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Part-Time Administrator to Support the Practice Manager (16-20 Hours Per Week)

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Covid Vaccinations - Spring Dose (25/03/22)

The Waterside PCN will be providing spring Covid boosters for all three practices in the coming weeks. Once we know more patients will be notified.
Please do not call the surgery to enquire about covid vaccinations as this is blocking the lines for other patients trying to book Urgent or routine care.
Julie Stewart
Practice Manager

PACE Free Health & Wellbeing Workshops 11th May 22

Click here for more information

Please complete our survey

Over the next few weeks the Waterside Primary Care Network (of which we are a member practice) and the CCG are asking patients to complete a survey about our same day/urgent care appointments. We would be very grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to complete the survey, click the link below:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/WatersidePCN/

 

28th January 2022

Dear Patients,

We apologise for any delays whilst attending or calling the surgery.  We are currently short staffed which is impacting on the remaining members of the team and our ability to respond to queries and keep up with the increased volume of work coming in.

Our staff are doing their very best to assist you whilst working under extreme pressure during these difficult times.

We appreciate your support.

Thank you.

Julie Stewart

Practice Manager

26th January 2022 - Marchwood Surgery Update

Dear Patients,

Following recent water damage Marchwood surgery has been drying out for several weeks now.

I am please to say that phase two (the building work) will be starting shortly followed by some redecoration.  Once this work has been completed, we will go into phase three (new floors being laid) this work will impact on 3 of the 5 consulting rooms and part of main corridor.

We will make you aware of any completion dates further down the line; however, we are hoping that this current work will be completed by the 31st of March 2022. 

Phase four (Planned work to the front porch will commence later in 2022) however this should have less of an impact on the clinics we run within Marchwood.

Julie Stewart

Practice Manager

30th December 2021 - Message for patients with diabetes at the practice:

As you know, as part of your diabetes annual review, urine testing is really important to look for early signs of kidney damage. We do this through a test called the albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR) test, which looks for small amounts of protein in the urine.
 
We know people struggle to do the test, and many would prefer to avoid coming into the practice and instead test at home wherever possible. That’s why we are offering a new, NHS funded service to allow people to do this test at home with a kit and a smartphone.
 
If you meet the criteria for the new service, you will receive a text message (or a letter) about this testing process, which is run by Healthy.io. If you want to find out more, please click here: https://lp.healthy.io/minuteful_info/. The team at Healthy.io will then be in contact with you a few days after receiving your text or letter to discuss sending the home kit to you; they will be happy to answer any of your questions.
 
Please can we ask that you do not telephone the practice about this; it is not a scam; you do not need to pay for the service, and if you would rather opt out of the process you can say at any time. If you want to speak to their customer support team, you can call them on 020 7183 7939.
 
Thank you,
 
The Partners at Forestside

17th December 2021

To all our Patients

We are all concerned about the effect of the Omicron virus and are aware of the warnings from the Prime Minister. As per Government advice, we are currently prioritising the patients who are in most need of medical help. By only ringing the surgery when it is essential, we can respond to our patients with the highest need more efficiently. 

It is important that you continue to put your health first so please continue to seek urgent medical help when you need it.

The call to support delivery of the new booster campaign makes it impossible for us to maintain all normal services. If you need routine care and your condition is stable, we may need ask you to wait longer than usual to arrange an appointment.

 If you already have an appointment, there are no changes at the current time so please attend as normal.

 We realise that it is frustrating to have to wait longer than usual for routine appointments and reviews, but we ask for your patience and understanding when contacting the surgery.

Before contacting the practice, please do consider self-help and pharmacy options such as these

 

Covid-19 Boosters

The practice is sending out messages to patients to book Covid Vaccinations. If you don’t have a mobile phone & want to book or need advice regarding your 1st, 2nd or booster Covid-19 vaccine.

Contact the National Booking Service via www.nhs.uk or ring 119

Please do not contact the surgery

Please be aware you need to wait 28 days following Covid before you can have your vaccination

Help us to keep you all safe and well by keeping our phone lines free for those who need urgent medical help.

Thank you

The Partners at Forestside

Marchwood Notice 11/11/21

Dear Patients,

We recently found damp areas inside Marchwood surgery and following thermal imaging a water leak from a burst pipe has been detected within the concrete.

Excavation work needs to take place inside Marchwood surgery followed by 2-3 weeks of drying out flooring and walls, then building work needs to commence replacing plasterwork, woodwork, and redecoration of the affected areas.

Marchwood surgery will be closed on Wednesday 23rd November giving our contractors a full day to excavate and hopefully repair the leak. 

