Patient News
Mpox is an infectious disease, similar to smallpox, caused by infection with monkeypox virus (MPXV).
There are different genetic variants of the; Clade 1 and Clade 2, each with further subgroups labelled a and b.
A new variant of Mpox has emerged called the Mpox Clade 1b, which has been identified as a variant of concern.
Why Are the Authorities Worried About Clade 1b Mpox?
Historically, Clade I Mpox has been known to circulate in 5 Central African Countries; Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo.
Recently, Clade I Mpox has been found circulating further afield in countries neighbouring the five aforementioned, with a handful of cases found as far away as Northern Europe.
There have been minor Mpox outbreaks in the past (mainly Clade 2) with cases in the UK from 2022.
However, the new Clade 1b variant is a new strain of concern as it is much more transmissible and may cause more severe disease than other strains of Mpox. This raises concerns of a potentially larger and more serious outbreak.
At the time of writing, there have been no cases of Clade 1b Mpox detected in the UK, and as such, much of the action being taken is done in preparation for and as a precautionary measure to any possible future outbreak.
Spread and Transmission of Mpox
Mpox does not spread easily between people unless there is very close contact.
The virus is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, breathing in virus through the respiratory tract, or contact with mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth, genitals).
Person-to-person spread may occur through:
- direct contact with skin lesions or scabs (including during sexual contact, kissing, cuddling or other skin-to-skin contact)
- coughing or sneezing of someone who has mpox when they’re close to you
- contact with clothing or linens (such as bedding or towels) used by someone with mpox
Symptoms:
The incubation period is the duration/time between contact with the person with mpox and the time that the first symptoms appear.
The incubation period for mpox is between 5 and 21 days.
Mpox infection is usually a self-limiting illness and most people recover within several weeks. However, severe illness can occur in some individuals.
The illness begins with:
- fever
- headache
- muscle aches
- backache
- swollen lymph nodes
- chills
- exhaustion
- joint pain
However, not all people who have mpox experience all of these symptoms. Within 1 to 5 days after the appearance of fever, a rash develops, often beginning on the face then spreading to other parts of the body including the soles of the feet and palms of the hands. Lesions can also affect the mouth, genitals and anus. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming scabs which eventually fall off.
Some individuals may not have a widespread rash, and in some cases only genital lesions are present. These may be blisters/vesicles, scabs or ulcers.
An individual is contagious until all the scabs have fallen off and there is intact skin underneath. The scabs may also contain infectious virus material.
Images of Individual Mpox Lesions
If You Think You Have Mpox
If you suspect that you have Mpox, do not attend the surgery in-person. Please contact the surgery by phone or eConsult and we will request the duty doctor to provide advice and any treatment if necessary.
Please stay at home and isolate, avoiding close contact with other people, including others in your household. You must also take extra precautions with your linen, towels, dishes, waste disposal etc. to prevent transmission to others in your household.
See detailed advice for those isolating at home with Mpox >
If you do attend the surgery in-person with Mpox symptoms, you will be placed in isolation.
Mpox is an infectious disease, similar to smallpox, caused by infection with monkeypox virus (MPXV).
There are different genetic variants of the; Clade 1 and Clade 2, each with further subgroups labelled a and b.
A new variant of Mpox has emerged called the Mpox Clade 1b, which has been identified as a variant of concern.
Why Are the Authorities Worried About Clade 1b Mpox?
Historically, Clade I Mpox has been known to circulate in 5 Central African Countries; Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo.
Recently, Clade I Mpox has been found circulating further afield in countries neighbouring the five aforementioned, with a handful of cases found as far away as Northern Europe.
There have been minor Mpox outbreaks in the past (mainly Clade 2) with cases in the UK from 2022.
However, the new Clade 1b variant is a new strain of concern as it is much more transmissible and may cause more severe disease than other strains of Mpox. This raises concerns of a potentially larger and more serious outbreak.
At the time of writing, there have been no cases of Clade 1b Mpox detected in the UK, and as such, much of the action being taken is done in preparation for and as a precautionary measure to any possible future outbreak.
Spread and Transmission of Mpox
Mpox does not spread easily between people unless there is very close contact.
The virus is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, breathing in virus through the respiratory tract, or contact with mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth, genitals).
