News

We are making patients aware of the planned data extraction taking place in the coming weeks from GP systems across England.
Please note the practice has been legally required by the Secretary of State to allow the extraction by NHS Digital and the data is extracted centrally by NHS Digital.

As well as using your information to support the delivery of care to you, your data may be used by NHS Digital to help improve the way health and social care is delivered to patients and service users throughout England. From the 1st July 2021, NHS Digital will securely extract your information to provide access to patient data to the NHS and other organisations who need to use it, to improve health and social care for everyone.

NHS Digital will primarily use your information in a way that does not identify you (your information will be pseudonymised). However, they will be able to use their software to identify you in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason to do so. NHS Digital may also share your information with third parties such as Local Authorities, primary care networks (PCNs), clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), research organisations, including universities, and pharmaceutical companies.

At the time of publication (June 2nd 2021), patients who have a “type 1” opt- out, recorded before 23rd June 2021 will be excluded from this programme and will not have their data extracted.

If an opt-out is registered after the 1st July 2021, data extracted previously will be held and processed by NHS Digital; however no future extraction shall take place.

We will rely on Legal Obligation (Article (6)(1)(c)), Health and Social Care (Article 9(2)(h)) and Public Health (Article (9)(2)(i)) as the legal basis for processing your data for this purpose.

How to opt-out:-

💻 Visit https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/
📱 You can also opt-out simply by using the NHS App
☎️ Phone 0300 303 5678 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Further information about GPDfPR can be found here: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research/transparency-notice

You can access your COVID-19 vaccination status through the free NHS App from 17 May. You can access the app through mobile devices such as a smartphone or by tablet. Proof of your COVID-19 vaccination status will be shown within the NHS App. We recommend that you register with the app before booking international travel.

If you do not have access to a smartphone and know that the country you are travelling to requires COVID-19 vaccination status, you can call the NHS helpline on 119 (from 17 May) and ask for a letter to be posted to you. This must be at least 5 days after you’ve completed your course of the vaccine. We expect the letter to take up to 5 days to reach you.

🛑Do not contact your GP surgery about your COVID-19 vaccination status. GPs cannot provide letters showing your COVID-19 vaccination status.🛑

!!Important announcement!!

Please be advised that anyone who has already received their first Covid vaccination in December at Anston and is booked in to have their second vaccination either this week or next week; these are still going ahead, therefore it is important that you attend your appointment so that vaccines aren’t wasted.

We are very pleased to inform you that Patients in the Rother Valley South Area (which includes Swallownest patients) will be amongst the first to receive the new Coronavirus Vaccine .

Vaccine supplies are strictly limited and are allocated to ensure that our oldest and most vulnerable patients are vaccinated first .

Patients will be contacted in the coming weeks and months and offered an appointment in our Hub at Anston Surgery. Due to the logistics, we are unable to offer the vaccination at Swallownest.

The first allocation of vaccines arrive next week (14th December) and are subject to extremely strict controls for storage and distribution.

Patients will be contacted in order of the criteria set centrally by the Government, there will be no exceptions to this.

WE CANNOT BOOK THESE APPOINTMENTS AT THE SURGERY SO PLEASE WAIT TO BE CONTACTED BY OUR HUB TEAM.

Further information will be available on our website shortly but please refer to the Gov.UK website for further information.

‼️‼️Good morning all. Please note that we have received no official announcement regarding the 50 to 64 flu vaccine yet. Please do not call us enquiring about this as we will not be able to assist you or book you in.‼️‼️

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-flu-vaccinations-rolled-out-to-over-50s-from-december?fbclid=IwAR0QPTVqFpQnMUMDswwoEiwHY85PKKri4rOiVzOgR0zic2lrJX-kQ3kxFmo

Please click here to see our latest newsletter

You may have heard the news about this year’s flu vaccine campaign. This year will be a tough year for practices delivering flu vaccines.

Why?

🔸We are still geared up for another Covid-19 rise.
🔹We will be doing vaccinations in PPE meaning changes between patients and cleans of the environment between patients.
🔸All that PPE has to be ordered, stored, shared out, restocked, disposed of.
🔹We need to maintain social distancing between patients, so no more crowded waiting rooms with a catch up from others in your community.
🔸Social distancing means we have to make innovative use of our building, with one way in, one way out.
🔹We already ordered in December 2019 the two types of vaccines required for our usual cohorts of patients within risk groups, therefore want to deliver your vaccine otherwise it may be wasted. The additional group of people means lots more vaccines needed: practices order the vaccine a year ahead, so we now need to rely on NHSE / Public Health England to supply additional stock as we have been informed they aren’t available by our suppliers.
🔸Everything takes longer: PPE, cleaning, social distancing. So a clinic for 100 people which used to be done in a couple of hours could now take 6 hours.
🔹The staff that deliver the vaccines, and the administrators who support them in the clinics are already working flat out during the week, and now face the prospect of working additional shifts to get these vaccinations done in a timely manner.
🔸It’s unlikely we will be able to run open clinics this year where patients can just turn up, so we need to set up some kind of appointment system.
🔹The number of Housebound patients has increased with some patients still needing to shield, and home visits for them take much longer and are much more risky for the staff.
🔸Many practices, including us, are running on reduced work force as they have shielding staff, or staff who cannot see patients face to face due to their own risks.

Thank you for reading this far. You may ask what is the point of this post? The main point is we found out this information the same time as you did, and although we have lots of ideas, there is still lots we need to work out, so please don’t ask to book in for a flu jab yet!

We WILL let you know by text, Facebook, website or other what the plan is. We don’t receive them until September anyway. It WILL be very different this year.
We WILL do our best as we always do. As a business we need your support more than ever, and are extremely grateful for it.

Thank you.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/most-comprehensive-flu-programme-in-uk-history-will-be-rolled-out-this-winter

The wearing of masks by staff and face coverings by the public will play a role in preventing the spread of infection so that patients and visitors can attend practices without fear of contamination. It will also reduce the risk of a whole team within a practice being required to self-isolate should one member contract COVID-19. 

It is now mandatory to wear facial coverings on public transport and it will be mandatory to wear a facial covering in shops/supermarkets from Friday 24^th July 2020

To find out;

• when you can take your mask off
• to learn about different types of masks
• how to be safe wearing a mask
• if you’re exempt from wearing a mask

Please click here

Supplying face mask exemption letters to patients

Our Practice (like many others) is seeing an increase in requests from patients for letters of exemption to wear face masks in various public settings. The Government guidance suggests there is no requirement for evidence for exemption. It should be sufficient for someone to declare that they are eligible for an exemption direct with the person questioning them (e.g. bus driver).

The BMA has indicated that practices are therefore not required to provide letters of support for those who fall under the list of exemptions, or to those who do not fall under the list of exemptions.

Some transport providers are providing evidence of exemptions themselves.

Being Exempt from Wearing a Face Mask

We understand that some people can’t wear a face mask or covering because of a disability or severe distress.

The link below provides Learning Disability Exemption Cards, Autism Exemption Cards and Parent and Child Exemption Cards. Download the PDF below to print your exemption card

Click here for printable Face-Covering-Exemption-Cards