Strand Flu Clinic 2020 – video

URGENT ANNOUCEMENT

Due to an alleged supplier stock shortage, we had to cancel several flu vaccination appointments for patients between 18 and 64 years  of age.

We were advised by NHSE on 7 October that our vaccine delivery expected last week of September is delayed until further notice. We will be contacting patients whose appointments were cancelled when sufficient stock is received from the supplier.

Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience.

Welcome to Strand Medical website

We appreciate how difficult things are for many people at the moment, worrying about registering with a doctor shouldn’t be one of them. Therefore if you haven’t yet registered with a doctor, we would like to assure you that we are still registering new patients

Please look at the ‘New Patients’ section of our website

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the risks of Covid-19 infection, and as instructed by the NHS, we may not be conducting all procedures. Please ask a team member for confirmation.

50 to 64 year old Flu Vacine

Face covering – Exemption letters

We are aware that some patients might be understandably anxious about the Government’s recent announcements around the use of face masks in various public settings.

GPs are unfortunately not in a position to provide individual risk assessments or letters for patients who feel that they should be exempt from wearing a face mask.

The government guidance on exemptions suggests there is no requirement for evidence for exemption therefore it is sufficient for an individual to self-declare this.

The responsibility for issuing exemptions does not lie with your GP. Practices are under no obligation to provide letters of support for anyone who does not fall under the list of exemptions but considers them to have another reason to be exempted.

Government advice on the use of face coverings can be found here:

Please remember some people do not have to wear a face covering for health, age or equality reasons.

UPDATE 16/09/2020

We know there has been a lot of discussion in the news this week about GPs providing face- to-face appointments. We wanted to explain some of the reasons why we have been offering a reduced number of face-to-face appointments. We also wanted to reassure patients that NHS Digital have confirmed that in July over 50% of the 22.8 million appointments carried out were conducted face to face.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have remained open to patients. We have offered appointments using new ways of working and new technology. We have worked hard to make sure we remained available to speak to, and to offer appointments to anyone who needed them. While we appreciate that patients sometimes prefer to see a GP face to face, there are reasons why we have offered additional online or telephone consultations, and government guidance has played a big part in this. It has remained the case that if we have needed to see a patient face to face, or felt it was important for their care, we have asked those patients to come in to see us.

Offering new ways of working has helped some patients to access appointments they wouldn’t normally have been able to attend due to their commitments, such as their work or caring responsibilities. It remains the case that bringing patients into the surgery while coronavirus is with us presents some significant challenges. We want to explain more about these challenges.

We always pay close attention to the cleaning of our premises. However, the level of cleaning required between patients during the pandemic means that if all our patients were to come into the surgery, we would not be able to offer the same number of appointments because of the increased cleaning time that would be needed.

Additionally, changing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) between each patient adds additional time to the end of each appointment. The difficulty in obtaining PPE has also meant that we have needed to be more cautious about the way we use scare resources.

Another challenge we face is how to make sure that social distancing is as good as it possibly can be, and that we maintain a ‘COVID-secure’ environment. Some of the things we need to take into account when considering this are: the number of people in the waiting room, the number of people who cross in the corridors and the toilet facilities that are available.

As caring employers, we need to ensure that we keep our staff safe as well. Our staff are people too, and some may have ethnicity or health issues that make them more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19.

Finally, and we think most importantly, we need to consider you, our patients. We have many elderly and vulnerable patients with health conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 than most. We also know that there are young and healthy people who have been seriously affected by COVID, so it isn’t just the elderly or infirm we need to protect.Increasing the number of patients in the surgery means that we increase the risk for everyone – particularly if some of those people have symptoms of COVID-19 and are unwell enough to need to be seen.

As doctors and staff working in GP practices, we really want to do the best we can for our patients. We do the jobs we do because we care about the people we look after.

We would all love to see a return to ‘normal’ life , but at the moment offering fewer face-to-face appointments keeps patients safe and provides the maximum number of appointments we can.

As always, we are available to talk to patients, and we want to hear from those who need us. While we understand patients’ frustrations with the current situation, we hope that you will continue to help and support us, as you have always supported the NHS, so that we can go on providing you with care and support in the coming weeks and months.

Please also remember that our phone lines are busier than usual and our teams are working as hard and as safely as they can to deal with every call. Due to the way in which patients are accessing our service, it may take us a little longer than usual to answer your call, please remember the staff are here to help you, they are doing the best that they can we thank you for your patience.

DOOR CLOSURE

Unfortunately due to Covid-19 our Surgery doors are closed, however you can still access the Surgery via telephone and you can now order repeat medication by email (please see below for link). When you call us a member of the Reception team will take a few details and one of our Duty Team will call you back, if required a face to face appointment will be booked by the Duty Team and you will be given arrival instructions by the clinician.