Person-to-person spread may occur through:
- direct contact with skin lesions or scabs (including during sexual contact, kissing, cuddling or other skin-to-skin contact)
- coughing or sneezing of someone who has mpox when they’re close to you
- contact with clothing or linens (such as bedding or towels) used by someone with mpox
Symptoms:
The incubation period is the duration/time between contact with the person with mpox and the time that the first symptoms appear.
The incubation period for mpox is between 5 and 21 days.
Mpox infection is usually a self-limiting illness and most people recover within several weeks. However, severe illness can occur in some individuals.
The illness begins with:
- fever
- headache
- muscle aches
- backache
- swollen lymph nodes
- chills
- exhaustion
- joint pain
However, not all people who have mpox experience all of these symptoms. Within 1 to 5 days after the appearance of fever, a rash develops, often beginning on the face then spreading to other parts of the body including the soles of the feet and palms of the hands. Lesions can also affect the mouth, genitals and anus. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming scabs which eventually fall off.
Some individuals may not have a widespread rash, and in some cases only genital lesions are present. These may be blisters/vesicles, scabs or ulcers.
An individual is contagious until all the scabs have fallen off and there is intact skin underneath. The scabs may also contain infectious virus material.
Images of Individual Mpox Lesions
If You Think You Have Mpox
If you suspect that you have Mpox, do not attend the surgery in-person. Please contact the surgery by phone or eConsult and we will request the duty doctor to provide advice and any treatment if necessary.
Please stay at home and isolate, avoiding close contact with other people, including others in your household. You must also take extra precautions with your linen, towels, dishes, waste disposal etc. to prevent transmission to others in your household.
See detailed advice for those isolating at home with Mpox >
If you do attend the surgery in-person with Mpox symptoms, you will be placed in isolation.
Lister House Surgery will be offering flu vaccines to eligible patients this Autumn.
Vaccination Schedule
All eligible children under 18 and pregnant women will become eligible from mid to late September
All other eligible adults (18+) will become eligible from the 3rd of October.
Eligibility Criteria
- Aged 2 and 3 years on 31 August 2024
- Eligible school aged children (Reception to Year 11)
- Those aged 6 months to under 65 years in clinical risk groups
- Pregnant women
- All those aged 65 years and over
- Those in long-stay residential care homes
- Carers, those in receipt of carer’s allowance or main carer of an older or disabled person
- Household contacts of immunocompromised individuals
- Frontline health and social care staff
Please see detailed eligibility criteria here >
Getting Your Flu Vaccination
The surgery will invite all eligible patients by the end of October.
Eligible patients will receive a text message containing an online booking link or advice on how to receive your vaccination if you cannot book online. Patients who do not have a mobile number will receive instructions by letter.
If you believe you are eligibile and do not receive an invitation by the end of October, please contact us.
Housebound Patients & Patients in Care
The surgery will arrange visits to all patients who are housebound or live in a residential care setting.
Lister House Surgery will be offering flu vaccines to eligible patients this Autumn.
Vaccination Schedule
All eligible children under 18 and pregnant women will become eligible from mid to late September
All other eligible adults (18+) will become eligible from the 3rd of October.
Eligibility Criteria
- Aged 2 and 3 years on 31 August 2024
- Eligible school aged children (Reception to Year 11)
- Those aged 6 months to under 65 years in clinical risk groups
- Pregnant women
- All those aged 65 years and over
- Those in long-stay residential care homes
- Carers, those in receipt of carer’s allowance or main carer of an older or disabled person
- Household contacts of immunocompromised individuals
- Frontline health and social care staff
Please see detailed eligibility criteria here >
Getting Your Flu Vaccination
The surgery will invite all eligible patients by the end of October.
Eligible patients will receive a text message containing an online booking link or advice on how to receive your vaccination if you cannot book online. Patients who do not have a mobile number will receive instructions by letter.
If you believe you are eligibile and do not receive an invitation by the end of October, please contact us.
Housebound Patients & Patients in Care
The surgery will arrange visits to all patients who are housebound or live in a residential care setting.
Dear Patients,
We wanted to talk to you about some important issues affecting our NHS and, more specifically, Lister House Surgery. As you may know, the NHS is under significant pressure. This is particularly true of General Practice, where demands from both the Government and our patients have increased. This pressure is further intensified by growing hospital waiting lists. Patients are having to rely on their GP surgeries for support whilst they face long waits to see Specialists, receive treatment and undergo operations.
