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APPOINTMENTS

We are now back to seeing patients face to face where appropriate.  We have pre-bookable appointments every afternoon and on the day appointments each morning.  Patients should telephone the surgery at 8 am for a same day appointment.  These appointments do quite often get filled and patients will then be asked to telephone the following morning. 

We are not an emergency service, if you feel your condition is an emergency, call 999 or attend the Accident and Emergency department at your nearest hospital. 

Patients telephoning the surgery with general enquiries are to ring after 2pm.

Please be patient with our staff at this challenging time and do not get angry with our reception staff as they are following clinical guidelines.

Sorry for any inconvenience. 

For the latest COVID-19 advice please visit www.nhs.uk.

If you have travelled to an affected area or had contact with a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19, please do not go to a GP surgery, Pharmacy or Hospital. Use the NHS 111 online service 111.nhs.uk/covid-19 to find out what to do next. 

Sick / Fit Note Requests

The Government’s rules around issuing a sick note (MED3) are that a medical professional can only issue a Med3 when an individual has had more than seven continuous calendar days off sick due to an illness (including weekends).

For any period of illness less than seven days, you are able to complete a self-certification and provide this to your employer. An SC2 can be downloaded from the internet. In the unlikely event that your employer does not accept a self-certification then your doctor may be able to issue a private sick note for which you will get charged.

In light of the current Coronavirus situation, it is inevitable that a number of employees may be required to quarantine themselves at home, for example due to the nature of recent travel, or because other members of the household are showing symptoms even in the absence of any symptoms of an illness in the employee. In these cases, your GP will not be able to issue a sick note as the time off work is not due to an illness and is not affecting your ability to work, but rather is a precaution to avoid transmission of any illness that is yet to produce symptoms.

We therefore expect your employer to be sympathetic if you are required to self-isolate for 14 days and to understand that the reason for this is to protect the welfare of your work colleagues and the wider community. We understand that you may also be able to contact NHS 111 to request confirmation of the suspected Coronavirus diagnosis, to show to your employer if needed.

Whilst we appreciate this may cause some difficulties between you and your employer, equally GPs have a responsibility to prioritise the assessment and management of the healthcare needs of patients who are acutely unwell, rather than spending time dealing with requests for sick notes, particularly when they are not in a position to issue one.

This briefing has been written for and on behalf of your GP surgery so please accept this as a reply to any request for a sick note/letter from the surgery.

Many thanks for your continued understanding.

 

Opting out of Sharing Patient Identifiable Data

This has now been postponed to September 2021.  However if you wish to opt out, please obtain a form from the surgery to complete and return.

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