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PATIENT INFORMATION - SEPTEMBER 2020

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 COVERING 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 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 attending a mobile testing unit 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.