Welcome to Brightwalton News

The Parish Council has organised a qualified instructor to provide Emergency First Aid at Work training on Saturday 4th March 2023 in the Village Hall from 9.30 till 4.30. Successful completion of the course will result in a certificate valid for 3 years, useful for your own knowledge, volunteering and work.

Cost will be £55 each - we have a few places still available, please get in touch if you are interested in attending. 
Email - [email protected] 

GP Leaving the Downland Practice | The Downland Practice
Dr Victoria Ashall will be leaving the Downland Practice on the 10 March 2023.  The Downland Practice are saddened by this news.  Since joining the Downland Practice in November 2022 other personal reasons have arisen for Dr Ashall and it has become necessary for her to relocate employment closer to home.  This will cause some movement of patients who are on Dr Ashall’s patient list.  This will likely be a temporary allocation of patients to another GP in the surgery until we have resolved the workforce gap.  Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to patients who are currently registered with Dr Ashall.  We will keep you updated on any recruitment developments in the coming weeks.
GP Locum – Dr Curtis
Dr Curtis will be working at the Downland Practice from the 12 January 2023, this role will be as a Locum GP and he will be seeing patients from all of the Surgery GP lists in an aim to reduce patients waiting times.  This is a NHS funded post and is short term only, Dr Curtis will not be having his own list of patients whilst he is working as a Locum GP.
Request to change GP
The Downland Practice receives a number of requests to move their registered GP’s.  These requests are normally dealt with on a monthly basis but can be longer depending on other issues in the practice.  Patients can expect to receive confirmation of their registered GP by text message in response to their request.  Patients are moved from time to time when GP list sizes need to be reduced.  GP list sizes are reduced due to over subscription, (this results in longer waits to see the GP) list sizes are reduced to improve wait times for patients.  Patients who have not yet seen their registered GP but request to move to another GP list can expect to stay with their current registered GP.  The Downland Practice has a boundary area of 120 square miles. In order to ensure that patients can be give appropriate medical care in a timely manner, the GP’s cover a specific area across the Downland Practice Boundary.  Patients who join the practice are allocated their GP according to location.  When there is a GP leaving the practice then a letter is sent to the household advising what actions are taking place to provide them with a registered GP.
Downland Practice – At Capacity
Today the 4 January 2023 the Downland Practice has no capacity to deal with the on the day demand.  Patients will be requested to ring 111 so that their condition can be assessed and 111 will advise of action for these patients.  The Buckinghamshire / Oxfordshire and Berkshire (BOB) Integrated Care Board (ICB) have been informed that the Downland Practice is unable to manage the on the day demand.  The may be the need to cancel routine pre-booked GP appointments to free up GP’s time to see patients with on the day demands.  This may cause some concern for patients who have to have their routine appointments cancelled.  Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause our patients who are affected.
Private Fees 2023
​The Downland Practice private fees for 2023 will be posted this month on the website.  This is for Non-NHS Work that is paid for by the individual.  Any requests  for private work that are received after the 18 December 2022 will be processed in January 2023 and will be subject to the new fees.
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