Alteration to Services as Covid Restrictions Change

Dear Patients

We have been pleased to see how well adopted the use of these online forms have been. Throughout the pandemic this has been a vital way in which patients have been able to interact with us remotely.

We are now refocusing our attention on providing a greater level of face to face access but have been finding this extremely difficult whilst handling the overwhelming demand this online access has generated.

This service was intended to assist the Practice in gathering structured information and to support triage, enabling us to allocate patients to the right service for their needs. However, in many cases this has become the equivalent of a webchat for minor health queries often driven by understandably increased health anxiety within the community. Many of these minor issues can easily by be dealt with through self-care and reference to the NHS website or by other services such as local pharmacists.

We will continue to use some online services such as texting/emailing information and requests to patients. We will also continue to assist patients remotely where possible.

The main point of access for appointments with clinicians will be via our telephone triage, on 01603 457973, where our Patient Coordinators in conjunction with the duty doctor will be happy to help.

Whilst many other questionnaires and request are still available for use online we would encourage patients, to utilise self-care to treat conditions at home where possible. Self-care provides greater flexibility to our population and ensures more appropriate use of valuable Clinician time.