Spring Newsletter 2025

STAFF
Rosmellyn are excited to announce that Dr Sam Colam-Ainsworth who trained with us as a GP Registrar
joined us from March as a GP Partner. Dr Colam-Ainsworth works Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Sam is a breath of fresh air to the team. Cornish born and bred, he has fitted in well, is dynamic and has
special interests in joint injections and research. In his free time, he likes to surf and run. Dr Ned Harris is
our new F2 Doctor. Dr Harris will be working with us for the next four months.
We also welcome Ruth Butler and Brittany Stanbridge to our nursing team. Ruth is a well-established
practice nurse, who has moved down from North Yorkshire and will be covering Anna whilst she is on
maternity leave. Britt will be studying to become a Prescribing Nurse and will be working closely with Karen
and Terry over the next few months.

URGENT CARE – WAITING TIMES

Rosmellyn works in Partnership with local and NHS service providers and groups. The Urgent Treatment
Centre at West Cornwall Hospital is open 8am until midnight for people needing urgent medical care for
injuries and conditions such as minor burns, simple fractures, minor cuts and falls and urinary infections.
You can go on the website to check up to date waiting times for all local urgent care
www.royalcornwallhospitals.nhs.uk/waiting-times/urgent-care/

SPRING COVID BOOSTERS
We have been rolling out the Spring Booster programme to those patients eligible. If you have yet to have
one, please go online to www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/vaccination-and-booking-services/book-covid-19-
vaccination/

PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP (PPG)
A Patient Participation Group (PPG) is a group of people who are patients of the surgery and want to help it
work as well as it can for patients, doctors and staff.
We are actively seeking new members who better reflect the patients attending the practice. Our current
members are over 50 years of age, mostly female, white British in origin and have no significant disabilities.
We can enable members to join meetings via the internet and will endeavour to make meetings accessible
to all. We would love to welcome patients who would widen the scope of the group along with those groups
already identified. It’s your engagement that counts! If you would like to get in contact with the group their
email address is: rosmellynppg@gmail.com

CARERS
We are currently updating our carers register; if you are a carer for a member of your family or a friend and
you would like to receive some more support and advice, please leave your details with a member of our
reception team who will be in contact with you. The surgery contact for carers is Sian Williams.

RSV VACCINE AVALIBLE FROM SEPTEMBER
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a common virus that can cause serious respiratory infections,
especially in young children and older adults. The good news is that a vaccine is now available to help
protect against RSV! Everyone turning 75 years old on or after the 1 September 2024 will be offered a
single dose of RSV vaccine. This is because older adults are more at risk of serious complications from
RSV. You can still get the vaccine up to the day before you turn 80.

The RSV vaccine will be given as a single, one-off dose and is expected to give you good protection for a
few years. This vaccine will not be routinely given at the same time as your Covid-19 and influenza vaccine
as it can affect the immunity efficacy of the vaccines.
We will invite you for a vaccine once you turn 75 years of age, or if you are already aged 75 – 79 years of
age.

SHINGLES VACCINATIONS
We are contacting patients who are eligible for their Shingles vaccine. We have a long list of patients to get
through, but you will hear from us, and we will get you booked in.

MMR VACCINATION
Are you aged 17-30? You may have missed your MMR vaccination as a child. Now that measles is
spreading it’s even more important to know your vaccination status and ensure you are protected against
measles, mumps and rubella. Contact our surgery to find out if you have been vaccinated and make an
appointment to get free MMR vaccinations if you missed out on this critical protection in the past.
Measles cases are rising in England. Two doses of the MMR vaccinations can help stop you becoming
seriously unwell with measles.

DID YOU KNOW?
Your local Pharmacy can treat these conditions: Urinary Tract Infections, Skin conditions such as Impetigo,
Nappy Rash and Sunburn as well as Conjunctivitis. Pharmacists are fully trained to advise in minor illness
and medication reviews. They have onsite consulting rooms available for use.

NURSE APPOINTMENTS
We are very lucky to have a highly qualified and experienced team of Nurses who are specialists in such
things as asthma, diabetes, learning difficulties and wound care. Two of the Nurses are also able to
prescribe medicines for you; the Doctor will often advise that one of our Nurses is the best person to see
for common and minor illnesses.

REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS – DAY LEWIS
We have been asked by Day Lewis Pharmacy to highlight to all patients that due to the high volume of
patients and prescriptions they are labelling between 400-700 prescriptions every day. They are currently
working at 2 to 3 days behind and this is standard for the pharmacy industry at this current time. Please
allow 7 to 10 working days before your prescription is needed, this will ease the rush and pressure on the
pharmacy. Thank you!

EVENING & SUNDAY APPOINTMENTS
We offer weekly evening appointments on alternate Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm.
Occasionally we will run a Sunday morning clinic. These clinics have doctor, nurse and HCA appointments
available and prove popular. You may book ahead for these appointments if it is more convenient for you.

WHEN YOU PHONE THE SURGERY
When you contact us for an appointment, we aim to find the best route for you to the right care, with the
right clinician as quickly as we can; please help us to achieve this by telling the receptionist something
about what ails you so that they can help the doctors to get your care right. It may not always be
appropriate to see a doctor, depending on your condition; our nurses and healthcare assistants are all very
highly trained and competent in many areas of care. The receptionists are trained to advise you of the most
appropriate care path but will always direct you to the doctor if unsure or if it is obviously appropriate.
Every conversation you have with everyone in the surgery is held in the strictest confidence, and the
doctors ask that you help us in this way. All calls are recorded.

MOBILE TELEPHONE NUMBERS & EMAIL ADDRESSES
Please keep us informed of your email address and contact numbers so that we can be sure to contact you
if we need to; we will not send you emails or text messages if you ask us not to.

TELEPHONE MESSAGES
As a rule, we do not leave a telephone message on patients’ phones to notify them that we have called.
However, if you are happy for us to leave a message, please let the Receptionists know