VV_April Web 21-compressed

Village Voice April/May 2021
PENN PATIENT
GROUP UPDATE
As Coretta Scott King, the wife of the great
Martin Luther King said, ‘the greatness of a
community is most accurately measured by the
compassionate actions of its members.’
The Simpson Centre and Penn Surgery would
like to thank the community who during this
pandemic, has provided enormous support and
demonstrated that community spirit is alive and
well in Penn and Beaconsfield. These pictures
highlight just some of this spirit which the
Surgery is immensely grateful for
We have run our biggest ever flu vaccination
programme and are now (alongside
neighbouring practices) running a COVID
vaccination programme at Adams Park. This
has been very successful to date, to the point
that we have already sent invitations to all
priority groups 1-9 (those aged over 50). To
minimise the impact on our regular service the
vaccination programme is largely being staffed
by regular staff on their days off, retired
members of the
team and
volunteers.
As other Covid
vaccination
centres have
begun to come
online in recent
weeks, the pace
has increased
further and
some of our
patients may
find that they
have received
invitations for a
vaccine from
several different
sources. In spite
www.pennandtylersgreen.org.uk
of this we
understand that lots
of people have had
and will continue
to have concerns
about their own
specific situation
and feel that they
should have the vaccine sooner. We have tried
to adhere to the government guidelines
regarding vaccine priority as closely as possible.
Second vaccine doses will be arranged 11-12
weeks after the first dose. Typically, we only get
a few days’ notice before vaccine deliveries so
we cannot give out second dose appointments
until the week before they are due. Everybody
who had their first vaccination through the
practice will be contacted by text or telephone
call to be invited for their second.
With all of this going on, the volume of
queries and calls that the practice receives is
extremely high. We are doing our very best to
deal with this increased workload but at times
this has been very difficult, and we recognise
that it has been difficult to get through to the
practice and that the waiting time to speak to a
doctor is longer than usual. Generally, people
have been very understanding about the
pressures we are working under, but this has not
always been the case and we would like to take
this opportunity to remind people that we are all
working very hard and appreciate your
continued support. Emma McPhee PPG
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination
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