COVID-19 - General information

Learn how to access GP services and health and mental health wellbeing support while staying at home through the NHS Health at Home website here. 

We appreciate your cooperation during this challenging time. 

Appointments

Patients should avoid coming into the practice unless specifically asked to do so. We are currently operating a system of 'telephone first', which means that our clinicians will speak to all patients on the telephone initially, and will either give advice over the telephone or will ask you to come into the practice later that same day for an appointment. We are also offering video consultations to some patients, you will be invited to sign up to this if the clinician thinks it's appropriate or you can sign up in advance by visiting our video consultations page. The majority of patients won’t need to come into the surgery to be seen as most problems can be dealt with by telephone or video. 

Please see our Covid-19 Visiting the Practice page for full details of arrangements in case we advise you to visit the practice for an appointment. 

Prescriptions

Routine prescription requests should be handled without anyone entering the building. See our prescriptions page for details of how to submit requests online. 

When ordering a prescription please confirm which pharmacy you wish to collect your medication from. You will not be able to collect prescriptions from the practice.

If you are unable to use the online ordering system, please consider asking a relative or friend to order on your behalf.If there is no other option, you can drop off a written request in the letter box outside the front door.

Useful information and frequently asked questions

If you are concerned that you might have coronavirus or if you have been in close contact with someone with coronavirus, please see NHS 111 online guidance, please do not come to the practice. If you do not have access to the internet please call 111 instead. 

Vitamin D Supplementation

The Department of Health has advised all patients to take vitamin D supplements over the winter period as they will not have had much exposure to the sunshine that creates it due to long periodo spent indoors this year due to Covid-19.

For patients that are extremely vulnerable and were advised to shield, a free vitamin D supply can be obtained from this link for 4 months: https://www.nhs.uk/get-vitamin-d 

After this time, and for all other patients, supplements can be bought in pharmacies and supermarkets.

Fitness for work

If you have to self-isolate because of coronavirus and you need a note for your employer, you can get this from NHS 111 online. If your employer is asking for evidence of fitness for work, please print out and show them the letter below. 

Get an isolation note

Guidance for employees and employers 

Please note that we are unable to provide individual letters for employers regarding fitness for work. This should be discussed with your employer and your occupational health team. Please do not contact the surgery to ask for these. 

Shielding patients

The current advice about the clinically at risk group is available here: Gov.uk advice 

Patients wishing to work from home need to discuss with their employers, we are not able to provide letters.

Any patients who are in the extremely vulnerable groups should continue to be careful and follow advice from NHS online. 

For those that are concerned about children attending eductational settings, we understand and sympathise with the concerns but decisions about children attending schools are not ours to make and not something that we can help with. We would suggest a discussion between the parents and the school to decide on the best course of action. 

Covid-19 antibody testing

It was announced on the 29th May that antibody testing was available for NHS staff and patients if appropriate. This announcement came before any plans were put in place locally to establish how this would be rolled out. At the present time we are therefore not able to offer this service so please do not call or email to request it. Once details are finalised we will share that information. 

Medication guidance
Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications 

There has been previous concern about the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, naproxen and diclofenac in relation to Covid-19. Following a recent review by the Commission on Human Medicines’ Expert Working Group, they have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to establish a link between the use of these medications and contracting or worsening of Covid-19. They are therefore recommending that ibuprofen can now be used to treat symptoms of Covid-19 should it be required. We suggest that it is still sensible to use paracetamol first for managing symptoms such as pain and fever.

ACE-Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers

We have received queries from patients regarding potential adverse effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-i) or Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs). The Council on Hypertension strongly recommend that patients should continue treatment with their usual anti-hypertensive therapy because there is no clinical or scientific evidence to suggest that treatment with ACEi or ARBs should be discontinued because of the Covid-19 infection. See this link for further details: Position Statement of the ESC Council on Hypertension on ACE-Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers

Further information and advice

Please refer to the following guidance for further advice.

Other queries 

You can now send us routine queries using the Consulting Room section of our website. You can submit routine medical and administrative queries, requests for sick notes and subject access requests. Please do not send us queries relating to Covid-19, please refer to the guidance above instead.

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