CORONAVIRUS

UPDATED January 2021

COVID-19 VACCINATION PROGRAMME

Following extensive trials, the first safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine has been approved in the UK and is now available to priority groups.

Vaccinations are being delivered according to priority groups identified by the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The vaccinations may not take place at your GP practice, but rather a local vaccination service (led by GPs, practice nurses and community pharmacists) who are responsible for delivering the vaccine to people in your community.

When it is the right time for you to receive your vaccination, you will receive an invitation to come forward. This may be via the phone, or through a letter either from your GP or the national booking system.  We urge you to endeavour to take the appointment offered as dates are limited to a short timeframe.

We know lots of people will be eager to get protected but we are asking people not to contact us to get an appointment as you will not be able to get one until you are contacted. 

https://portervalleyprimarycarenetwork.gpweb.org.uk/index.php/pcn-news/item/coronavirus-patient-information

Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19)

Up to date information regarding the Coronavirus is available on the NHS website www.nhs.uk with further advice available on the www.gov.uk website.

Greystones Medical Centre has a responsibility to our patients and staff to help slow the spread of the Coronavirus in our community and so have made some temporary changes to some of our services.

There are some simple, practical measures we can put in place, many of which involve reducing footfall at the surgery, and therefore limit contact between people.

How to book an appointment

If you need a GP appointment you should telephone the surgery and book a telephone call back appointment (at present we are not routinely offering face to face GP appointments). Please ensure we have your current contact details. The clinician will telephone you at the time you have booked and so you will need to keep your phone nearby and be ready to answer the call preferably in a quiet environment.

If you need a nurse appointment you should telephone the surgery. The nurse will then contact you (not necessarily on the same day) to arrange a date and time for you to come down to the surgery so you will need to keep your phone nearby and be ready to answer the call preferably in a quiet environment.

Please be prepared for the Receptionist to ask you for the reason you need an appointment as this will enable the nurse to triage her calls and we have the facility for you to send in a photo of your problem which can be viewed by the GP prior to your call back.

Midwife appointment

Our Midwife is seeing our pregnant ladies in a face to face appointment in her clinic on Thursday mornings.  Please book at Reception.

Online appointment booking 
Patients can book telephone call back appointments through their online access login.  THESE ARE FOR TELEPHONE CALL BACKS AND NOT FACE TO FACE APPOINTMENTS. The clinician will telephone you at the time you have booked and so you will need to keep your phone nearby and be ready to answer the call preferably in a quiet environment.

When you book your telephone appointment online, please can you enter the reason for the call back in the space provided. Our Receptionist may call you prior to your appointment as we have the facility for you to send in a photo of your problem which will be viewed by the clinician.

If you do not have a log in for online access or you have forgotten your username or password, please telephone the surgery on 0114 2666528.

We are actively trying to reduce the number of patients coming down to the surgery. It is best that you telephone us in the first instance but we please ask that you are patient with us as inevitably our telephones are busier than at normal times so you may have a little longer wait for us to answer your call.

Ways you can help us:

Face to Face appointments
In order to protect both our staff and patients, please do not attend the surgery unless you have an appointment.
If you have an appointment please:

• be clear which entrance you have been asked to use
• attend alone where possible
• arrive at your appointment time, there is no waiting room
• it is advisable to wear a face mask or face covering

Letters and non NHS requests
We are continuing to process this type of work but other workloads are taking priority during this time so we our usual timescales for completion are inevitably being extended. If your enquiry is with regards to holiday cancellations and insurance forms, information is available on the gov.uk website, and you should not require a letter from your GP. 

Sick Notes & Letters regarding Coronavirus
We will not be issuing letters for patients with coronavirus, or self isolating. The government have released an online portal for patients requiring confirmation for their employer. If you require a sick note (GP Fit Note/ Med Cert 3) from a GP for an existing health condition to submit to your employer to receive sick pay, please specifically check with your employer that this is still required because some employers have waived this requirement due to the pressure on GPs at this time.

Prescription Ordering and collecting
Please use the online ordering service wherever possible. You can nominate a pharmacy so we can send your prescription to them electronically which eliminates the need for you to collect from the surgery. Patient can telephone the surgery Monday – Friday between 10 am and 12 pm  to order their medications over the telephone and so there should be no need to physically come to the surgery to hand in your prescription request or collect your prescription.

In light of the above, please see our COVID-19 Practice Privacy Policy which runs alongside our Practice Privacy Notice.

• Practice Privacy Notice
  The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has issued NHS Digital with a Notice under  Regulation 3(4) of the National Health Service (Control of Patient Information Regulations) 2002 (COPI) to require NHS Digital to share confidential patient information with organisations entitled to process this under COPI for COVID-19 purposes.