Wyndham House Surgery

Senior Citizens Lunch Clubs in 2018

Tuesdays at the Lamb Inn, Silverton

This is a lunch club which is open to all older people at a cost of £4.50 for a delicious two course lunch and a chance to meet up with neighbours and friends.

The lunches are served at 12 noon on the following dates. To book your lunch or find out more details please phone Alan or Jayne Isaac on 01392 860272. If you should need to cancel please let the pub know before lunch on the previous day.

Tuesdays – Cost £4.50, start at 12 noon

Thursday Senior Citizens Lunches at the Lamb Inn

The Lamb Inn also offers senior citizen’s lunches in the bar every Thursday at a cost of £5.00. Please contact the pub as above for further details.

The Thorverton Arms, Thorverton

Senior Citizens Lunch Cost £5.00

These dates are on alternate Tuesdays from The Lamb Inn Lunch Club

Please book in advance with Allison Toogood at The Thorverton Arms on: 01392 860205. All meals start at 12 noon.

Should you need to cancel your lunch at any venue, please phone by 12 noon on the previous day.

The Thorverton Arms Charity Coffee Morning

On the fourth Thursday of each month from 10am -12 noon.

Lunches at The Bridge, Stoke Canon

We are able to offer home cooked lunches on Wednesdays at 12.30pm.

There will be soup in winter and a buffet in summer, with dessert and cheese and biscuits & will cost £5.00

Please book a week in advance by calling Valerie Mills on: 01392 841659

The Bridge Community Centre at Stoke Canon

Bridge Community Centre in Stoke Canon Church on Thursdays at 10.30 to 12

Tea / coffee and biscuits.

Come along and have a chat with friends in convivial surroundings.

If you have any difficulty in getting to the centre please ring 01392 860397 / 841085 and transport can be arranged.

Silverton Room 4U

Silverton Room 4U will be up and running in the New Year. An excellent start to 2018!

We already have foot care, aromatherapy and reflexology practitioners booked in to the treatment room

We hope to have a cafe open for two days a week.

We will be running a full day respite care service for people who are caring for someone with dementia. This will enable people to have time to do the things they are unable to do whilst caring 24/7 for someone with dementia.

We have three computers, they will be available for people to use or learn to use. We also have other activities planned, the dates and times will be published in the New Year when we have a firm opening date.

In the meantime, if anyone would like to make arrangements to use the respite care service, please ring Jenny Roach on 01392 861042 or email jennyroach2@aol.com.

Attached is the programme for Silverton Walk and Talk from October 2017 to March 2018.

silverton oct – mar 2018 FINAL

There is an opportunity early in the New Year for those who would like to experience the multiple health benefits of Tai Chi.  After a successful taster session regular sessions are planned everyMonday afternoon in Silverton Community Hall  – click here for details.

It is with sadness that we inform patients that Doctor Nick Keysell will be leaving us at the end of 2017 to follow a new path of helping to train the GP’s of the future. We wish him all the best in his endeavours.

At the same time we are delighted to announce that Dr Jeff Solman will be joining us at the beginning of 2018. Many will already know Dr Solman as he completed his GP training with us some time ago. We look forward to working with him.

Trench welfare – Parish Magazine article Dec 2017/Jan 2018

My son has just come back from a school visit to the First World War battlefields in Belgium. He learnt about what happened on the first Christmas Day when British and German soldiers along many parts of the battle line left their positions and entered No-mans land together. They played football, shared drinks and socialized. Following this remarkable event unfortunately they then returned to their trenches and recommenced the fighting.

Despite the disappointing ending, the story is a mark of the power and opportunities that Christmas brings. It is a time when we can all reach out, change engrained behaviours, look to foster new friendships and/or patch up older relationships where required. There is now a lot of evidence about the enormous health benefits of using coordinated social networks in communities. The knowledge that someone is there and can be approached if needed is very powerful. Our Bertie delivery service is a great link between the surgery and our less mobile patients. As well as delivering medication it also offers that regular contact, a reference point in a patient’s week when they know someone will be knocking on their door – it can be more therapeutic than the actual medication being delivered. The same can be said of good neighbours and strong communities. Knowing that help is only a knock on the door or a quick phone call away relieves a lot of otherwise very understandable anxiety for the vulnerable, the elderly and those living on their own. Often we think we know who these people might be however that is not always the case.

Social events at Christmas give us all the chance to get out of any trenches we might have found ourselves in and hopefully give a leg up to others who find it more difficult to get up and out. The Friends of Wyndham House coordinate a group of volunteers to help reach out to anyone who might benefit from a hand to reintroduce themselves into the community. We are very fortunate in having many social activities on offer in our villages from walking & talking though to knitting and quilting. If during the festive season you think that yourself, a friend or someone you reconnect with might benefit from some help to link them back into some regular social contacts then please contact the Friends via the surgery so we can pass on the details to the coordinator.

Wyndham House wishes everyone a happy, peaceful and sociable Christmas.

