Welcome to Brightwalton News

Just a quick reminder on the prescription delivery service through the Downland Practice & Community Volunteers. Deliveries will be made every Tuesday, but the Practice do need 4 working days to process the order, ideally 6! 

To order please use one of the following methods:

1.            Send a request for your medication to be delivered to your home (this need to include your address and Date of Birth so they can identify the patient) into pm.downland@nhs.net
 – The preferred option.
 
2.            Send a request for your medication to be delivered to your home (this need to include your address and Date of Birth so they can identify the patient) into the practice via the website at the below link.
https://www.downlandpractice.nhs.uk/navigator/ask-a-doctor-a-question/
 
3.            For those patients who do not have access to the to the internet you can send in a written request  (this need to include your address and Date of Birth so they can identify the patient) to the practice.  This can be sent in by post or hand delivered. Let me know if you need assistance with this. 

If you are going in to pick up your own prescription please note that they have reduced opening hours to 9.30 till 13.00 and 14.00 till 17.00 

BINS MAY BE COLLECTED EARLIER IN THE DAY UNDER NEW PLANS

West Berkshire Council is currently reviewing its arrangements with waste collection contractor Veolia to ensure that an efficient service is maintained throughout the coronavirus crisis.
This comes in the face of significant reductions in bin staff numbers as a consequence of the outbreak.

Currently, Veolia has suspended Household Waste Recycling Centres nationwide, in line with Government advice on social distancing.

It has also instructed staff to stop collecting bulky waste.

To ease the situation, West Berkshire residents are encouraged to limit household consumption. They are advised to store waste in their sheds or garages where possible.
It is possible that collection may soon take place earlier in the morning than usual.
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To preempt this, householders should leave their bins out the night before collection – or, at the very latest, before 6am on the day itself.

Given these challenging times, I am delighted to announce that Alan Hayward owner of Vicars Game (also a local resident who has for years been an active supporter in the village), has kindly offered to do personal meat deliveries to members of the village.
 
If you are interested in this, you need to do the following :
 

1. Place your order to info@vicarsgame.co.uk (Note: minimum orders of £50.00)
2. On your order please make sure you give :
   1. Your name and delivery address
   2. Phone number and email
   3. Details of your order

Once the order is ready which is usually the next day Vicars will contact you for payment and arrange delivery to your house. There is a £5 delivery charge.
  
Regards
 
Shaun Orpen

The practice have been busy working with communities and volunteers (thank you to all those signed up to help) to set up a home delivery service for those that cannot leave the house. Details of how to access this have now been published on their website

 https://www.downlandpractice.nhs.uk/practice_news/medication-home-drop-off/

Bus Services – West Berkshire Council have confirmed the following:
From the 25th March 2020 all public bus routes run by West Berkshire Council Transport Services Team the 5, 5a, 5c, 41, 44, 47 & H1 are suspended until further notice.
 
Keyworkers who require assistance with essential travel should contact West Berkshire Council on 01635 551111.
 
West Berkshire Council and Local Councils have also had to close all enclosed playgrounds as per the government advice.
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The CEO at The Royal Berkshire Hospital have also asked for the following to be shared:
The next stages in a major Covid-19 action plan aimed at ensuring local patients, staff and communities are guaranteed first class health care and support have been outlined by hospital leaders today.
 
The far reaching plan builds on work already in place at the Royal Berkshire Hospital Foundation Trust and is aimed at reassuring people that everything possible is being done to make sure they are kept safe and well during the current Covid-19 outbreak.
There are four main strands to the plan:
·         To reduce the number of people – patients, visitors and staff – on hospital sites
·         To increase and enhance the RBH’s capacity to treat patients
·         To reduce demand so the focus is on the patients most in need of help
·         To look after hard working staff and make sure they have the equipment and facilities they need
Measures have already been put in place to tackle these critically important areas.
-          Many more people are being offered virtual outpatient clinic appointments to receive healthcare over the phone or via a laptop.
-          Visitors have been restricted to one per patient per day.  
-          The hospital layout has been revised to establish separate zones to deal with the differing needs of patients and keep everyone safe
-          Intensive care capacity has increased from 14 to 34 beds
-          Elective surgery has been suspended to free up time for key staff to be retrained in other more urgent areas of work
Now the next phase of the action plan is being implemented and this will mean more changes to the way the hospital works and the way patients and visitors will be asked to operate.
 
