Wyndham House Surgery

It’s the small steps that count

As February arrives our New Year resolutions have often faded.  It is extremely hard to change habits or introduce new behaviours. So enormous congratulations if you have completed the now popular dry January, joined a gym and or stopped smoking. I tell patients who stop smoking that it is probably one of the hardest challenges they will ever face. Research shows that the two most important factors optimizing success is to have someone alongside you and to break the challenge down into stages.  You need someone to nudge, support, and egg you on.  This is why all stop smoking services are like the one we run from the surgery: a plan is made with regular markers, pit stops and pep talk sessions. 

We bought our 17 year old daughter a Fitbit for Christmas. This is a watch that will record your activity during the day.  It measures the number of steps you take and can convert these into calories burned.  It is itself a coach and an incentivisor.  It has shown her the enormous difference regular small amounts of activity can make.  Taking every opportunity during the day to walk slightly further or slightly quicker than you have previously done soon adds up.  She has set herself a daily target and is now asking me to park at the other end of the car park, is volunteering to walk to the shop to get the milk and is setting a slightly quicker pace when walking the dog.  All small and barely noticeable but recorded by the Fibit and incentivizing her to continue to do that little bit more.

Last year some patients with insulin dependent diabetes benefited from a massive technological step in their care. A small electronic disc sits on the skin and is changed every fortnight.  It continually measures glucose in the blood and so rather than having to prick their fingers several times per day patients can now see whether their glucose levels are going up or down as many times as they need to. Diabetes patients need to balance the sugar in the food they eat with the energy they expend. The constant feedback enables small adjustments to improve the control of the condition.  These electronic meters will be available to many more patients in the coming months.

So small changes with constant positive feedback and encouragement are the keys to keeping health related resolutions on track.  So look for those opportunities to take small steps towards the big goals of improved fitness and weight loss.  They will add up and are certainly a lot easier and a lot more effective than that commitment you might have made on New Year’s day to run a marathon this year….maybe.

Anthony O’Brien

Published in Parish magazines Feb 2019

NEW Devon CCG have developed an excellent website with information about local services, referral pathways and some patient decision aids.  It is certainly worth a look click here

Patients of Wyndham House are now able to make routine appointments with a GP at evenings and weekends (including Bank Holidays). To book an appointment outside of normal surgery hours use the contact number advertised.

Your appointment will not be at the Wyndham House site, you will be advised of the location at the time of booking.

Dr Catherine Burkill is on sabbatical leave for the next 12 months in New Zealand. While she is away we are delighted to welcome Dr Emma Stone. She has just returned from a sabbatical herself, spending the last year in Melbourne.

DevonLive published its Top Ten GP surgeries in Devon based on the 2018 GP Patient Survey (a national Government Audit)

We knew we had performed well but are very proud to be at the top of the charts at No.9.  We are alongside several other small, rural GP practices that all aspire to the same ethos and values as ourselves providing high quality, accessible, community based healthcare

Harriet is joining us to complete her final year of GP training. Following her first two years at the RD&E and with a practice in Exeter she had the opportunity to go abroad for 12 months. She spent this working in a refugee camp in Greece and also as the doctor to a team of cyclists who rode from Cairo to Cape Town.

Links to our summer newsletter with a staff update and news about Room4U

Newsletter Summer 2018

Summer Newsletter Page 2

Attached is the programme for late 2018 and early 2019

Silverton Winter 1819 180606 FINAL

Attached is the programme for the summer of 2018.

silverton summer18 180119

(Published in summer editions of local Parish magazines)

Most of us have a garden of some sort – different shapes, sizes and contents but a defined outdoor space we can cultivate as we choose; for some this is a chore, to others a joy. However no matter whether we enjoy or endure almost everyone will have been doing some sort of gardening this summer and for a variety of reasons we will all be healthier as a result.

Mowing the grass, digging the vegetable patch, turning the compost are all activities that burn off more calories than we realise. There is plenty of evidence that getting outside in any way whatsoever is of great benefit to us all. Walking is probably the best exercise we can do. So, no matter whether your garden is big or small, pushing the mower up and down and making trips back and forward to turn the hose pipe on and off will all clock up those footsteps. Sunshine, in whatever quantity it comes, ensures we have sufficient Vitamin D to keep our bones strong and this is enhanced with any form of exertion. As well as the physical workout, gardening also enhances our mental well being too. Seeing, smelling, feeling plants, appreciating their colours, their textures, their scents, leaving the rest of our world behind and immersing ourselves in nature, is a fantastic therapeutic tool do alleviate the stresses of life in the 21st century. The ability to do this has not changed in hundreds of years and no amount of technology will ever replace it. We are also very lucky to live somewhere surrounded by countryside with lanes and paths to be enjoyed as well.

We have had a small patch of grass next to the surgery since it was built and this year we decided to fence it off and make a staff garden. We have dug some beds and planted them up, laid a patio and have a bench, table and umbrella. So come rain or shine all our staff can escape into a space away from the hustle and bustle of the front desk to recuperate. This is a medicine as powerful as a lot of those we pass over the counter.

Often the best health promotion tools are on our doorstep and this is literarily the case as we walk through our gardens every day.

Anthony O’Brien

Wyndham House Surgery