The practice leadership team met on Wednesday 11th March to discuss the ongoing coronavirus situation. We have considered the current risk to our patients and have concluded:

- High Risk - Team members unable to support patients due to being placed in self isolation following exposure to an unconfirmed case of coronavirus.

- High Risk - Increased demand for appointments from those concerned they might have coronavirus.

- Moderate Risk - Patients who have a need other than suspected coronavirus struggling to contact the practice.

- Low Risk - Increased number of patients of have coronavirus symptoms requiring a primary care appointment.

 - Low Risk - High numbers of "at risk" patients with coronavirus requiring a primary care appointment.

To enable the best possible care we are making the following temporary changes effective from Thursday 12th March:

1) All patients with coronavirus symptoms will be asked to use the 111 online tool (https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19) or to call 111.

2) A text message will be sent to all patients with a pre booked appointment asking them to call us if they have a fever, cough or shortness of breath before attending the practice.

3) All patients requiring an appointment at the practice will receive a phone call from the clinical team before a face to face appointment is confirmed.

4) We will not be booking any further appointments in April - this will be reviewed each Friday.

5) Online booking of appointments will be restricted to specific procedure based appointment such as blood test. Please only book these appointments if you are feeling otherwise well.

Our objective is to deliver the care our patients need whilst minimising those patients who need to attend the practice face to face. This being the case, please do not attend the practice in person unless you already have appointment.

We anticipate that although over time a number of our patients may well become infected, many of them will be able to self care from the safety of their own home. We will work to make our service as available as possible to those patients who are unable to self care and will need additional support from the practice. As the number of infected patients increase we will work to segregate those who need care for coronavirus and those who require care for another reason.

We ask all of our patients to continue to observe advice around handwashing and self isolation. This will help to protect the most vulnerable in our community.

Thank you for your assistance and understanding during this time

Mike Neville

Managing Partner