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Friends of Worthing Medical Group

We are proud to have a close relationship with our Friends Of WMG (previously known as the Patient Supporters Group) which was founded in 1995 to raise money to purchase equipment for the surgery that was not otherwise funded by the NHS. The group are patients and practice staff who volunteer to meet at regular intervals to discuss ways of making a positive contribution to the services and facilities offered by the Practice.

We are pleased to introduce our Friends Of WMG email forum which will enable us to continue our fund raising and gather important feedback on services provided. This forum will be proactive in holding events to raise funds for both clinical and other equipment, such as BP machines, nebulisers, waiting room chairs and patient check-in screens.

New members are welcome, so if you would like to be involved:

Email us using our secure online form giving a brief summary of your background and any areas of specific interest in the health service.
Contact us by calling: 01903 234 844

There are no entry fees and no obligation to participate in anything but we would really appreciate your help to keep up the good work. In these times of tightening belts and changes within the NHS your opinions and help is needed more than ever.

Friends Of WMG can look forward to:

a 6 monthly newsletter
quarterly meetings
regular opportunities to provide your feedback on important Surgery decisions
the chance to take part in organising open evenings, events and virtual raffles as well as other fundraising fun
email forum discussions to contribute your ideas

Members can choose which level of participation they would like to be involved in, volunteering only for those activities they have an interest in.

Group member Arthur Nicholls says:

“The Patients Supporters’ Group was launched 22 years ago with the intention of raising money to help the surgery purchase equipment that would be beneficial to patients but which could not be funded by the NHS. A few years later a monthly talk was introduced, not only for the Surgery staff to update patients on Surgery matters and subjects of local interest. Since inception, over £120,000 has been raised for this good cause and I have been pleased to have been its treasurer for the past 13 years. I have a strong belief in the concept to advance the patient’s point of view on proposed surgery changes.”

Group Champion Dr Abu Daia says:

“I qualified as GP in 2012 and have been working for WMG since 2014. I enjoy being a GP much more than being a hospital doctor as I love the relationship that builds between the patients and their doctor in General Practice. I find patients can be more open with their GP regarding a lot of things they wouldn’t say to their hospital doctors. I’m excited to be part of the Friends Of Worthing Medical Group forum so that we can work together as a team to help our community, deliver the best possible care to the population we are serving and improve lives. I look forward to our meetings and getting to know the participants, as well as welcoming new members to the group.”

Friends Of WMG Newsletter: December 2023

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely Summer and are getting ready for the Christmassy Festivities.

Welcome to our new members that have shown interest in joining Friends of Worthing Medical Group since our last meeting in June 2023. I now have a list of people who are interested in just the update and feedback side of the group and a very small number of people who would like to assist in raising funds for the provision and equipment for the Practice. If you know anyone else who is part of our Practice and takes an interest in fund raising or would just to receive updates as well as feeding back beneficial opinions and ideas then please contact us using our secure online form

The FOWMG is currently still only administered by myself, Patient Services Manager, Stacey Rose, along with Lauren Preston our new Business Partner….see below for more info on that update.

FOWMG meeting

Due to an extremely busy couple of months, we have decided that our next FOWMG Patient Participation meeting will be in the new year at ‘The Old Song’s Hall’ down Gratwicke Road Worthing on Thursday the 18th of January 2024 at 6:30pm until 8pm, doors will open at 6pm. This will be solely for updates on the new build, recent changes to our patient access and new faces, as well as a forum for you to ask your questions. Once we have an established group to assist with the fundraising, a separate meeting will be arranged solely for that.

Joiners and Leavers

We have recently welcomed Dr Hannah Morton to the team, she is settling in perfectly.
Dr Abi Beasley has also recently joined our team and has been here a few weeks already and doing really well.
We have expanded our Physician Associate team and have 5 after welcoming Evie, they are assisting with our chronic disease workload, face-to-face patient appointments, admin assistance and much more.
Sadly, our Friends of Worthing Medical Group champion, Dr Osama Abu Daia has recently moved back to Abu Dhabi. He is doing really well in his new role back home.
We have just taken on our next rotation of Junior GP’s and currently have 7 with us. They do a range of face-to-face appointments, admin assistance and any additional Practice work that the Partners may need assistance with.
Lauren Preston, who was our previous Practice Manager has taken on the new role of Business Partner. Her job description will currently not change much, but she will add a brilliant non-clinical skillset to our current clinically lead Partnership.

Worthing Integrated Care Centre (WICC) – new build news

We are still on track for upgrading our premises to a new, purpose-built building in April 2024. Our Practice Manager and Partners are working incredibly hard to keep things moving. We are now planning signage and would love your input and feedback in our next meeting.

Fundraising

Our goal for 2023 which was to run our first fundraising event since Covid emerged, sadly did not go ahead due to the Flu and Covid campaign deadlines being so tight and rushed. We are very keen though to introduce our first one in our shiny new building and already have many ideas to utilise all the space we will soon be spoilt with.

Access Changes

Our new telephone system is up and running, we have only received praise for how well this is working and the call back function has proved to be very popular!
Our over 80’s and under 16’s list is being utilised to it’s full capacity and has worked wonders at filtering out our more vulnerable groups of patients who may need assistance sooner.
The website is also up and running, it looks much tidier and easier to navigate than our previous one. Take a look, if you haven’t had a chance to yet. Any feedback is appreciated.

AOB

Some awareness initiatives for the next few months. Aside from our usual in-house promotion within the staff, we would love to hear your ideas for raising awareness with our patients for any of these causes. If you have any causes that you feel passionately about please email us using our secure online form with your awareness-raising ideas. These could be added to our next agenda.