If you are worried you have symptoms of Coronavirus which can be a new continuous cough, a high temperature or loss of or change of smell or taste. You should immediately self isolate at home for 10 days from when your symptoms started, and either got to the following website https://gov.wales/apply-coronavirus-test or call the free phone number 119 to request a test. If the symptoms are severe they should call either 111, or 999 if it is an emergency. You should not attempt to visit the GP Surgery.
Public Health Wales
https://phw.nhs.wales/topics/latest-information-on-novel-coronavirus-covid-19/
Coronavirus Update from Rhayader Surgery
APPOINTMENTS
We know that there has been a lot of discussion in the news about GPs providing face-to-face appointments. We wanted to take this opportunity to keep all of our patients updated on how we are operating at the practice and the reasons why.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have remained open to patients. We have offered appointments using new ways of working and new technology and worked hard to make sure we’ve remained available to speak to throughout and to quickly signpost patients to the most appropriate care.
At the onset of the pandemic we changed our way of working overnight as we identified quickly that without making these necessary changes we ran the unthinkable risk of being unable to provide a safe and effective clinical service to our patients.
We know that patients sometimes prefer to see a GP face to face, but there are reasons why we went to a triage model offering video and telephone consultations, and government guidance has played a big part in this. It has remained the case that if we have needed to see a patient face-to- face we’ve asked those patients to come in to see us following clinical triage taking place. This system will remain, Coronavirus is still with us and we must ensure that the only patients being seen face to face are doing so because it is clinically appropriate to do so.
Please only attend at your appointment time, we will not be able to see you earlier as we have strict infection control processes in place between patients to ensure we keep both patients and staff safe.
Your clinician will see you wearing the appropriate PPE which may include a mask, visor, apron and gloves.
All patients are being asked to attend the surgery wearing a face covering, this is in line with Welsh Government Guidance.
Offering new ways of working has helped some patients’ access appointments who wouldn’t normally be able to due to other commitments, such as their work or caring responsibilities. We are aware of the IT challenges in our beautiful rural area and we know that some patients have difficulty getting mobile phone signal / internet access or who find using technology a challenge, we will continue to strive to overcome these challenges and highlight concerns to the relevant authorities.
The cleaning required between patients during the pandemic means that if all patients were to come in the surgery, we wouldn’t be able to offer the same number of appointments because of the amount of time that cleaning between each patient takes. However, we will always see patients face to face who need to be seen face to face.
Changing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) between each patient adds additional time to the end of each appointment. Prior to Coronavirus a face-to-face appointment with a clinician would be 10-15 minutes. Now an appointment will often involve a 10-15 minutes telephone triage call followed up if appropriate with a face to face appointment of 10-15 minutes and a further 10-15 minutes of PPE change and cleaning. This adds an additional pressure on the clinical time we have available and one of the reasons we must ensure patients who are seen face-to-face are only seen when clinically appropriate.
The difficulty in obtaining PPE has also meant that we’ve needed to be more cautious than normal about the way we use scarce resources. We continue to work hard daily to source the PPE we need.
We understand that some patients are reluctant to come and see us in the surgery as they are worried. We are making sure that social distancing is as good as it possibly can be and that we maintain a “COVID-secure” environment. Some of the things that we take in to account when we are considering this are: the number of people in the waiting room, the number of people who pass each other in the corridors and the toilet facilities that are available.
There is nothing that we would like to see more than a return to “normal” life and the easy face-to-face care we’ve always provided, but at the moment offering fewer face-to-face appointments keep patients and staff safe.
We are available to talk to, and we always want to hear from patients who need us. While we understand patient’s frustrations with the current situation, we hope you’ll continue to help and support us, as you’ve always supported us so that we can go on providing you with care and support in the coming weeks and months.
Finally we are immensely appreciative of all of the support the practice has received from our wonderful community. The respect you continue to show on a daily basis to our team to ensure we have been able to remain open to help you throughout this difficult and challenging time for us all.
