Welcome to the sixth edition of our Penrose Health newsletter – The Penrose Scroll. If you have any suggestions for the next edition, please let us know here! 👈

Latest News

Penrose Health bucks the trend

Historically, GPs were the only professionals allowed to legally certify fit notes (aka. MED3 or ‘sick notes’), until July 2022 when legislation changed to allow AHPs, including Nurses and Pharmacists, with support and training, to take on this task.

In April 2025, Pulse, the monthly online magazine geared toward British primary care, reported that GPs still write the majority of fit notes, despite the reforms.  An evaluation of data by NHS Digital showed that, as of 30 September 2024, “90% of fit notes are issued by GPs – a figure that has not changed since April 2023, when data was first released.”

However, the picture from Penrose Health surgeries tells a different story…

If we look at Penrose Health fit note completion for all sites, for the month of April over the last three years, (2023 - 2025, inclusive) we can see that the percentage of fit notes completed by GPs has been reduced, while that of the Pharmacists has increased, by a whopping 277%!

While that uptake by Pharmacists is impressive, the Nursing staff have also contributed their fair share. The following graph shows that the Nurse Teams (including MHNs) picked up the ball early in the game, so to speak, and stayed level, with Pharmacy having a slightly slower build up. Ultimately, both teams had pretty even completion rates by April 2025 - 32% for the Nurse Teams and 36% for Pharmacy.

Although Reception staff cannot certify fit notes, their consistency and efficiency in allocating the requests goes a long way toward streamlining the process. So, along with the recognition of AHPs success, we must also highlight the contribution made by reception staff…getting the requests in a timely manner to the appropriate AHP is a key component of this result!

Well done to all for helping out Team GP! 👏 

The Penrose Portal of Knowledge

In an interesting conversation that this reporter recently had with a Lead, it was commented that the Penrose Portal is not advertised well enough to staff. So, in response, here is the ad…

The Portal will give you knowledge… seek it out! 💫 

Three of the SEs written below have related Portal pages that contain information which, if utilised, may have avoided the error in the first place. And, if you are wishing to refer someone to a service, (for example, a sexual health clinic) many are listed, with contact information, in the Services Database… there is even a separate database for mental health services - Mental Health Services Database.

To search for something in the Portal is easy, too…

No - you don’t need a port key! All you need to do is click on the magnifying glass icon 🔍 at the top right corner of the Portal (or just type ‘ctrl’ + ‘F’ to search within a page). Type in your key word and off you go - no Voldemort here!

Finally, rumour has it that the Learning & Development Team love feedback, so if any of the information on any of the pages is out of date or inaccurate - there’s a form on the homepage to let them know.

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy! 🍋

Learning & Development Updates

Blue Stream Academy

We’re still on the up and up! Way to go Penrose Health team. 💪 

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! 

Past events & online learning

What’s new in the Penrose Portal?

Significant Events Heads Up

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” — James Joyce

Below are recent Significant Events (SEs) and the lessons learned and/or procedures modified, to reduce the risk of them happening again… live and learn.

1️⃣ Blood sample sent to wrong lab

A blood sample taken by a nurse was sent to the Cervical Screening London (CSL) lab instead of Synnovis because it was put in the wrong bag for collection.

If samples are sent to the wrong lab, they are useless to that lab and are discarded. Consider the time and resource waste, as well as the diminished quality of care:

1. the nurse who took the blood now has to do it again,

2. the resources spent to take the blood are now doubled,

3. the patient has to waste time coming in again to repeat the test.

2️⃣ Patient referred to Urology instead of sexual health clinic

A vulnerable patient needed referral to a sexual health clinic (SHC) for syphilis. As the patient had DNA'd a previous SHC referral, the referring clinician attempted to provide a failsafe by formalising this one. Referral was instead sent to Urology. A long-delay in treatment ensued, until the patient was finally referred to SHC.

3️⃣ Patient with significantly raised BP was not escalated

A patient had a blood pressure recorded as 205/98 in reception and, instead of raising this to a paramedic or duty doctor, the patient was booked in for a F2F appointment for four days later.

4️⃣ Trimbow and Fostair prescribed for over a year

In December 2023, a patient was switched from Trimbow to Fostair by a pharmacist. In Jan 2024, a GP saw the patient and restarted Trimbow, but Fostair was left on the repeat list. As a result, both have been requested by the patient and issued upon prescription renewal for the past year, until March 2025, when it was flagged by a nurse during a COPD review.

5️⃣ Urine results in a child

A urine microscopy result for a child came back fully normal. GP assumed this was a final report as it did not state 'culture result to follow', so sent a “UTI negative” message to mum. Subsequently the culture result came back positive.

No harm was done - no treatment would have been issued based on microscopy - but it has led to backtracking and potential loss of confidence. Parents had to be contacted and sent antibiotics.

Beyond First Impressions

Legendary Latino lands in London…

Well, Rob, once you obtain your GMC registration, with your engineering degree, you will likely find your way to a career in medical technology! In the meantime, we are proud to have you as part of the Medical Reports team. And clearly your varied tastes will see you indoors at a film this weekend and then outdoors enjoying the weather - making the best of all worlds. You’ve been quoted as saying…’Whatever you do in this life, it’s not legendary, unless your family and/or friends are there to see it’…I suspect, like a DC legend, you are also legendary every weekend!

Next time… a mystery guest…

The Shout Out 📢

Penrose Health would like to welcome…

…and give a big Penrose shout out to…

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…