Morris said, “We constantly look at opportunities to improve patient care. We are pleased to invest in our community and create three new consultation rooms. These will provide more face-to-face GP appointments and enable us to provide a wider range of health care services for local people.”

Chair of the Practice’s Patient Participation Group,  Julie Saunders, says of the developments, “From a patient perspective, we are pleased to see The Cranborne Practice increasing their capacity to deliver healthcare and the benefits from the additional face-to-face GP appointments available.”

The Cranborne Practice is trialling a new online consultation system that enables patients to access some of our GP online services such as requesting a fit/sick note or asking about your test results.  Members of our Patient Participation Group helped us to test the system (called SystmConnect), and it was positively received.

Follow this link to find out more about SystmConnect>>

Please note that the SystmConnect service is NOT for booking appointments or ordering repeat medications, which can be done online using a SystmOnline Services Patient Access account.  However, we invite you to try the online consultation services we are trialling through SystmConnect and let us know what you think. 

At The Cranborne Practice, we want to do all we can to help you with your well-being needs. 

5 July 2023 marks 75 years of the National Health Service. Treating 1.3 million people a day in England, the NHS touches all our lives.  The Cranborne Practice, along with the other GP Practices in our network are proud to be a small part supporting the people in our local community to obtain, regain and maintain a healthy quality of life. 

Read more about the NHS and how its met the health and wellbeing needs of successive generations>>

The British Heart Foundation offer free online CPR training. Find out more in this video created by our Patient Participation Group (PPG) members.

Our veteran patients have free access to Togetherall - Togetherall is a safe anonymous online community where members can share what’s on their mind, take comfort reading the thoughts of others or browse the many resources available. 

Find our more on our dedicated Armed Forces Support page here>>

May we stress that people do not need to let us know about their hospital consultant letters, as details are already provided to us directly from the relevant secondary care provider. Contacting us to provide copies of consultant letters duplicates our work.

If you have registered to use SystmOnline or the NHS App, you can view your medical records to check what we have received, and only contact us if you think something important is missing. Find out more about online access to GP services on our website here>>

Thank you for your support.

A reminder to our patients booking appointments with our Health Care Assistants (HCAs) via SystmOnline, Airmid, or the NHS App that that the slots offered are for blood tests only.

We offer routine blood test slots through SystmOnline etc because they are of a defined duration. Other medical issues may take longer, but patients may still book quickly and easily using our Nurse/HCA Appointment booking form by following this link:>>

Booking a non routine HCA appointment this way enables our Reception team to find the right appointment slot for the patient. Thank you.

For patients who use social media, please note we have Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts (@CranborneGP).  We often post breaking news on Facebook earlier than it is posted on this website, so please follow us so these posts appear in your news feed.  

As well as the ways in which you can get in touch with us published on our Contact Us page, you can also send us a message from our Facebook page.

The practice is required by the Government under the terms of the latest GP contract to allocate all patients a named accountable GP. Individual patients will be informed of their named accountable GP at the first appropriate interaction with the practice. For convenience, if you have a medical card your Accountable GP will be the named doctor you are registered with.

Patients registering over the last 2-3 years will not have received a medical card as these are no longer routinely sent when registering with a new GP. However, the practice does keep a record of your registered (accountable) GP. If you wish to be told the name of your Accountable GP, please ask the receptionists when you are next in the surgery.

Please note: there is no need to telephone the practice for this information. Where a patient expresses a preference as to which GP they have been assigned, the practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request. Having a named GP does not prevent you from seeing any other doctor in the practice. Your named GP will not be available at all times and if your needs are urgent, you may need to discuss them with an alternative doctor.