In a bid to further reduce the number of people coming on to the hospital site, some services may be deferred, and other services may be moved to alternative private hospital settings. Children under the age of 12 will no longer be able to go to the RBH as visitors.
 
To increase capacity to deal with Covid 19 patients, there are plans to increase intensive care beds to 56 and health managers are in talks with the independent sector to move urgent surgery to private hospitals.
 
Demand in A&E has seen a fall recently but more needs to be done to ease the pressure on staff and an ‘Ask A&E’ online helpline service is being explored.
The welfare of staff is paramount in the action plan and senior management teams are looking at what more can be offered to ease the unprecedented demands facing all those working in the hospital – the clinicians and vital back up and support teams like cleaners, porters and admin employees.
 
Trust Chief Executive Steve McManus, said: “Whilst we’re all in very new territory with this virus we have a huge amount of tried and tested experience of planning for and dealing with major outbreaks like this. There are national and regional systems in place to support us and this, coupled with the work we’re doing at the Trust, is all aimed at keeping everyone safe and making sure we can sustain this level of care for the period of this outbreak.
 
“We all know now that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s crucial we plan and operate in a careful, measured way over the next few weeks and months so our resources, both staff, equipment and facilities, are able to continue providing exceptional standards of care.
 
“We have amazing staff with many, many years of expertise, experience and knowledge behind them and I want people to know they are in safe hands.
“This incredible wealth of healthcare expertise is being enhanced by the really outstanding support from our local communities and partners and we can’t thank them enough for all their on-going support,” he said.
 
“We recognise we’re asking a lot of people, often at very difficult times in their lives when they are unwell or wanting to be with people who are ill. Our staff too are facing all sorts of difficult day-to-day issues and this is why the support and understanding we offer to each other is so important.
 
“With this in mind, I really do hope people will appreciate why we’ve had to take some of the decisions we have taken, for example around visiting family and loved ones in hospital. I know this will be extremely hard for some people but we can’t say it enough -  If we are to successfully deal with this virus, stop its spread, treat those affected and free up the hospital’s resources to do so, then we have to take these sort of serious steps now. 
 
“So my message to them is please think again just how much they really do need to make that visit. Can they keep in touch with their loved one over the phone for now? By choosing not to come into the building they are doing a huge amount to help our staff,” he added.

As you will be aware the UK is experiencing the COVID-19 Pandemic.  GP appointments at the surgery will be screened by a GP telephone call first and then a decision will be made if the patient needs to attend the surgery.  Repeat medication requests will only be issued for 1 month at a time due to supply concerns.  Telephones will be answered where possible but the surgery is experiencing unplanned staff absences.  Medications can be collected from the Pharmacy.  Requests for non NHS services (requests for medical records/medicals etc) will be dealt with once the surgery is able to return to normal service.  Questions submitted on the website may take longer to receive a reply again this is down to what staff we have available to deal with these requests.
 
On behalf on the GP Partners at the Downland Practice thank you for your patience.
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NHS England has issued instruction that all routine appointments are screened by a GP on the telephone to assess if they need to be seen.  This is to prevent a patient with a possible case of Covid-19 entering the premises and the surgery closing for a few days whilst we have a Deep Clean.   All patients with routine appointments are being contacted by text message or by telephone. 
 
Patients who turn up at the surgery for a routine GP appointment will be asked to go home and await a GP call.
 
Staff will be briefed daily at 09.00 during this period the surgery will be closed to patients and the telephone will be on hold.  The surgery will be closed from 12.30- to 13.30 so that staff can rest and undertake handover.
 
We may close at a point in the afternoon also if the situation changes only so we can have a staff briefing for 30 minutes. 
 
Pharmacy – Will remain open for patient to collect their medications.  Requests for repeat medications will still be processed as normal.
 

The March Brickleton News will soon be arriving through your door, in case you can't wait, you can download a copy here:

The latest copy of the West Berkshire Countryside Society newsletter, UpStream, is available for download here: