Wensum Valley Medical Practice
We are a NHS General Practice surgery based on 3 sites covering the West side of Norwich.

- Updated:
- 8 November 2021
- Location:
- East of England
- Sectors:
- Health
- Local Alliances:
- Norwich City Dementia Action Alliance
1. Action Plan
1. The National Dementia Declaration lists seven outcomes that the DAA are seeking to achieve for people with dementia and their carers. How would you describe your organisation’s role in delivering better outcomes for people with dementia and their carers?
We want to develop our surgery into a dementia friendly surgery and then help spread good practice amongst other GP surgeries. Becoming a member of the DAA will help us to do both of these. It will allow us to share ideas with other members of the DAA to improve our service and our care to patients with dementia and their carers. It will also allow us to advertise to our patients and other organizations that we are committed to becoming dementia friendly.
2. What are the challenges to delivering these outcomes from the perspective of your organisation?
Time constraints can be difficult as well as financial barriers due to increasing pressures on NHS resources. By sharing ideas with others we hope this can lead to solutions which are financially viable. By having a dementia champion who can spread good practice by shared learning this can be time efficient as well.
Member website
www.wensumvalleymedicalpractice.nhs.uk2. Actions
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Annual reviews
We will try to ensure that all patients and their carers have an annual review of their health and social needs.
This will be ongoing.
- Status:
- Delivered
2021 - Fourth Quarter Update
We have been implementing our annual checks over the last 6 months. The home visiting service in Norwich have also been helping. We have shared with them the checklist which was drawn up by Norwich City CCG dementia project as a guide for best practice
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Dementia awareness sessions
We are exploring having the dementia support workers holding dementia awareness and information sessions at our surgery.
- Status:
- Investigating
2021 - Fourth Quarter Update
Unfortunately this has been put on hold due to the pandemic but hopefully we will be able to explore again in the future.
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Raising dementia awareness amongst our staff
We will offer the Dementia Friends Programme and provide dementia awareness training for staff. We will then share learning with staff who are unable to attend.
- Status:
- Completed
2018 - Third Quarter Update
Marie Lucas from Norwich Age Uk delivered the dementia awareness sessions to staff at the practice over the summer months.
Dr pinching held a sessions for all clinicians at the practice
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Dementia friendly environment
To explore the environment at the practice to ensure that it becomes friendlier and more accesible for patients with dementia. This can be done through signage and by walking through the centres with patients and carers to identify areas of difficulty or processes which may be a barrier to them assesing care. We will also look at how we communicate with patients and their carers to ensure that letters are dementia friendly and reminders are sent to patients and carers about appointments.
- Status:
- Implementation
2021 - Fourth Quarter Update
We continue to look at the environment for any changes which can be made.
Leaflets and booklets are being provided mainly through online links and post due to the current pandemic.
2018 - Third Quarter Update
Norwich CCG dementia support workers have visted our 3 practice sites for a walk round looking at ways of helping us develop dementia friendly environments.They completed the Kings fund "is you practice dementia friendly" assesmnet tool. We have now put up demnetia friendly signage in the 3 centres. They have also provided us with some leaflet packs for the 3 sites. We have also flagged up reminders on the computer system that a patient has dementia when appointments are booked to allow longer appointments to be booked if needed.
This will be ongoing work .