Healthstone is a federation of primary care practices devoted to the improved quality and provision of services for patients across the Parkstone and Oakdale areas of Poole. The locality is sometimes referred to as a 'cluster' or a 'federation' in Department of Health speak. Healthstone, however, is better thought of as our health community hub, around which we, as primary care teams, hope to shape, design and improve services to patients.

There are many challenges ahead as the health service goes through another complex reorganization. Patient care and quality service are the focus of our endeavors. Fortunately we have a vibrant community who share these aspirations for excellence and who see and understand the benefits of team working and sharing ideas to build a better service.

We value input from you our patients and community, so you will be able to follow some of the health system changes on our web blog and chip in your own ideas using our 'Have Your Say' section on our website.

As David Cameron often quotes: "we are all in this together" and, as health care becomes ever more complex, we need to strive to make our services easy to access and personable - but at the same time be confident that we are achieving efficiency and quality assured systems that support the front line.

Contrary to popular myth there are many experienced and hard working managers in the NHS at all sorts of levels. It is very much our aspiration that we can "work together" as an integrated team with clinicians leading and supported by experienced help from management.

Since the early days of Healthstone it is hard to imagine how much progress has been made by us all collectively. We have harmonized all our IT systems so we can provide extended hours services as a group on Saturdays with a full day opening which is pre-bookable. This was designed to help in particular those people who have difficulty making appointments in the week. This has been a huge success and is a model for providing extended care across a larger population of patients - where doctors can have all the up-to-date information they require.

Health promotion issues are very important and we wish to hear from patients about ideas they have that might help promote healthier lifestyles. Please use our 'Have Your Say' blog. Presently we are working hard to get agreement to improve the care of our diabetic patients in the community.

As we look to the recent struggle that President Obama has had in the States to get a more moral and inclusive healthcare system - let's value the best that we already have and move forward with a real sense of aspiration and inclusivity!