Around 2.3 million people, aged 16 and over, who are registered with a GP practice in England, will receive an invitation to take part in Europe’s biggest patient experience survey in early January. The invitations go out by letter to a sample of people from each of more than 6800 practices. The data provides vital information to the NHS to identify what’s working well and what can be improved.

If you receive a letter, please complete the survey to help provide vital feedback to the NHS. You can find out more on the GP Patient Survey website.

Vaccinations are being delivered according to priority groups identified by the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The vaccinations may not take place at your GP practice, but rather a local vaccination service (led by GPs, practice nurses and community pharmacists) who are responsible for delivering the vaccine to people in your community.

When it is the right time for you to receive your vaccination, you will receive an invitation to come forward. This may be via the phone, or through a letter either from your GP or the national booking system.

We know lots of people will be eager to get protected but we are asking people not to contact us to get an appointment as you will not be able to get one until you are contacted.

As you may have heard the government have announced that patients aged 50–64 years old will be eligible for a free flu vaccination from their GP practice as part of the flu vaccination programme.

This is a great opportunity for us to protect even more of our patients at a time where there are additional health risks associated with Covid-19 (coronavirus).

We urge that if you fall under this eligible category to NOT contact us for an appointment. We will contact you in due course as we need time to plan and order the vaccinations.

We urge anyone who’s in a clinical risk group to take up the vaccination offer when they receive it. It will give them a much-needed layer of protection and there is absolutely no evidence that getting a flu vaccine increases the risk of getting Covid-19.

We are upgrading to the next phase of the electronic prescription service (EPS) which will mean that almost all our prescriptions will be processed electronically from the 7th September 2020.

Electronic prescriptions help save the NHS money.

You will receive your prescriptions in the same way as you do now.

You can read more about EPS on the NHS website.

New online tools for people living with diabetes are now available on the NHS to help people manage their condition during the coronavirus pandemic.

Three new services will allow people to manage their condition online, with a range of online videos and training available on each app for children and adults.

Recent findings show that people with diabetes face a significantly higher risk of dying with COVID-19 but better management of the condition can help improve control and lead to better outcomes.