30/04/2026
Madeley Practice Spring Newsletter
Bereavement
Thank you to everyone who has offered kind words of support.
Margaret was one of our dispensers who worked in the dispensary for almost 30 years.
Margaret passed away following an unexpected illness that she coped with showing an incredible dignity and strength.
Her family arranged a touching and personal funeral full of laughter and tears in equal measure. Kit Kats will never be looked at in quite the same way again.
Staff Updates
Sue and Laura have been working in dispensary for a few months now. They both accepted the positions having moved from Betley surgery so hopefully will be a reassuring and familiar face for our new patients.
Louise Edge is our new salaried GP who started with us in April. She will be working part time 3 days a week.
Madeley Practice Patients Fund
Our initial draft had been to thank Gillian for all her help and support with our fund. She had resigned at our last meeting with many plans for her 90th year.
Sadly, shortly after this, Gillian passed away.
She will be missed but always remembered with great fondness by us all.
24/7 Palliative and End of Life Care Advice Line support
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (ICS) has a resource full of information and signposting for care homes and care staff which is available here.
https://staffsstokeics.org.uk/updated-care-home-resource-pack-now-available-for-staffordshire-and-stoke-on-trent/
A Palliative and End of Life Care Advice Line is also available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week for adults living with a progressive, life-limiting illness. The service is also available to families, carers and health and social care professionals who need support with any aspect of palliative care - call: 0300 561 2900.
Text messages
Text messages are a useful means of communication but not all texts come from ourselves.
If it isn’t clear from the text where the message has come from, we are more than happy to help where things may not be clear and understand that there are often concerns about legitimacy of texts that add to the concerns.
Our texts would usually include a name or department at the end of the message followed by Moss Lane Surgery.
Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire
We will be looking to repeat our patient satisfaction questionnaire in the near future.
We are monitoring our staffing levels given the recent increase in our practice list size and looking at where we need to change given the current changes in demand, so would expect some comments about access and intend to include this.
If there are other issues you have experienced where you think it would be helpful for us to explore please could you let us know and we will collate all the responses prior to drafting the questionnaire.
Meningitis B Outbreak in Kent
In the recent outbreak in Kent contacts and students have been offered the meningitis B vaccine as a targeted public health effort. This isn’t a nationwide approach (The MenB vaccine was introduced in September 2015, vaccinating those born on or after May 1st 2015 as part of the routine programme. Meaning those born before this date will not have been vaccinated).
Meningitis B is caused by Neisseria meningitidis, a bacterial infection that causes meningitis and / or septicaemia (with the purple non-blanching rash that we do the glass test for).
There are lots of different meningococci and these can be normal commensal bacteria in the nasopharynx of humans, especially in adolescents. And, as with lots of infections, it is not always clear why the disease can affect some individuals and not others.
The disease is transmitted by aerosol, droplets and direct contact with someone carrying the organism, with an incubation period of 2 to 7 days.
In the UK we vaccinate against meningitis B at 8 weeks and 12 weeks with a booster at 12 months. For meningitis ACW&Y we vaccinate aged 14.
Whilst there is nothing specifically related to the outbreak that changes for us please think very hard about the implications of delaying or opting out of the routine vaccinations that you are offered.
Ketamine
Ketamine is a class B drug that can be injected or snorted and is cheaper than alcohol. Pink co***ne is a mix of co***ne/ketamine/2CB(pink), often with very little or no co***ne mostly ketamine
It has a dissociative effect, is hallucinogenic, and there is a risk of respiratory depression so the co***ne is used to counteract sedation. Ketamine effects can be short lived and wear off within an hour.
There is no antidote for ketamine overdose, early overdose can be treated with stomach wash and activated charcoal otherwise treatment is supportive to minimise the risks related to respiratory depression.
In general practice we mainly see addiction and bladder problems with symptoms or recurrent cystitis related to ketamine use. This occurs as the bladder walls become permeable to urine causing fibrosis and stiffness in the bladder wall. Passing urine can be painful and you could find that because the bladder can’t stretch it holds less urine and you have to pass urine more frequently.
The British Association of Urological Surgeons estimate that 3 in 10 people who use ketamine have bladder problems. The BAUS link below has more information and advice about stopping ketamine use.
BAUS Ketamine Bladder.pdf
Locally STARS (staffstars.org) Staffordshire treatment and Recovery Service offer a variety of services including free online self help information.
Madeley Practice Patients’ Fund and Patient Participation Group (MPPF/PPG)
It was with great sadness that we learnt of the death of longest serving member, Gillian Boughey (née Salmon). Gillian joined the Patients’ Fund committee in 1995 (soon after its inception) and has been a loyal, hardworking and successful member ever since; she will be deeply missed.
On a happier note, the Patients’ Fund has recently purchased a further 10 blood pressure monitors which can be loaned to patients to use at home when advised by a clinician.
With the closure of the Betley Practice at the end of March, we send greetings, to those people who have registered with Madeley, to this section of the newsletter. We would welcome new or existing patients from Betley (and Madeley etc!) onto the committee – those who feel they have the ability to bring and implement fund raising ideas etc. If anyone would like more information on this or would like to know more about the MPPF and/or PPG, please call either Sue (07967 734213) or Richard (07974 108938).
BECOME AN ANTIBIOTIC GUARDIAN
www.antibioticguaradian.com
Increasing antibiotic resistance is a modern day problem and we can all take responsibility.
Log on to the website to sign up or just to educate yourself about the problems related to antibiotic use and resistance
