Patients coming to the surgery

In compliance with current national lockdown rules, patients should only come to the surgery when they have a booked appointment. Patients must not come to the surgery for any other reason. 

Latest information about Coronavirus vaccine 

Patients who meet the criteria for a learning disability have been added to the current cohort for vaccination. Please do not call us; we will call you to invite you for your vaccination. You can find out more here: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jcvi-advises-inviting-people-on-learning-disability-register-for-vaccine

As you may be aware from national news reports and other media, the NHS has recently identified a further 1.7 million new patients who are being advised to shield. All of these patients will receive a letter informing them that they are advised to shield. Our GP's are currently reviewing these patients to make sure it is appropriate for them to shield. Where we feel the code has been incorrectly applied, we will contact the patient to discuss it. There is no need to call your GP unless you have specific questions relating to your condition. This group of patients will be invited for their covid vaccine shortly as they are now being included in the vaccination programme as a priority.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/people-at-higher-risk/advice-for-people-at-high-risk/

We continue to be inundated with patients telephoning and emailing us, asking about their vaccine. These calls distract us from the important work of the covid vaccination programme and only serve to delay us. Please do not contact us to ask about your vaccine. When it is your turn we will contact you. Please check this page for updates on the programme. 

In the week commencing 01/03/21, we will continue to vaccinate patients from cohorts 1-4 (this is a rolling programme as new patients join the list), also those patients in cohort 4b (those recently identified as Extremely Clinically vulnerable and advised to shield). We are also vaccinating patients in cohort 6. 

Patients in cohorts 5 (aged 65-69 years) and cohort 7 (aged 60-64y) will receive invitations from mass vaccination centres. We will not contact you about this, however, the NHS will write to each patient. We have received numerous complaints from patients who would prefer us to vaccinate them. Unfortunately this is outside of our control. When we receive vaccine, we are instructed by NHS England which cohorts we should vaccinate. At present, we have been told to focus on cohort 6. If patients from cohorts 5 and 7 would prefer to be vaccinated by us and/or do not want to travel, please wait for us to contact you when we are advised we can vaccinate these cohorts. We understand that a mass vaccination centre is scheduled to open at The Riverside Football Stadium in mid-March 2021. 

Unfortunately, in addition to dealing with their usual workload and the vaccination programme, our staff has been subjected to a significant increase in abuse from patients. This is unacceptable and where this occurs, we will de-register patients and they will be obliged to find another doctor. 

Information about the priority groups is here: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-30-december-2020

We continue to receive vaccines using the "push" model. This model means that we don't order vaccine, it is sent to us, sometimes with just 48 hours notice. 

As and when we receive more vaccine, we will do our utmost to vaccinate patients as swiftly as possible and according to the clinical priorities set by the Joint Committee of Vaccinations and Immunisations.