Category: Uncategorized

Swallownest Health CentreNewsUncategorized
Uncategorized Sam Gledhill

Lateral Flow V PCR – 27/10/2021

We are taking a lot of calls from people who are a few days into an illness with cough or fever. Often they have done a negative lateral flow test at home, but have not done a PCR test.

Lateral Flow Tests are NO GOOD at ruling out covid in people with symptoms. The only test that can do this accurately is a PCR swab test.

If you have symptoms of possible COVID, ie a fever, a new persistent cough or a loss of sense of taste or smell, you MUST arrange a PCR by calling 119 or visiting https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test as soon as the symptoms start.

This way, you will know for sure whether you have COVID & if you need to contact us, we can be confident that we can bring you in for review whilst minimising the risk to other vulnerable people in the waiting room.

Many thanks for your co-operation in this.

Uncategorized Sam Gledhill

Covid Booster Update – 26/10/2021

We are not vaccinating any of our patients at the Health Centre. Eligible patients will be contacted by our Rother Valley South colleagues 6 months after your second dose. You can try to book your appointment online if you haven't been contacted by the NHS within six months and one week.

Find out more:

https://www.nhs.uk/.../coron.../coronavirus-booster-vaccine/

Covid booster doses are being offered to those most at risk from the virus including people who are:

  • aged 50 & over
  • living & working in care homes
  • frontline health & social care workers
  • aged 16 & over with certain health conditions

More on boosters: https://www.nhs.uk/.../corona.../coronavirus-booster-vaccine

#GetBoosted

banner reading covid-19 booster vaccine eligibility

Please kindly do not call the Health Centre to book as we are unable to.

Uncategorized Sam Gledhill

Covid Restrictions – 19th July 2021

Throughout the pandemic we have strived to make the surgery as safe as possible for all our patients and staff. We will continue to do so going forward.

From the 19th July nothing will change at the surgery - patients will need to still wear a mask, socially distance and use hand sanitiser in the surgery, and staff will continue to wear PPE. We do understand that it can be frustrating but we know that when people come to us they are sick and vulnerable (and some cannot receive the Covid vaccinations due to medical reasons) so we feel it would be wrong to not take these small precautions that can protect people.

In terms of opening up, as many of you know, we have never been shut and in fact have consulted with much higher numbers of patients than we did pre-Covid (face to face, by phone, and by video), not counting vaccinating our adult population twice in the last 6 months.

We have come so far in trying to minimise the impact of Covid and we are sure you understand that we need to keep the surgery as safe for ALL patients and staff as we can.

Thank you for your understanding.

Uncategorized Sam Gledhill

Practice response to petition to ‘Improve the waiting and appointment times at Swallownest Health Centre – 29/06/2021

All staff at the Health Centre were saddened to be made aware about the recent petition  ‘Improve the waiting & appointment times at Swallownest Health Centre’ . At Swallownest we have always been proud of ourselves with regards to the quality of the service we provide and have strived to improve patient care where we can. We have been experiencing extremely high demand for the past few months, which is mirrored in all parts of the NHS currently, all whilst continuing to help support the local vaccination programme at Anston. We are aware of the difficulties that patients are having getting through on the phones and we continue to take steps to address this.

Having said that the petition is factually incorrect and is predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of the NHS GP contract. Waiting times on the phone are not over 1 hour. A great number of appointments is being offered, much higher than our historic activity levels, and have continued to be offered throughout the pandemic. All patients that require a face-to-face appointment have been offered one based on clinical need, which has always been the case.

The Practice Manager deals with complaints in accordance with the NHS complaints procedure, and it is incorrect to state that they are “falling on deaf ears” when no contact has been made. This could also be considered indirect discrimination. The “simple solution” requested in the petition is simply not possible under the current contracting arrangements, and thus signatures are being received under false pretences. The petition also makes a direct accusation of clinical negligence in the phrase “failing to provide the correct care”, which we strongly dispute.

The petition has been reported with a request to be removed at your earliest convenience.

Kind regards,

GP Partners.

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