COVID BOOSTER APPOINTMENTS
Just to advise our patients that we will be in touch with you when your Covid booster is due.
Please understand that we have a lot of patients to contact and that we are doing our utmost to contact patients either by text if we have a mobile number recorded or we will contact you by telephone if not.
We are currently receiving a high volume of calls regarding booster and flu vaccines and will answer your call as soon as we are able.
Many thanks.
COVID BOOSTER INFORMATION
Covid Vaccination Booster Programme
The government has announced that some people will be eligible for a booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. The booster programme will follow the same priority groups for rollout and in the same order as the one advised by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) for the initial Covid vaccination programme and will take place at least six months after the second dose for eligible patients:
Those eligible for a booster dose will be cohorts 1 – 9 from the initial vaccination programme:
- Residents in a care home for older adults and their paid carers
- All those aged 80 and over and front line health and social care workers
- All those aged over 75 and over
- All those aged 70 and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
- All those aged 65 and over
- All those aged 16 – 64 with underlying health conditions which put them at serious risk of serious disease and mortality from Covid-19 and unpaid carers
- All those aged 60 years and over
- All those aged 55 and over
- All those aged 50 and over
The NHS is currently developing the booster programme and identifying sites for the vaccinations to take place. There are likely to be a mixture of sites as with the initial programme including GP led, community pharmacy led and large vaccination sites. You will be contacted when it is your turn to come forward and there is no need to contact your GP practice.
RESTRICTIONS UPDATE
WHAT RESTRICTIONS WILL LOOK LIKE AT FILEY SURGERY AFTER 19th JULY
For the time being there will be no changes here at the practice. Patients coming to the surgery will still need to wear a mask, use the hand sanitiser and socially distance. Our staff will continue to wear appropriate PPE.
We have made this decision as often patients coming to the surgery are sick, vulnerable and maybe unvaccinated due to medical reasons, so we feel that these precautions will help to protect everyone. We also need to minimise the number of our staff catching COVID so we can keep a functioning service, so for this reason alone these measures are vital.
For appointments and queries please contact the practice by phone, or online (accessed by our website), to minimise the number of people attending the surgery, and please do not attend the practice if you have any COVID symptoms.
Our consultations will continue, these will usually be by phone first and may be followed up, if needed, face to face or by video. It is worth noting that we are consulting with higher numbers of patients than we ever did before the pandemic, whilst also playing a big part in the vaccination programme too. Our doors are open but just in a different way.
We hope you will understand why we need to continue with these measures and keep the surgery as safe for everyone as we can. We have all come so far in trying to minimise the impact of COVID, let’s continue to stay safe together.
Thank you.
PLANNING TO TRAVEL OVERSEAS?
From 17 May international travel will be permitted to a limited number of countries and proof of Covid-19 vaccination may be required.
For those who cannot access the NHS app you can request written proof that you have received your Covid-19 vaccination by contacting the NHS on 119.
Please do not contact your GP practice.
You can find out more at:
PATIENT INFORMATION
As many of you are aware, due to covid-19 pandemic, we have had to restrict access to our building and manage the majority of your concerns remotely, via telephone, text and video call. As restrictions slowly start to ease, you may now be expecting us to return to ‘normal’ – however, as you may recall at the beginning of the year, our ‘normal’ was also not ideal, with long waits for appointments and difficulty accessing your preferred clinician. As a GP practice we are keen not to return to our previous system, and are hoping to learn from the way that we have been working over the past few months.
So, like many other practices, we are going to try and keep the ‘total telephone triage’ model that we adopted at the end of March, and deal with as many of your concerns as possible on the day that you ring. This means that the receptionists will still not be able to book you an appointment directly, but will instead pass your query onto a duty team, consisting of all the clinicians who are present on that day. We will be working as a team to phone everyone back, though not at a definite time – we will try and return you call during the ‘session’ that you ring ie morning or afternoon, though we cannot be more specific. The idea is that different queries can be best dealt with by a variety of staff, so it is essential to give the receptionist enough information to allow us to judge who is best to phone you back.
If it is felt during that telephone call that a face-to-face appointment is needed, the clinician will then make arrangements with you to book this, hopefully also the same day or the next day. This way, we hope not to build up the 4 week wait that we were previously operating on.
We will also still be keeping the online system for texting and video calls as this has proved a useful system.
We are still having to work with PPE when seeing patients which takes a little longer, with the additional cleaning between appointments that is also needed, and this is another reason for triaging any face-to-face appointments, to continue to keep you and our staff as safe as possible.
And one final plea – please can you all confirm that your telephone number is up-to-date when you ring in, and keep that number active while you wait for us to call you back – we have had many episodes of being unable to contact someone who has requested a telephone call.
This system is still very new to us all, and may need flexibility and adjustments going forward, so please bear with us as we try and get it right. If you have any comments then do of course let us know.
FACE COVERINGS TO BE WORN WHEN ENTERING THE FILEY SURGERY
To further protect our staff and patients the surgery would request that anyone entering the building has a face covering in place. This can be a mask or a simple covering such as a scarf.
Thank you for your co-operation.
HOW TO ORDER A CORONAVIRUS TEST IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS
Go online to nhs.uk/coronavirus or download the NHS Test and Trace App
Or call 119 if you have no internet access.
When you order a test, you will get information on the options available to you which might be to attending a mobile drive through testing centre, a walk through centre or having a test kit delivered to your home.
Your results should be back within 48 hours, by text, email or phone – and the message will advise you about what to do next.
PLEASE REMEMBER:
If you have symptoms then EVERYONE in your household will need to self-isolate.
If you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus you will be alerted by the “NHS Test and Trace Service” and you will be asked to begin self-isolation for up to 14 days, depending on when you last came into contact with the person who has tested positive. It’s really important to do this even if you don’t feel unwell, because it can take up to 14 days for the symptoms to develop.
Please visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works for more information.
ONLINE APPOINTMENTS SUSPENDED
The Filey Surgery has suspended all online appointment bookings due to the Covid-19.
VISIT OUR SURGERY FACEBOOK PAGE
Take a look at our Facebook page for upcoming events, useful information and health campaigns.
We will add up-to-date information on how the surgery is working during the coronavirus and the steps we take to keep our patients safe.