Covid-19 Update 28/05

Posted on May 28th, 2020

Good Afternoon
Some good news with regards to appointments as set out below for ease of reading. We have our new Practice Nurse on board and the lovely Dr Hassan will be returning to the practice on Monday 1st June as well as our HCA/Phlebotomist Diane. Whilst this is great news, unfortunately it doesn’t mean business as usual. We can still only offer limited face to face appointments and these will be booked by the GP after your telephone triage call. Phlebotomy/HCA appointments will continue as below:

Practice nurse appointments available to book: Nurse Patricia Manley
Smears
Baby Immunisations
Essential high risk diabetics by invite only
Depot injections
Pill checks (telephone appointment only at present, if possible please provide a blood pressure reading)
Simple dressings

GP Appointments:
Telephone triage only will continue
Limited face to face appointments available for the GP to book after triage if you need to be seen
Admin work will be done as and when GP time is available, please be patient as clinical needs will take priority
Dr Martin continues to work from home offering telephone triage calls
Dr Hamilton available only for home visits/AVS calls/CCAS calls/111 referral calls and urgent cases referred by a colleague
Dr Howard limited telephone calls and face to face available as well as home visits/CCAS calls/111 calls (Tuesdays only)
Dr Hassan returns 1st June (mornings only initially) telephone triage with limited face to face booked by himself when necessary
Please continue to request 6 week baby checks with reception

Phlebotomy/HCA appointments: Diane Rae
Essential bloods only ie methotrexate monitoring, INR and urgent requests from hospital/GP etc
NO routine bloods will be carried out at the moment, we will update you when this changes
B12 appointments can now be booked, contact us to arrange your appointment
ECG’s can be booked at GP request
Essential blood pressures usually at GP request

Unfortunately the reopening of the surgery must be a gradual process to keep risk to a minimum. Appointments will be limited as we require extra time to clean surfaces etc after each patient. The new intercom system means the door will remain locked and each patient will need to use the buzzer to gain entry. You may be asked to wait in your car or outside until the clinician is ready for you, if this is the case, please keep a safe distance away from the entrance to allow patients inside to leave safely. We would ask that you don’t arrive early for your appointment to avoid traffic congestion in the car park. In some cases when you use the buzzer the door will unlock for you to come into the waiting area, please adhere to social distancing if there is more than one person in the waiting room.

Where possible we would urge all patients to wear some kind of face covering or mask when attending the surgery, this is only a recommendation at the moment. Please also be aware, whilst we clean the buzzer as much as possible, potentially there could be multiple people using it, so again if you have gloves you may wish to wear them, alternatively you may wish to carry a wipe or some hand sanitiser. Unfortunately we cannot place wipes outside as we would have the same problem with touching the container.

Prescriptions:
We have been contacting patients who are putting paper scripts through the door, this is something we need to phase out as soon as possible, so we are working hard to get everyone set up with online access to enable you to order your own medication which will then go electronically to the pharmacy within 48 working hours. The pharmacy are also inundated with ordering prescriptions and really their managed repeat service should be reserved for those who are elderly, housebound or cannot manage to order online. We urge you to please think about getting online access so you can order your own prescriptions.

We once again thank everyone for their patience and as promised we aim to keep you updated with any further changes as they happen. If anyone is in need of any help please do not hesitate to contact us, we are still operating 8am to 6.30pm Mon – Fri. Our sincere condolences to the families who have lost loved ones during the pandemic and if anyone needs any support with bereavement please do let us know.

There is also a very useful app available called Neston Life which has lots of useful information and services available. Neston community centre also continue with their weekly foodbank.

#Staysafe

Willaston Surgery