DO NOT COME TO THE SURGERY AND PLEASE READ THIS
MESSAGE CAREFULLY

Collaborative Working arrangements across North Northumberland General Practice

We have been working hard with our primary care network to  ensure that whatever challenges we may face in the coming months we can continue to provide you, our patients, continued access to essential healthcare from your local practice. Although testing for healthcare workers is now available and will reduce the number of staff who are isolating when a household member has symptoms there remains the risk of healthcare workers being too unwell to attend work if they contract the virus. We are concerned there is a risk that this may mean some practices are left without GPs available to care for their patients for short periods of time.

Therefore in order to ensure that our patients always have access to a General Practitioner we have taken the temporary step of activating access for every GP across the North of Northumberland in each of our practices. Although we have made this access available immediately this will only be used when a GP is working to support a practice and only to access the records of those patients who need their input. This may include but is not limited to consultations (telephone or face to face), issuing medications and reviewing test results.

If you have any concerns or wish to discuss this further please speak to our practice manager 

Appointments
If you already have an appointment with a Nurse or HCA – DO NOT come into the surgery. We will phone you instead.
For access to a Doctor please book a telephone call or use our online e-consulting system. Sick note requests and requests for letters should be made via the e-consulting system. DO NOT come into the surgery

CLICK HERE FOR AN ONLINE CONSULTATION

PLEASE NOTE WE WILL NOT ISSUE SICK NOTES FOR COVID RELATED SELF ISOLATION – PLEASE USE THIS ONLINE LINK AND YOU WILL BE ISSUED WITH ONE

CLICK HERE TO GET AN ISOLATION SICK NOTE

Our phone lines are very busy please leave these for patients who are unwell and need our help and use our online system where possible.

You should only leave the house for one of four reasons:

• Shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible.
• One form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household.
• Any medical need, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person.
• Travelling to and from work, but only where this absolutely cannot be done from home.

These four reasons are exceptions – even when doing these activities, you should be minimising time spent outside of the home and ensuring you are 2 metres apart from anyone outside of your household.

In line with government announcements about coronavirus, we are adjusting our systems until further notice.

• If you have symptoms, stay at home for 7 days
• If you live with other people, they should stay at home for 14 days from the day the first person got symptoms
• If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days.
• If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible.

Prescription Requests
Please do remember to allow 48 hours for repeat prescriptions. Only prescriptions issued by the doctor after a phone call will be available same day.
All Prescription requests should be made by telephone message, online, email or e-consulting service. All Prescriptions will be sent electronically to the Pharmacy. DO NOT come into the surgery.

New Patient Registrations
New patients complete the online registration form on line. Should the form not be fully completed, we will contact you. CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE AN ONLINE REGISTRATION.  DO NOT come into the surgery.

Non-NHS Administration Requests/Letters/Insurance
We are no longer able to deal with non-NHS administrative requests due to the escalating coronavirus situation. Please bear with us at this difficult time. We will resume normal services as soon as we can. DO NOT come into the surgery.

Our priority is the health and wellbeing of our patients and staff and our aim is to keep the Practice open and running as long as possible ensuring our patients get a safe and effective service. Your support with this is very much appreciated

For more information please click this link coronavirus-covid-19
For updates and more information you can follow us on FACEBOOK

Thank you for your cooperation.
Well Close Medical Group, Updated 23/03/2020