Past practice communication

Update 31/05/2023

Practice update 31/05/2023 -

- We've covid vaccinated over 75% of our eligible patient population - higher than the national average!

- We are already planning our flu vaccine programme for the Autumn - we don't yet know if this will include a covid vaccination as part of the programme, although we think it is likely, we will let you know when we know more

- We will be focussing on blood pressure and peri-menopause over the next few months

- The link and details about the next menopause webinar is on our website at https://www.thepeninsulapractice.co.uk/menopause

Air Pollution

Transcript -

Hello, my name is Louise and I am a Lead Nurse at a GP surgery caring for patients with numerous conditions.

We know through many studies that air pollution does have an impact on people’s health. In the short term, exposure to high levels of pollution can exacerbate symptoms of people suffering from lung or heart conditions. Whilst longer term impacts can be associated with lung, heart and circulation disorders, it's important to understand that long term exposure to air pollution is not thought to be the sole cause of deaths, rather it is considered to be a contributory factor.

Air pollution is a local, national and international issue: we can all do our bit to tackle it. And there are simple things that we can do now to improve air quality. Things such as using the car less, walking short journeys, walking to the school and back on the school run, how about working from home one or two days a week if possible, or think about cycling to work if it's safe to do so.

We realise that many of us live in rural areas and need our cars for that very reason. But you can improve the effectiveness of your car by trying to stop it idling when it's stationary: just turn off the ignition. If you're burning wood in an open fire use a smokeless, well seasoned, quality fuel, as this will reduce the particulate emissions.

As a nurse, I was really interested to learn about the impact of Covid lockdowns on air quality: a survey by the British Lung Foundation showed that 1/4 of people with asthma noted an improvement in their symptoms.

Any improvement in air quality will have positive health consequences for everybody and there are simple steps to take that we can all do together now to make a real difference.

Thank you.