WELLSIDE SURGERY NEWS

Annual Flu Vaccination: The Doctors recommend that if you fall within one of the “At Risk” categories listed below you should attend for your flu vaccination. If you have not already done so, please call our reception team on 01487 830340 to make an appointment.

· Aged 65 or over

· Chronic respiratory disease or asthma which requires continuous or repeated use of inhaled or systemic steroids or with previous exacerbations requiring hospital admittance

· Chronic heart disease

· Chronic renal disease

· Chronic liver disease

· Chronic neurological disease

· Diabetes

· Those patients who are immunosuppressed

· Any patient who is in receipt of a carer’s allowance, or who is the main carer for an elderly or disabled person

Christmas/New Year Opening Times : Please note that over the festive period our hours of opening will be as detailed below. Please remember to allow plenty of time (at least 2 working days) for the processing of repeat prescription requests. It would also be very helpful to us if, where possible, you could avoid attending for the periodic review of long running, chronic medical problems during this time.

Monday 24th December : Open as usual – 8am-12.45pm/1.45-6pm

Tuesday 25th December : CLOSED

Wednesday 26th December : CLOSED

Thursday 27th December : Open as usual – 8am-12.45pm/1.45-6pm

Friday 28th December : Open as usual – 8am-12.45pm/1.45-6pm

Monday 31st December : Open as usual – 8am-12.45pm/1.45-6pm

Tuesday 1st January : CLOSED

Wednesday 2nd January : Open as usual – 8am-1.00pm (half day)

Private Sick Notes : We are often asked to confirm short term sickness absences to employers or colleges for Sick Pay or EMA payment purposes. Whilst we are happy to provide appropriate sick notes our terms of service only allow us to issue an NHS sick note after a period of one week of absence. Therefore, a private fee of £13 will be made if you wish us to provide a sick note for a shorter period of absence.

Annual Patient Survey: Over the last several weeks we have been running our annual patient survey. Thank you to those patients who took the time to complete one of our survey questionnaires. Please remember that the annual survey is not the only opportunity you have to make your comments to the practice. I am always happy to receive any feedback you may wish to make regarding the practice.

On behalf of everyone here at Wellside Surgery, may I wish our patients and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

With Best Regards,

Mrs Claire Wright , Practice Manager - Wellside Surgery, Sawtry - Tel: 01487 830340

WIND TURBINES IN SAWTRY

This isn't about those big turbines out on the Fens. It’s about the idea of people having their own wind turbine on or near their house. Some big name companies like Tesco and B&Q sell turbines that are supposed to be mounted on your house or in the garden. I was dubious about the idea when I heard of these on the news recently. A few years ago I lived in Balsham. The house was built on the site of an old windmill. So you can guess the wind used to howl round the corners a bit. Two things put me off the idea of putting up a turbine in that garden. Wind turbulence and danger to the public. A successful site for a wind turbine needs to be away from buildings and trees so that the moving air mass is not affected by tumbling and swirling known as turbulence.

To generate useful amounts of electricity a wind turbine for an individual house is going to weigh in at about 50kg or more. It will need to be mounted at least 4 metres above the ground, preferably 8 metres. The idea of having 50kg at the top of a 4 or 8 metre pole held up with guy wires that may not be regularly inspected by the owner clearly demonstrates the need for caution. Since most gardens are not very big these days, a toppling turbine would fall on a neighbour's property. Unlike a falling tree that has most of its weight lower down, the turbine has most of it concentrated at the top. A 50kg sledge hammer on a 4m handle is going to be very unforgiving of anything in its path.

Some models are offered as suitable for mounting on a house. In a word, don't! Bricks and mortar are designed to take high compressive loads, they are not designed to take twisting and turning loads. Chimneys in particular are built with a dog-leg in them to reduce rain falling down into the fireplace. Thus they rely, at least in part, for their support on the roof timbers to keep them up. A TV antenna is light and poses little strain. A 50kg turbine on a pole high enough to avoid turbulence from the roof will soon persuade the chimney to join you in your bedroom. Do roofs cause turbulence? Well, yes. Have you ever wondered why roof tiles are both heavy and bumpy, often with a rough texture? They are heavy to contribute to the strength of the house via compressive loading and to stop them flying away in the wind. They have a rough finish to cause micro turbulence; they make a bumpy roof to cause mini turbulences. Without this turbulence the wind would rush up the windward side of the roof in an unbroken jet causing a large sucking action on the lee side of the roof which would pull even heavy tiles off. The combined micro and mini turbulences mean that the coherence of the jet is broken up into lots of multi directional swirls and the roof stays on. Since a wind turbine requires the coherent jet you are trying to prevent, most roofs are not a good site.

Purely as an experiment to see if my ideas were borne out by real life I obtained a small wind turbine (Marlec 913) often seen on boats in marinas. Mounting it on a 4m pole with steel guys in the garden in the least obstructed position available. A light breeze set it gently spinning but not enough to generate more than half a volt. A few weeks later we had a stronger wind but the turbine spent more time rotating on its directional axis than it did spinning. I have a video of it barely spinning while a poplar tree in the background is bowing down before the wind. Sadly, wind turbines are not for the suburban garden.

Hugh Spencer - Manor Drive, Sawtry