Telephone Update
We understand that there have been numerous issues with regards to the telephone system and getting through to the surgery has been difficult for a lot of patients. We would like to reassure our patients that the telephone system is being actively rectified between ourselves and the supplier HiHi.
We have reported our concerns to HiHi and we are waiting for their response with how they will solve the ongoing issues we are currently experiencing.
In reception we have three telephones which are answered by our Patient Support Team. Our statistics show that we are answering all calls to these three telephones but unfortunately there appears to be “ghost telephones” where calls are also going to and not answered. We have raised this issue about “ghost telephones” with HiHi and they are looking into it and will hopefully respond to us very soon.
We will keep you updated with HiHi’s response and solution once we have received this from them.
Access to the Surgery
To improve access to the surgery for our patients and the upcoming weather changes we will be opening our doors to the surgery from Monday 5th October. There will be Covid-19 safety procedures in place to ensure patient and staff safety. We will only allow 2 patients at the reception area at one time at a 2 meter distance and we ask that patients wear masks at all times when in the surgery. The waiting room will be set out in a one-way system and only 2 people to be in the waiting area at any one time. Please read signs displayed informing you of the one way route. Patients who have face to face appointments booked with our Nurse or GP will need to continue to wait in their car until they received a telephone call from the clinician to come through for their appointment.
We will continue to operate the telephone triage system where patients are required to call the surgery and book a telephone call for the clinician to call back.
The covid-19 situation is still unclear and the numbers are going up therefore please follow the covid-19 regulations strictly to avoid the virus spreading further. We may need to close the doors again if the risk increases or the covid-19 pandemic gets out of hand.
Medicines Management
We have had several complaints about repeat prescriptions. Unfortunately they were because of various changes made in line with Medicines Management Guidance. We have looked through the process and we have now realised now that communication between the surgery and the patients were in adequate. We have set plans to remedy this and from today we will communicate any changes with patients to help them understand the changes we are making. We have a new Clinical Pharmacist who is willing to do this and we will be also getting a Clinical Pharmacy Technician to help improve the delivery of this service. We would appreciate your feedback on this.