Where possible, please only attend appointments on your own.

Please ensure you wear a face covering when attending an appointment

Flu Vaccine 2020

If you are eligible, please call the surgery after 10:30 am Tuesday to Thursday to book an appointment, as these tend to be quieter times. Please do bear in mind many patients wish to book a flu vaccine this year, so our lines will be busier than normal and our teams are working as quickly as they can to answer your calls.

Aged 50 to 64?

Please note that, if you are aged between 50 and 64 and not in a clinical at risk group, the earliest you may be offered a flu vaccination is November, providing there is sufficient vaccine stock. No appointments will be offered for people in this age group until then. This is to ensure that those who are most at risk are vaccinated first. If you are aged 50 to 64 and are in a clinical ‘at risk’ group which is eligible for the flu vaccination, for example you have a health condition which puts you at risk from the flu, you will be invited earlier.

HOW TO CONTACT US

For appointments or advice please call us on 01903 243351. 

To request a prescription please either post your request through our letterbox, complete the online request form via your online log in (please ask reception if you do not have a log in) or email us: CWSCCG.strand-prescriptions@nhs.net

APPOINTMENTS

The Clinician will give you arrival instructions when they speak with you, if they do not or if you forget please ring the buzzer by the front doors and await instructions. Where possible attend alone, if assistance is needed please restrict this to one person.

We are encouraging parents to continue to bring children/book children in for their childhood immunisations. However we do ask that you restrict attendees to one parent per child.

We are encouraging patients to contact us if they have received a cervical screening letter, these are important procedures, please contact us to book your appointment 

We are now asking patients to wear a face covering when coming into the surgery, this is now a mandatory requirement. Wearing a face covering may help you and our staff to stay safe, please note due to national shortages with PPE, the surgery is unable to issue face masks. Please follow the link for official guidance on how to make and wear your own face covering.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering

PRESCRIPTIONS

Important information regarding your repeat prescription during the Covid-19 outbreak:

Due to an increased demand for prescription items, all pharmacies are currently extremely busy and struggling with demand.

We kindly ask that you:

Allow 1 WEEK between ordering and collecting your repeat prescription (you may order early to allow this to happen)
Only order items that you currently need. Please DO NOT order just in case or stock pile. 
Ask a friend / relative / neighbor to collect if they can and you are in an at risk group (communication sent by NHSE to high risk patients)
Expect to wait outside your pharmacy to be able to collect your prescription and stand the required distance from the next person (2 meters)

Please only phone your surgery or pharmacy regarding your prescription if it is an emergency.
Please bear with us during this difficult time; GP practices and pharmacies are working together to help as soon as they can.

Thank you

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ALL requests must be made:

•  via the NHS APP (please download from the app store available for IOS and Android)
•  on-line (you need online access, please post a request for online access though our letter box if you do not already have this)
•  paper requests posted through the letterbox
•  requests can also be made via email:    

CWSCCG.strand-prescriptions@nhs.net

PLEASE NOTE: ALL prescriptions will be sent to a pharmacy for collection and we will not accept requests to stock pile medication

Please ensure you write your chosen pharmacy on the hand written or emailed prescription request IF YOU DO NOT they will be sent to Lloyds the Strand for collection – to minimise foot fall, NO PRESCRIPTIONS will be collected from the surgery

Our phone waiting times will inevitably rise with more care being provided on the telephones. Our staffing levels are likely to be depleted and we need to ensure our clinicians can offer assistance to those in most need, including the vulnerable, therefore please bear with us during the foreseeable future, please remember we are here to help and abuse of our staff will not be tolerated.

We will notify you ASAP of any changes to this policy. You can find information about Coronavirus on the NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

CORONAVIRUS INFORMATION PAGE (Click here)

Please also follow the web link for Government information https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing

IMPROVEMENTS TO ACCESS – Hearing impairment

The Strand Medical is delighted to announce that we have made a big step forward in how patients who are hard of hearing can access our service. We have recently employed a new staff member who is trained in British Sign Language, this means that any patient or carer who has a hearing impairment has another avenue for accessing and using our service. With your consent, the staff member can also be present in consultations to assist you and our medical teams.

As a surgery we always take on board feedback and are constantly looking at ways to improve our service, we believe this is a step forward in the right direction for both the surgery and for patients.

For more information please contact the surgery. Please note: Whilst the staff member is very flexible please bear in mind they work shifts, therefore a mutual agreement will need to be reached with regards to appointment dates and times.

Thank you

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