Page 6 - Oundle Life April 2025

OUNDLE SURGERY
Healthcare team
We would like to apologise and ask for
your understanding; Oundle Surgery open
session has been postponed. We had hoped to
showcase a new piece of technology, a health
kiosk to all visiting patients. Alas, the data
cable network cannot connect with the health
kiosk until a small digital improvement is
made to the building. The IT engineers are
booked!
The open day has been rescheduled, Saturday
26th April 2025, 10am-1pm at Oundle Surgery.
We welcome visitors new and old to meet the
team, trial the new health kiosk, update on
health screening and vaccination programmes.
All members of the wider health care team
will be available to speak to: social prescribers,
nurses, doctors, first contact physiotherapist,
dispensary team and patient services members.
Colleagues will also be able to support
registration with Anima, demonstrate the
Anima app, and explain how to add dependents
or children on to accounts where age allows. We
look forward to meeting or seeing you, thank
you for bearing with us.
Further diary date:
The first of two-spring booster Covid-19
vaccination clinics is scheduled for 5th April.
Those eligible will be invited via text message
or letter. Those eligible are adults aged 75 years
and over, residents in a care home for older
adults and individuals aged 6 months and over
who are immunosuppressed, as defined in
COVID-19: the green book, chapter 14a; Tables
3 and 4.
We are often asked about the Prostate specific
antigen, PSA test.
The PSA test is a blood test that measures the
amount of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in
your blood. It can help to diagnose prostate
cancer. There are risks associated with the
PSA blood test and possible benefits. The PSA
level isn’t a reliable sign of whether a man has
prostate cancer. Some men have prostate cancer
but have a PSA level that is normal for their age.
Other men have a higher PSA level but don’t
have prostate cancer. Prior to a blood test we
advise you to speak to a GP first.
There is no national screening programme
for prostate cancer in the UK. This is because
previous research showed that the PSA test isn’t
a reliable test that can pick up prostate cancer
that needs treatment. This means that the PSA
test can miss some cancers, this is called a false
negative. The PSA test can suggest someone
has cancer when they don’t, this is called a false
positive. A high level of PSA can occur for other
reasons, for example if you have done vigorous
exercise (cycling) 48 hours ahead of the blood
test, had a urine infection six weeks before the
blood test, had a prostate biopsy six weeks prior
to the blood test, or ejaculated within 48 hours
prior to the blood test. An examination of your
prostate (digital rectal examination) before the
PSA blood test can also falsely elevate results.
We would like to hear from men aged 45
years and above with a family history of prostate
cancer, and men aged fifty years and above
with no family history to discuss their blood
test options and steps to follow once blood test
results are known.
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