We’re open for you
We’re very pleased to announce that we will be resuming our normal practice opening hours from Monday 6th July. This update includes the changes and measures that we have introduced to the practice to help keep our patients and staff safe. We are very grateful to all patients for their understanding during the last 3 months when we have had to severely curtail services.
Opening hours
The practice will now be open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 6.00pm once again and we will be offering a range of telephone consultations and face to face appointments. We understand that some patients will still be anxious about coming to the practice and we want to assure you that patient safety is our priority and we have put several steps in place to minimise the risk of infection.
Attending appointments
It is really important that our patients attend any planned appointments, especially those with long-term conditions who may have missed routine checks with us over the last couple of months.
It has been necessary for us to keep the front door of the practice closed and this will continue whilst we follow government and social distance guidance. From Monday we will ask all patients to attend wearing a mask or suitable face covering. All patients and staff members will have their temperature checked in the porch on arrival. We will ask patients to remove gloves if they are wearing them and sanitise their hands on entry.
The waiting room has been changed to accommodate the social distancing guidelines and new wipeable chairs installed. We would ask patients to attend alone if possible, to minimise the amount of people in the practice at any one time.
We have installed Perspex screens around the reception area and would ask patients to pay by contactless card rather than make cash payments and observe distance guidance. Prescriptions can still be collected from the side window.
The staff may be wearing face masks, shields or other protective clothing to protect both patients and themselves as our focus as always remains on patient safety. Regular sanitation and cleaning of the consulting rooms and communal areas will take place between each patient attending.
Health checks
It was regretful that we had to postpone health check appointments and we know that some of you were disappointed about this. We are now working through our long-term condition patients whose important health surveillance we have had to postpone until now and once complete will be contacting those patients that had their health check postponed or were unable to book. We thank you for your understanding and co-operation in this matter.
GP update
Dr Willis will now be in the practice on a Tuesday and Thursday for appointments and will no longer be available on Wednesdays. This is a necessary step for safety reasons and to minimise the risk of infection across the number of GPs in the practice at any one time. There are no changes to the other GP sessions.
Finally
We would like to thank our GPs, staff and all our patients for their understanding and support and we very much look forward to welcoming you back to the practice.