ASCA The Arundel Patient Group Newsletter
Published Summer 2022
Another successful fundraiser & a wonderful community day
Following on from our very successful fundraiser at Christmas, the Town kindly offered ASCA a stall at the Arundel Town Spring Market on Saturday 26th March – this gave us an opportunity to put together an Easter Raffle. We had previously funded some ‘covid secure’ chairs with arms for the consulting rooms as patients found the temporary plastic bucket chairs uncomfortable and difficult to get out of but having put them in the consulting rooms, we were left with only one for the waiting area.
We had our spot in Tarrant Street to set out an array of seasonal prizes including a wonderful huge handmade Easter egg donated by the Doctors and supported by Castle Chocolates, a lovely, signed print of Arundel Priory by local Artist Tony Veal, two fantastic Easter Bunny toys made by Therasa Dear, Easter related goodies donated by committee members and other local residents and a variety of Easter eggs and chocolates donated by the manufacturers.
It was a truly glorious day – our risk assessment had allowed for how we would manage inclement weather, cold rain etc but not glorious sunshine. Who would have thought a date in March would have created a risk of Chocolate melting! The sun came up and over the roof tops and two committee members spotted we had a problem. The large egg had to be moved first – and then gradually all the other chocolate to be replaced by photos quickly printed up, whilst Castle Chocolates kindly gave a home to the prizes. The display still looked seasonal and cheerful and attracted a lot of attention. We raised £375 enough to purchase a further 4 chairs for the waiting room. A brilliant result!
Community Fair
At the same time as the raffle, ASCA and The Surgery jointly manned a stall at the Arundel Community Fair in the Town Hall. Michelle Davey, Deputy Practice Manager and ASCA Committee members were on hand to talk about the surgery and wider outreach work with local voluntary groups. This is a great event for networking with the voluntary sector across the town and wider West Sussex. ASCA were delighted to support this event for the second time.
Surgery News
Although society has opened up, Health Care is still at the front line of the Covid Pandemic. Local rates of infection were still high in the first quarter of the year and the surgery had a surge in April requiring them to restrict access again, and staff shortages meant delays in answering the phone. At the time of writing the front doors were open again. However please be aware that if the same situation happens the surgery will update the web site and the Facebook pages, but the phone message system takes up to 5 days to change, so it is currently not feasible to update this. The Surgery welcomes a new GP, Dr Penny Bradbury increasing GP appointment capacity. Also, there are several new faces in reception. Now they are in training but once settled this will help manage the workload and help all of us.
ASCA Events coming up
Although ASCA had hoped to host the AGM and annual talk in April/May – it was not appropriate given the pressures on the Surgery and the local Covid numbers. We are exploring options for a summer event.
Appointments missed: The Surgery is experiencing a lot of no shows for appointments at present. This might be to do with not being able to get through on the phone to cancel as the phones are so busy. A new answer phone allows you to leave a message to cancel appointments. Please can we encourage you to do so to free up the appointment for someone else.