Financial Pressures
There are huge financial pressures on General Practice. We want to be transparent with you, so you can understand the impact that this is having on your GP Surgery. Like many of your households, our costs have risen. Everything we buy is more expensive – from energy and water to medical supplies and staff. Unfortunately, the funding we receive from the Government has not increased at the same pace, meaning it does not come close to covering our current costs.
You may hear about 'new' money coming into Primary Care Networks (PCNs). Whilst some of this money allows us to employ staff who make a significant difference to the lives of the patients they support, the funding does not alleviate any of the financial strain on Lister House Surgery itself.
Current Situation
These financial pressures are already impacting our staffing levels. We have had to make some difficult decisions, including not replacing some staff members who have left. We have also had to greatly reduce locum cover and overtime. As a result, the number of clinical and administrative staff available per patient is decreasing, making it increasingly challenging to meet patient demand.
We are immensely proud of our hardworking staff and the fantastic care that they deliver, but we feel it is important to be honest with you about the challenges that we are facing. We hope that this will help you to understand why changes are happening, both to us and to GP Practices all over the country.
Steps We Are Taking
Our team is working tirelessly to continue to provide the quality of care that you deserve. We cannot work any harder. Having said this, financial pressures and decreasing staffing levels mean that we may not always be able to offer the level of service that you are used to. We can only provide the level of service that we are funded for.
You may notice that, more frequently than we would like, eConsults are closed early in the day. There may also be times when you are asked to access healthcare elsewhere. For example, local pharmacies are now able to diagnose and treat multiple short-term illnesses via the Pharmacy First scheme. We might also suggest that you contact 111 or visit the walk-in centre. All of these measures are in place to not only ensure that you access the most appropriate service for your concerns, but to ensure that the safe capacity of the Practice is not exceeded. We are all human beings with a finite number of hours in the day. If demand for appointments exceeds the amount that we are safely able to offer, we have no choice but to help you access healthcare elsewhere.
What Can You Do?
To ensure that appointments are available for those who need them, please consider whether you can help by self-managing minor illnesses at home, visiting your local pharmacy for advice, or contacting other services where appropriate. Please also ensure that you attend any appointments that you have booked or cancel them if they are longer needed so that we can offer them to others.
We appreciate your ongoing support and understanding during this challenging time. If you wish to advocate for us, you can reach out to your MP via letter or email. Having said this, we kindly request that you do not call the Practice to discuss these issues so that our phone lines remain open for patients in need of care.
Thank you for your cooperation, understanding and continued trust.
Sincerely,
The GP Partners at Lister House Surgery
Dear Patients,
We wanted to talk to you about some important issues affecting our NHS and, more specifically, Lister House Surgery. As you may know, the NHS is under significant pressure. This is particularly true of General Practice, where demands from both the Government and our patients have increased. This pressure is further intensified by growing hospital waiting lists. Patients are having to rely on their GP surgeries for support whilst they face long waits to see Specialists, receive treatment and undergo operations.
Financial Pressures
There are huge financial pressures on General Practice. We want to be transparent with you, so you can understand the impact that this is having on your GP Surgery. Like many of your households, our costs have risen. Everything we buy is more expensive – from energy and water to medical supplies and staff. Unfortunately, the funding we receive from the Government has not increased at the same pace, meaning it does not come close to covering our current costs.
You may hear about 'new' money coming into Primary Care Networks (PCNs). Whilst some of this money allows us to employ staff who make a significant difference to the lives of the patients they support, the funding does not alleviate any of the financial strain on Lister House Surgery itself.
Current Situation
These financial pressures are already impacting our staffing levels. We have had to make some difficult decisions, including not replacing some staff members who have left. We have also had to greatly reduce locum cover and overtime. As a result, the number of clinical and administrative staff available per patient is decreasing, making it increasingly challenging to meet patient demand.
We are immensely proud of our hardworking staff and the fantastic care that they deliver, but we feel it is important to be honest with you about the challenges that we are facing. We hope that this will help you to understand why changes are happening, both to us and to GP Practices all over the country.
Steps We Are Taking
Our team is working tirelessly to continue to provide the quality of care that you deserve. We cannot work any harder. Having said this, financial pressures and decreasing staffing levels mean that we may not always be able to offer the level of service that you are used to. We can only provide the level of service that we are funded for.
