VV_October Web 20-compressed

Village Voice October/November 2020
UPDATE FROM
YOUR GP PRACTICE
Dear VV Readers,
Unbelievably it has been 6 months since the
onset of the COVID 19 crisis, and during that
time the Simpson Centre and Penn Surgery have
continued to offer a GP service, albeit with
some changes, and following the guidance from
NHS England.
The arrangements we put in place were to
safeguard both staff and patients, whilst
continuing to provide patient support for the
elderly and infirm, as well as to patients with
illnesses and conditions unconnected to
COVID. We are very fortunate to have
remained open throughout, despite some staff
illness, as we are aware that some local
surgeries have had to close for COVID reasons.
Very early on we moved to limiting the
number of patients visiting the surgery in person
and instead moved to telephone consultations. If
a face to face appointment was clinically needed
this was arranged. To safeguard staff and
patients we introduced strict processes to
minimise the risk of infection transmission.
The past 6 months have been a challenging
time for everyone. Now that the lockdown has
been eased, we are now operating at Covid
Phase 3, as are all GP practices nationally.
Your Health is Our Priority
The Simpson Centre and Penn surgeries are
open as usual.
Covid 19 has not gone away so we need to
remain vigilant and ensure we all follow the
current guidelines. We all need to do everything
we can to reduce the potential spread amongst
visiting patients and staff, to ensure we are able
to maintain a service to all our patients
including those most at risk, the elderly, our
cancer patients and all those who have been
required to shield over the past few months.
10 www.pennandtylersgreen.org.uk
“
We currently triage all our appointment
requests by telephone. Where possible we are
offering telephone advice or a video
consultation to avoid the need to attend the
surgery. Dr. Jo Layng
As you can probably imagine, all surgeries
are now experiencing an unprecedented demand
for healthcare services, and we are seeing many
more patients presenting with non Covid related
issues. We know that patients can become
frustrated as they did not contact us at the peak
of the pandemic and are now experiencing some
delays in the resumption and availability of
treatment. We know that patients are concerned
that many hospital follow up appointments have
been postponed and further concerned about
when these will be re arranged.
Many patients who have a chronic disease
such as diabetes or asthma, who we would
normally call in for a regular review, have not
been called in over this period and we are now
working hard to ‘catch up’ on these reviews. It
is important that we do this safely.
We are very grateful for your patience as
“
we increase our non Covid related work again.
It is likely to take us several months to complete
this catch up and this may be delayed further if
Covid cases rise again over the winter months.
Dr. Moona Rakhit (Senior Partner)
All the doctors and staff are very busy,
working hard to help as many people as possible
at this time. We know that when things change
as rapidly as they have over recent months,
sometimes things go wrong, or patients feel
frustrated by the changed systems that have
been put in place, but please remember that this
has all been put in place to meet government
guidelines, and to safeguard the wellbeing of
patients and staff.
In a few instances, staff have been subject to
abuse or rudeness, and this cannot be tolerated.
If you feel that you have not been given the
support you would expect, please contact
simpson.practicemanager@nhs.net. The doctors
and staff are happy to receive feedback and will
work hard to resolve any issues.