Last March the government mandated that surgeries close their doors to walk-in patients. Despite lockdown being lifted, enhanced Infection Control measures remain in place at the surgery, as mandated by Government.

This is in place to:

    1. lower the risk of Covid virus transmission from patients to staff and vice versa.

    2. reduce the viral load of Covid in the building.

This was essential to ensure we could protect the patients attending the surgery daily for face-to face appointments, which include vulnerable patients and very young babies receiving their immunisations. As well as protect the surgery team from over exposure to high levels of the Covid virus. 

It was imperative at that time and remains so, to protect the team from exposure to Covid to ensure the surgery remains open and able to offer a GP Service to the residents of Little Chalfont.

In line with the NHS 10 year plan, we introduced a digital total triage service; ours is called eConsult, this allows patients to contact the surgery requesting advice, self-help, medication, admin requests, etc. Many of our patients had been asking for a way to contact the surgery without waiting on the phone, and this provided the answer.

Using eConsult you can contact us from work, home, or while commuting, without having to wait to get through on the phone. The information you provide is delivered to a secure inbox to your GP, who then determines next steps, this could be asking for more information, providing a medicine or treatment plan, or arranging a consultation – either telephone, video or face-to-face. We aim to respond to you by the end of the next working day.

To access this go to our website home page and click on the large banner - eConsult.

To access the surgery - Select the relevant section, and follow the prompts to provide the requested information. This is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) so your next question is determined by your previous answer.

For advice and guidance, scroll down the page and select from

• Condition
• A-Z
• For your Child
• Body Map

You can then decide whether you want self-help; pharmacy advice; or advice and treatment from your GP

DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC 

The way we work has had to change, due to the presence of Covid, there are additional precautionary steps that have to be taken:

Triage of patient contacts/requests to ensure that those with most need are dealt with as a priority

For patients attending the surgery we have to undertake:

• Covid and fever screening
• Additional Infection Control measures before and after seeing a patient face-to-face

As you can imagine this all takes time, and reduces our capacity, which has reduced the number of patients that can be seen each day; to mitigate this we are working longer days and completing admin tasks in the evenings and at weekends

On top of this we are facing unprecedented demands for our services, we shall continue to review and adapt our way of working to enable us to treat as many patients as possible whilst keeping both our patients and staff safe. We are currently working on a solution to enable us to provide a reception service for those patients who need to visit the practice in person.

Whilst covid remains in circulation there are things you can do to help us, to help you…

Please review our website which was upgraded last summer, it contains lots of information for services that are available to help and support you, many of these you can access directly without a referral from your GP.

Only contact us when your GP is the appropriate person.

For minor ailments, self-treat or speak to a pharmacist for advice; they will know when it is appropriate for you to contact your GP.

For minor injuries, there is a GP-led Urgent Treatment Centre at Wycombe General Hospital, open 8am to 8pm every day.

The UTC Treats:

• cuts and bruises
• sprains and strains
• bites and stings
• scalds and minor burns (but not involving the head or neck),
• infected wounds
• suspected fractures
• minor head injuries (no loss of consciousness) – ADULTS ONLY*
• objects lodged in ear/eye/mouth/nose

*Children should attend A&E at Stoke Mandeville

 

If you are unsure, always call NHS 111, who also provide a 24/7 advice service.

 

 

 ‘Covid Passport’

The NHS appointment card from vaccination centres cannot be used to demonstrate your vaccination status.

A full course is currently 2 doses of any approved vaccine.

If you need to demonstrate your covid vaccination status for any reason, there are two options:

 

1. NHS App

This is an app that can be downloaded to any smartphone or tablet (Android & IOS); simply download from the store.

If you do not have a smartphone or tablet, but do have a PC or laptop you can install it by visiting: https://www.nhsapp.service.nhs.uk/login

To use either you must be aged 13 and over and registered with a GP in England. You will be required to complete a self-registration process, this may take several days to validate your ID, and update. 

Once active, simply click on the Immunisation Section and you will see your covid vaccinations listed; please note it takes around 10 working days for your vaccination to appear in your record.

 

2. Letter, for those patients who do not have access to the internet.

Please do not contact the surgery as we cannot provide letters or certificates.

Instead, please call the NHS Covid Helpline on 119 and ask for a letter to be posted to you; this must be at least 10 days after your 2nd vaccination. Please allow another 5 working days for the letter to reach you. Please take account of these timelines when making your plans.

 

If travelling abroad, please be aware that different countries have different rules, for more information visit:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/demonstrating-your-covid-19-vaccination-status-when-travelling-abroad