You may notice that, more frequently than we would like, eConsults are closed early in the day. There may also be times when you are asked to access healthcare elsewhere. For example, local pharmacies are now able to diagnose and treat multiple short-term illnesses via the Pharmacy First scheme. We might also suggest that you contact 111 or visit the walk-in centre. All of these measures are in place to not only ensure that you access the most appropriate service for your concerns, but to ensure that the safe capacity of the Practice is not exceeded. We are all human beings with a finite number of hours in the day. If demand for appointments exceeds the amount that we are safely able to offer, we have no choice but to help you access healthcare elsewhere.
What Can You Do?
To ensure that appointments are available for those who need them, please consider whether you can help by self-managing minor illnesses at home, visiting your local pharmacy for advice, or contacting other services where appropriate. Please also ensure that you attend any appointments that you have booked or cancel them if they are longer needed so that we can offer them to others.
We appreciate your ongoing support and understanding during this challenging time. If you wish to advocate for us, you can reach out to your MP via letter or email. Having said this, we kindly request that you do not call the Practice to discuss these issues so that our phone lines remain open for patients in need of care.
Thank you for your cooperation, understanding and continued trust.
Sincerely,
The GP Partners at Lister House Surgery
Our Oakwood site will be undergoing some much needed refurbishment work starting this Saturday 27th of April and is expected to take 8-10 weeks to complete.
Most of this work will be taking place out of hours and on weekends, so we do not anticipate any impact on normal surgery operations. However, please do expect interiors to look unfinished as work takes place to improve the surgery.
Our Oakwood site will be undergoing some much needed refurbishment work starting this Saturday 27th of April and is expected to take 8-10 weeks to complete.
Most of this work will be taking place out of hours and on weekends, so we do not anticipate any impact on normal surgery operations. However, please do expect interiors to look unfinished as work takes place to improve the surgery.
COVID-19 can cause more serious illness in the elderly and those who have a weakened immune system. Patients aged 75 years and older, residents in care homes for older people, and those aged 6 months and over with a weakened immune system will be offered a dose of COVID-19 vaccine this Spring between April and June.
All eligible Lister House patients will be receiving a text message with instructions on how to book. All housebound patients and those living in care homes will be contacted by Vision pharmacy in due course to arrange visits to receive your boosters (your care home may be contacted rather than you personally).
COVID-19 can cause more serious illness in the elderly and those who have a weakened immune system. Patients aged 75 years and older, residents in care homes for older people, and those aged 6 months and over with a weakened immune system will be offered a dose of COVID-19 vaccine this Spring between April and June.
All eligible Lister House patients will be receiving a text message with instructions on how to book. All housebound patients and those living in care homes will be contacted by Vision pharmacy in due course to arrange visits to receive your boosters (your care home may be contacted rather than you personally).
We are pleased to announce that Dr Swamy joins Lister House once again as a GP partner. Welcome back to the partnership!
We are pleased to announce that Dr Swamy joins Lister House once again as a GP partner. Welcome back to the partnership!
It was a sad occasion to say goodbye to our beloved GP partner Dr. Brooks yesterday, who many of our patients will know.
We would like to thank Dr. Brooks for his dedicated and loyal service to Lister House and its patients over the last 29 years.
We wish him the very best as he looks forward to a happy and exciting retirement!
It was a sad occasion to say goodbye to our beloved GP partner Dr. Brooks yesterday, who many of our patients will know.
We would like to thank Dr. Brooks for his dedicated and loyal service to Lister House and its patients over the last 29 years.
We wish him the very best as he looks forward to a happy and exciting retirement!
Welcome to Lister House Surgery's new website, we hope you will find it informative, useful and we welcome your feedback about it. We will try to keep it up to date as possible with surgery changes such as new patient services, vaccine news and practice updates.
Welcome to Lister House Surgery's new website, we hope you will find it informative, useful and we welcome your feedback about it. We will try to keep it up to date as possible with surgery changes such as new patient services, vaccine news and practice updates.
Please click the link below to download the NHS App.
Please click the link below to download the NHS App.
On the 29th of March, Lister House Surgery held an event for our patients with learning disabilities. A wide array of local health and community service were in attendance, providing useful information on healthcare and other serivces that our patients can take full advantage of.
On the 29th of March, Lister House Surgery held an event for our patients with learning disabilities. A wide array of local health and community service were in attendance, providing useful information on healthcare and other serivces that our patients can take full advantage of.