Anthony O’Brien, GP Wyndham House Surgery Dec 2017

Musculoskeletal aches and pains are common, often related to injuries and in older patients made worse by wear and tear age related joint problems.  However no matter the cause or the other associated problems the vast majority of them will respond to physiotherapy.  Follow these links for good advice on exercises that will help hip, shoulder and knee problems.

You are eligible to receive a free flu jab if you:

• are 65 years of age or over
• are pregnant
• have certain medical conditions
• are living in a long-stay residential care home or other long-stay care facility
• receive a carer’s allowance, or you are the main carer for an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if you fall ill

Front-line health and social care workers are also eligible to receive the flu vaccine.

More information available here

Small steps to a healthier life – Parish Magazine article Nov 2017

Losing weight is one of the hardest challenges humans can set themselves. This is because our very basic hard wiring is working against us in these situations. The extremely strong internal mechanisms we have developed over thousands of years in order to survive in a harsh world now operate to inhibit our attempts to help ourselves in a provision rich environment. Humans evolved in small groups with the aim of scavenging for food. It was not plentiful and when you can only manage to eat one or two substantial meals a week it makes sense to store some of the calories you ingest. Homo-sapiens developed a very efficient high calorie storage system: fat. This could be deposited around the body and then utilized when required to provide the energy needed for long treks across the savannah. Food was less complex; as nowadays we needed a balanced diet however most components came from separate sources. Feel good hormones were released to reward and so motivate Stone Age humans to seek out each component. Even though combination of sugars and fats are now easily picked from the supermarket shelf the internal neurological buzz from eating them persists.

However it is the history and physiology of our evolutionary development that gives us the key as to how to best tackle the challenge of lowering our weight and keeping it there. Slow burn of calories by walking, like our ancestors had to do to survive, is the best way of burning off fat. Working in small groups to support one another was also a major survival tool from long ago and this is why motivation from weight loss teams is so powerful.

Recently Devon County Council have set up a central service to help patients lose weight under one umbrella organization called One Small Step. This can be accessed directly on line at www.onesmallstep.org.uk or via the telephone on 01392 908139. Monday morning Keep Fit classes in the Silverton Community Hall are another option available to patients as they combine these important factors; group support and regular low grade burning of calories.

I regularly see patients who have recently lost significant weight. Congratulations are always in order as I know the effort immense effort required to achieve it. Evidence shows that GPs nagging our patients is not effective. It is much more powerful for us to keep gently nudging patients towards helpful groups and activities. So hence this article, another gentle push to start the first step towards walking that little bit more every day. Small steps when added together will produce a worthwhile journey.

Anthony O’Brien (GP, Wyndham House Surgery) Nov 2017

Trench welfare – Parish Magazine article Dec 2017

My son has just come back from a school visit to the First World War battlefields in Belgium. He learnt about what happened on the first Christmas Day when British and German soldiers along many parts of the battle line left their positions and entered No-mans land together. They played football, shared drinks and socialized. Following this remarkable event unfortunately they then returned to their trenches and recommenced the fighting.

Despite the disappointing ending, the story is a mark of the power and opportunities that Christmas brings. It is a time when we can all reach out, change engrained behaviours, look to foster new friendships and/or patch up older relationships where required. There is now a lot of evidence about the enormous health benefits of using coordinated social networks in communities. The knowledge that someone is there and can be approached if needed is very powerful. Our Bertie delivery service is a great link between the surgery and our less mobile patients. As well as delivering medication it also offers that regular contact, a reference point in a patient’s week when they know someone will be knocking on their door – it can be more therapeutic than the actual medication being delivered. The same can be said of good neighbours and strong communities. Knowing that help is only a knock on the door or a quick phone call away relieves a lot of otherwise very understandable anxiety for the vulnerable, the elderly and those living on their own. Often we think we know who these people might be however that is not always the case.

Social events at Christmas give us all the chance to get out of any trenches we might have found ourselves in and hopefully give a leg up to others who find it more difficult to get up and out. The Friends of Wyndham House coordinate a group of volunteers to help reach out to anyone who might benefit from a hand to reintroduce themselves into the community. We are very fortunate in having many social activities on offer in our villages from walking & talking though to knitting and quilting. If during the festive season you think that yourself, a friend or someone you reconnect with might benefit from some help to link them back into some regular social contacts then please contact the Friends via the surgery so we can pass on the details to the coordinator.

Wyndham House wishes everyone a happy, peaceful and sociable Christmas.

Anthony O’Brien, GP Wyndham House Surgery Dec 2017

The dispensary and reception areas have had a total refit, which not only merges the two areas together for more efficient working and more clinical space, but also means that we now have more storage and a new modern appearance. Not only that, but by merging the reception and dispensary together it means that we now have an extra consulting room in the surgery. We thank you for your patience and understanding during the transitional time and hope that you like our new layout. Future plans for the surgery include new, energy efficient lighting for the waiting area and automatic doors into the surgery.