Going forward this means a loss of three clinical rooms within Marchwood from the 23rd November into the New Year 2022.

Sadly, this means services at Marchwood will be affected and the surgery may have to close from time to time due to Health & Safety. 

Once we know more, we will up-date our website and facebook pages to keep you informed.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to you during this difficult period; however, a full service will continue within Dibden Purlieu surgery and the phone lines will remain the same.

Kind regards

Julie Stewart

Practice Manager

Forestside Medical Practice

 

Seasonal Flu and COVID Boosters – Provisional Information

We have reached that time of year again when we need to start thinking about seasonal influenza vaccinations. As you know the Waterside PCN has been providing a successful COVID vaccination programme throughout the year (based at Applemore Leisure Centre), which started in December 2020.
This winter, in conjunction with the seasonal flu vaccination, we also must provide a COVID booster programme. The seasonal flu vaccine will be offered to the same group of patients who require a COVID booster. It makes sense therefore that we deliver our flu vaccinations at the same time as the boosters.
Currently the NHS is waiting for confirmation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) that this will be possible. We hope that this confirmation is imminent.
Once approved, we intend to start running joint COVID and flu clinics (hopefully from around mid-September).
As soon as we can, we will start inviting you to our clinics.
In the meantime:
•Please ensure we have up-to-date mobile number, or that of a next of kin 
•For those patients who don’t have mobiles, please provide an email address where possible.
•Keep watching our website or Facebook pages for updates.

From 17 May 2021, people in England who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can demonstrate their vaccination status for international travel. A full course is currently two doses of any approved vaccine. Vaccine status will be available from: 

  • the NHS App which you can download from app stores 
  • the NHS website (from 17 May 2021)

It may take more than a week for your identity to be checked and verified so you can use these services.

If you cannot access these online services, and you have had 2 vaccines, you can request a paper letter from the NHS by calling 119. Only call 119 if you had your second dose more than 5 working days ago. It may take 7 working days for the letter to arrive.

This practice is not able to provide you with a letter that shows your COVID-19 vaccination status.

When you’re planning your travel, check the latest information on demonstrating your COVID-19 status when travelling abroad on the gov.uk website. Make sure there is time to get proof of your vaccination status before you leave.

Telephone system

Update to our telephone system

Dear Patient

Our new telephone system has now been installed however; we have issues with our broadband and are awaiting a replacement system. Engineers are due out to the practice on the 26th July to start the first phase and we hope to be up and running in early August. like you we are very frustrated with the whole situation.

We are coming to grips with the new telephone system but it is still not working properly due to the broadband, our staff are have been answering over 700 calls per day.  If you do not get through within 20 minutes please hang-up and try again later. Please do not get annoyed with our staff they are working very hard trying to help you.

Currently we have 4 staff off either sick or shielding which also impacts on answering the phones.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused to you. We are working very hard to deal with all calls and to assist you further.

Thank you for your understanding.

Julie Stewart

Practice Manager

14.7.2021

Confines of Covid-19

Dear Patient

We know that like us, everyone is struggling with the confines of Covid-19.  Everyone is trying to make the best of a really difficult situation and as a practice we are working very hard to keep our doors open caring for all our patients in the best possible way whilst aiming to keep both you and our team safe. 

We are covering clinics within Dibden Purlieu & Marchwood surgeries, along with providing support at the Covid Clinics within Applemore.

Our Telephones are over-run by patients enquiring about their Covid Vaccinations and our emails have increased tenfold from patients emailing the same questions.

We are also as a practice very frustrated with our telephone system to the extent that we are now changing our telephone provider however; this can take up to 12 weeks.  Please be kind to our staff this is out of our control.

The practice is working under extreme pressure please be aware that through our website:-

  • We can take repeat prescription requests. Please be aware that prescriptions can take a minimum of 72 hours to process. We will endeavour to deal with urgent enquiries as quickly as possible.
  • You cannot send Blood Pressure readings or photographs through the website
  • You cannot book appointments through the website - Patients must call Tel No. 02380 844546 to book appointments or use the E-consultation service via our website. Thank you for your understanding.
  • We cannot answer clinical questions through our website, please click on to e-consult and complete the questionnaire or call the surgery to book an appointment.
  • We cannot respond to patients asking when they will receive their Covid vaccination via email or on our website

We are currently working our way through the governments set list of priorities, rest assured we will send you a text message to book your appointment if we have an up-to-date mobile number and if we don’t we will call you.

If you have received a first vaccination within Applemore we will contact you again to book the second dose.

If you receive a letter from the national booking service, please book through them directly unless you have a problem getting to the centre.

Thank you for your patience.

17th March 2021.