Welcome to the second edition of our Penrose Health newsletter – The Penrose Scroll. Here are some updates that relate to our community… and if you have any suggestions for the next edition, please let us know here. 😊

Latest News

LMC & KH slam-dunk DNAs to start the year right

In January 2025, we had a total of 1,000 DNAs across our surgeries; a rate of 8%. For context, the National Average DNA rate is 4%. Reasons for DNAs are complex, and at times are a red flag (see our Significant Events Heads Up article below). However, no matter the cause, they are costly for our surgeries in many ways and can be reduced.

Below are the DNA stats for each of our surgeries over the past few months, so let’s see how they performed, and where there might be room for improvement…

It’s a tie! Well done LMC and KH for achieving the joint lowest DNAs in January.

LMC - an impressive drop from 8.8% in November to 7.1% in January - how did you do it?

KH - staying steady in the 7% range, they just pipped Nightingale at the post, who dipped below 7% near the end of 2024. Bad luck Nightingale - surely you could nudge them out next month?

We’d love to hear what measures you’re using to help reduce DNAs, so that we can share these ideas with others and all teams can move DNAs closer to the national average… or lower!

At long last…

Imminent arrival - new e-learning on the Penrose Academy

The scaffolding is coming down and curtain going up shortly on the Penrose Academy training for Care Navigators. For a sneak preview, this reporter can give you an idea of what to expect…

After grilling leads for the best part of 2024, the L&R Team have developed training guides on all things Penrose Health, to complement external training resources (like Blue Stream and EMIS Academy). It is hoped that this e-learning prepares our newcomers to make the most of the one-to-one time with their leads.

Our new hires can expect to find modules on Roles in Primary Care (to help understand the duties of the different teams), Handling Language Barriers, Handling Challenging Behaviour, Mental Health Calls (to help manage potentially challenging situations) and Medical Terminology (to help gain an understanding of the medical language frequently used in our surgeries). There are modules on the new Pharmacy First Scheme and our External Services, too.

Future plans for the L&R Team? More guides in the Penrose Academy for our other disciplines - Paramedics, Nurses, Pharmacy Team, Care Coordinators. Hope the Leads are ready for the inquisition, but… nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!

Learning & Development Updates

Blue Stream Academy

Go on Penrose Health - use your PLT and let’s strive for 100% by the end of March (except for our new starters)! We can do it! 💪

Upcoming training events

Lunch & learn webinars

If training falls within your normal working hours, please first agree with your Lead that you are able to attend, then submit a training request to our L&D Coordinator - the form is also on the Portal Homepage! 

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What’s New in the Penrose Portal?

Significant Event Heads Up

Significant events are best kept to a minimum. However, when they occur, they present a valuable occasion for learning, and honing our systems.

Here, we discuss recent Significant Events and highlight the lessons learned and actions taken to reduce the risk of them happening again.

1️⃣ Vulnerable patient DNAs and safety netting

Event: June 2024 - A schizophrenic patient did not attend (DNA) for their anti-psychotic depot injection.

This DNA was not escalated appropriately and the patient had not attended for any further appointments for the injection. As a result, in January 2025, six months after the injection was due, a member of the public raised a safeguarding concern for the patient.

2️⃣ Processing clinical letters

Event: A vulnerable patient was prescribed new medication by diabetic team, but the letter from the team requesting termination of previous medication was not processed for a further 8 weeks, meaning that the patient was receiving two types of medication concurrently.

As this patient had a learning disability, confusion about which medication to take could easily have occurred, potentially resulting in patient taking both and becoming hypoglycaemic. To reassure, this did not occur, but was a possibility.

3️⃣ High dose Vitamin D error

Event: High dose Vitamin D was issued with instructions “Take TWO once daily for 7 weeks”. This was an error that was done when adding the medication as a result of actioning vitamin D deficiency task from pathlinks team.

The error was identified later, when the patient requested a further supply. Patient was contacted and blood test for potential toxicity performed. Results were within normal range.

4️⃣ Misreading of results

Event: A patient was seen by one of our GPs after having taken a high dose of OTC Vitamin D and a blood test arranged to assess potential toxicity. Test result returned a high but not dangerous level, confirming that termination of supplement was necessary.

The result was misread by results team and construed as deficiency. A note was sent to pharmacy team to prescribe more Vitamin D, and was actioned, with patient being texted to collect prescription. Fortunately, the patient had previously discussed Vitamin D levels with GP and flagged it to the GP, who corrected the error before any harm occurred.

Beyond First Impressions

In getting to know our team, we’ve discovered that…

While new to us, she’s not so new to English football!

Welcome to Penrose Health, Claire - if you have half the dedication to your role as you have to England football, we are the lucky winners and are pleased that you haven’t gone into event planning!

Next time… we’ll hear from a stalwart member of the Penrose Health team.

The Shout Out 📢 

We think all of our employees are invaluable, but if you think a member of your team deserves a shout-out for something special they’ve done or achieved, let us know here.

We’re recruiting…

And finally, did you know that... 

If you know of any discounts local to your surgery, let us know here so we can share it with the rest of the team!