You will have seen that we are not booking face to face appointments currently.

If you feel you need to see a doctor or nurse, please telephone and initially you will be booked for a telephone consultation.

We are not seeing patients for any of the following:

• routine 3 or 5 yearly cervical screening
• asthma reviews – these can be done with an nurse over the telephone or via a SMS service
• COPD annual reviews – a telephone consultation with the nurse can be arranged
• many routine blood tests
• diabetic reviews
• IUD checks and removals

If you have a smartphone, please make sure we have an up to date number; some consultations can be done via video consultation.

Our telephone lines are super busy; please be patient.

Messages sent via our website contact form are checked daily but urgent queries and prescription orders MUST NOT be made in this way.

If you have an email address please consider signing up to our Patient Access service. This makes prescription ordering available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is a safer way of dealing with medication orders.

Thursday 19th March is our scheduled monthly Protected Learning time for staff training.

The surgery will close at 1pm and we reopen at 8am on Friday.

We recognise that we are all living and working in worrying and extraordinary times but this protected time is even more important this week as it will give staff an opportunity to catch up with our new current working practices and plan for the coming weeks.

Please do not come to collect prescriptions on Thursday afternoon.

Please call 111 for medical advice or 999 in case of an emergency.
Calls will be handled by ChoC

There is no change to prescription service.

We are understandably getting lots of queries about this by phone which is affecting our call-handling capability.

Please check our updates online and help us to keep telephone lines clear.

Please do not order extra ‘just in case”.

Please do not order earlier than usual.

There is no need to telephone before collection.

Patients MUST allow at least 48 working hours before coming to collect items.

Your assistance in keeping the system flowing and not adding extra pressure to demands on a stretched service is very much appreciated.

Prescriptions: please order as usual online or by telephone, or drop your slip into the prescription post box by the surgery door. 

 There is no change to prescription processing or our delivery service. Orders for delivery should be made before Monday morning; items will be delivered on a Wednesday.

If you are nominating someone else to collect your prescriptions it would be helpful if you let us know this when you order.

When collecting, please knock at the staff door. There is a notice.

Your prescription will be transferred via a drop box to avoid person to person contact.

We ask patients to stand away from the doorway and from each other while they wait.

Please maintain a distance of at least 2m.

You will understand that these measures are necessary to protect all our patients and staff.

Please help out your friends, neighbours and family if possible by co-ordinating collections and orders.

•  We are very carefully monitoring the situation with regards to the Coronavirus, and are implementing the necessary changes required to ensure that we deliver Primary Care as safely as possible under exceptional circumstances.

• For your protection the practice intends to move to a telephone triage system beginning Monday 16th March 2020. Please telephone for an appointment (on the day you require an appointment) and then an appropriate Clinician will call you back. If it is deemed safe and necessary, you will be invited in for a face to face consultation.

• All routine face to face appointments that have been booked in advance for or after 16th March 2020 will be reverted to telephone calls and a Clinician will telephone those patients on the day of their scheduled appointment. DO NOT come to the surgery.

• Latest information can be found at hhtps://gov.uk/coronavirus or https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19

• Any future updates will be added to our Practice website and Facebook page.

The Safety of all patients is of paramount importance to us and we would like to reassure you that we are taking as many precautions as we possibly can.

Please note repeat prescriptions will be processed as normal, please do not put your requests for medication in any earlier than twenty-one days since the last issue as these requests will be rejected.

The Croft Surgery is not currently operating our usual morning urgent surgery or the normal home visit service.

If you have an urgent on-the-day medical query, please contact our reception 016973 51207 to book a telephone triage appointment with the on-call GP. 

In an emergency please call 999

NHS 111 can help if you have an urgent medical problem and you’re not sure what to do. Ring 111 or go to https://111.nhs.uk/

In line with other NHS practices, out patients are not currently able to book appointments online via Patient Access or using the apps on their smartphones.

If you need to book a regular GP appointment, please ring the surgery – you will be directed to an appropriate appointment  – this may initially be a telephone consultation  with a GP.

If your appointment request is related to coronavirus concerns, please consult the NHS coronavirus advice page or see our separate update regarding this.

Please keep up to date with changes to our services by checking this website or our Facebook page.

If you think you might have coronavirus or you’ve been in close contact with someone who has it:

: •stay at home and avoid close contact with other people

•do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital

•use the NHS 111 online coronavirus service to find out what to do next

The 111 coronavirus service will tell you if you need to continue to stay at home (self-isolate) or if you need medical help.

https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19

Recent travel: If you’ve recently travelled abroad, see the NHS coronavirus advice for travellers to find out what to do.

Do not visit the surgery. We are not currently running any urgent surgery appointments.