Whilst many things may have changed over recent months, what hasn’t is our commitment to you and delivering the highest standards of patient care.

 Safety and infection control have always been of the highest priority in our practice and over the past few months, we have been continually reviewing guidance, ensuring that when we do re-open we are providing a safe environment for our patients and team members.

Planning our return to work has been ongoing for some weeks now and we have updated our operating procedures, increased our safety protocols as well as purchased enhanced PPE.

As a result of these increased protocols, your next visit to the practice may look and feel different. Here are some of the changes we will be making!

Our practice will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You will be asked those same questions again when you are in the practice.

•          We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the practice. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the surgery for you to use as needed.
•          You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
•          Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you are offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment as we will be seeing less patients a day than we used to.
•          We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.
•          The door may be shut when you arrive at the practice so only expected patients can enter and you will be asked to arrive alone to promote social distancing within the practice and waiting rooms, however we understand that exceptions may be needed with children and those requiring the assistance of a carer.
•          There will be a slight price increase to cover the cost of PPE, which enables us to give you the best and the safest care to the high standards we perform at.
•          The toilets will no longer be for customer use, except in emergencies. We understand this may be inconvenient and ask that you bear this in mind before you attend.
•          We ask that you come alone to appointments where possible with the minimum number of belongings.

          As expected, there are many of you who are eager to be seen and we will endeavour to get to you all as soon as we can. Should you need to speak to a member of the team, please contact us by leaving a message on 01407 764599 and a member of staff will get back to you.If it is urgent there are instructions on the answer phone.

   Please do not attend the practice in person, without an appointment just yet.

         Initially we will be prioritising those patients who have had or are still in severe pain - we have a list of patients who have contacted us to use the emergency triage service during the lockdown period and we will be contacting you shortly to discuss your current needs.

         Thereafter we will reschedule all examinations, and routine appointments – we have a record of all appointments that have been cancelled because of the lockdown.  We will ensure everyone is seen as soon as possible.

         Finally, thank you again for your loyalty and patience throughout this pandemic – we truly are grateful for your support and cannot wait to get back to seeing and treating our patients.

         If you have any questions, please get in touch and for now stay safe and well!

Best wishes

Tara Martin and Team