Covid-19 update 1st July 2020

Posted on July 1st, 2020

Good Afternoon
Just keeping everyone up to date with what is happening at the Willaston Surgery……

Due to government guidance, we will soon be in a position to welcome routine bloods and routine diabetic patients back into the practice. This will be implemented from Monday 13th July. Although we are in a position to do this, we will still have to adhere to strict guidelines in terms of hand sanitiser and face masks when entering the surgery. The door will remain closed and access will be gained via the video intercom, we hope you can appreciate with the lay out of the building and social distancing this is a necessary precaution. We ask that if attending the surgery you come alone, unless there is a medical need for you to have someone accompanying you.

GP’s will continue to telephone triage all patients as standard and it has been decided this will remain in place permanently. Please do not worry, if you feel you need to have a face to face appointment, the GP will allocate a time slot for you to attend. We encourage all patients, if they have a medical need to contact us, we are operating as normal in the sense that you will receive a telephone call from a clinician in the first instance. It will be the new “normal” for GP’s to be working from home on occasions due to measures/restrictions in place, we see this continuing for some months ahead. Be assured the same level of care will still be delivered to our patients.

Practice Nurse: Some of you may have noticed text messages and questionnaires being sent to your mobiles in relation to Asthma/COPD, unfortunately this is the only way we can continue to monitor patients with these respiratory conditions for the time being. Again, do not worry if you are unable to complete the questionnaire on your mobile, the nurse will call you and simply ask the questions to complete your review. Due to guidance we are not permitted to carry out peak flows or spirometry at present.

High risk diabetics we have been seeing over the last few weeks and from 13th July routine diabetics will also be able to attend the surgery, so if you are due a diabetic review please give us a call and we will arrange an appointment for you to attend. To make things run as smoothly as possible, please advise reception of you are unable to manage the stairs and we will ask all diabetic review patients to please bring a urine sample to your appointment.

The nurse is also seeing smears, baby immunisations, depo injections, other injections (not travel vaccinations at this stage) and simple dressings.

Ear syringing is currently being discussed and we are hopeful to begin offering this procedure again from the 13th July with the health care assistant and nurse.

Reception Team: The reception team have now been split into two groups, one half will work the beginning of the week and the others the second half of the week. This has been necessary due to social distancing measures, restrictions within the building and of course the new test and trace as part of covid-19. The reception team are a fundamental part of the surgery so we felt it was best to have this division in the unfortunate instance of a covid-19 positive test within the team. This way we can keep the surgery operating safely with adequate staffing levels.

HCA/Phlebotomist – Diane is continuing to manage the blood clinics, ECG’s and offer B12 injections to date. Again, we are hopeful she will be offering ear syringing from 13th July along with New Patient health checks via telephone consultation.

Just a brief reminder that we also have the well being coordinator still operating via telephone consultation so if anyone feels they can make use of this service please just ring the surgery and we can arrange this for you, Rikki offers a wide range of support from food bank access, weight loss support, mental health support, bereavement support, help with benefits and forms etc. If he cant help you personally he will provide you with all the info to get the support for you. Remember there are still organisations out there ready to help, whether you are feeling lonely, anxious about going out after lock down or just simply need someone to talk to, this can all be arranged for you in confidence. We don’t want anyone not to contact us as they feel they are stopping someone else from having an appointment or we are too busy, everyone’s health and well being is important, especially your own.

A huge thank you to Willaston pharmacy and indeed to the other local pharmacies in Neston, you have all been fantastic in what was very uncertain times, you have continued to operate through the pandemic in a professional way and im sure we speak for everyone when we say how grateful we are to you for this.

We would also like to mention again the wonderful ladies/groups that have provided scrubs and face masks etc to the surgeries, this was a very kind act and very much appreciated by all the staff.

To all the retail workers who have kept going and provided essential food to residents we extend our thanks to you also, these things all play a part in our well being. Finally thank you to Paul or Jacko as some of you may know him as, he has continually offered support to residents of Willaston/Neston and very kindly providing the lovely flowers outside the surgery which on some days were all we had to make us smile 🙂

PS the surgery is being painted next week inside so please be careful if you are attending for an appointment

We will keep you all updated as much as possible as promised

#Staysafe
Willaston Surgery