Health Awareness Fair
Acton Lane Medical Centre, as part of its ongoing efforts to improve patient education in key areas of their care, held its first open event which took place at the practice on Friday 27th October.
This had been part of the plan made by the Patient Participation Group in concert with Dr Khan. There were several clinicians and administrative staff who attended on the day.
The goal of holding the event was to raise awareness in the patient population by increasing their understanding of the importance of each of the above mentioned issues and how best to manage their daily lives to ensure that they are fully aware of them and can act consciously to ensure that their healthcare and those of their friends and family are protected as well as possible.
Consequently, the event focused on the following clinical areas:
- Healthy lifestyles
- Diabetes
- Bowel cancer
- Breast cancer
- Cervical cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Lung Health
- Childhood Immunisations and
- Vaccinations
Patients had the opportunity to liaise with the clinicians and administrative staff, allowing them the chance to raise any concerns or queries that they had with any of the issues that had been raised.
In order to provide the full panoply of staff available, the decision was taken to have additional staff working on the day so that medical Centre would be able to dedicate several member of the administrative and clinical team entirely to the event and serving the patients attending.
From the clinicians’ side, there were partners, doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants who attended the event; as for administrative staff, secretaries and reception staff contributed to the running of the event on the day.
On the day of the event, several dozen patients attended from its outset at midday.
At the practice gates, we had several balloons and posters inviting the patients to come into the practice and attend the event. We also used our standalone banner to attract the attention of passers-by. Some of our secretaries were stationed outside informing patients and passers-by of the event. This worked quite effectively as we the footfall around the practice was quite high on the day.
Patients were allowed to engage with the clinicians The questions received from the patients were duly answered by the most apt person to respond: questions regarding administrative issues such as booking appointments or general enquiries about the practice and its imminent move to a new site were fielded by the practice manager and administrative staff whereas queries of a more clinical nature were handled by a relevant clinician at the event.
Overall, the event was a resounding success, illustrated by the quantity of patients who attended it and the effusive feedback that they gave about it. We conducted a feedback of patients who attended and the overall rating was approximately 4.2 out of 5, indicating very positive patient reception to the event.
Acton Lane Medical Centre will seek to establish deeper roots within the Acton area by holding additional events in the upcoming year to as they will help us better and more effectively serve our patients.
The fruits of these ongoing efforts should be reflected in the improved uptake for the areas addressed during this event.