Downland Practice - Appointment Update

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.