Regarding face-to-face appointments, eConsult and Bream re-opening.
From the 1st of June, we are pleased to announce that we will once again be offering pre-bookable, face to face Doctors appointments without the need for ‘telephone triage’. At Yorkley Health Centre we have always felt that this is the safest & most effective way to deal with your medical problems and the enforced move to telephone triage, due to the pandemic, has been a challenge for Doctor and Patient both. However, with local covid-19 cases low and vaccine uptake high, we feel we can start moving back towards a more ‘normal service’.
We cannot quite return to how things were ‘before covid’. As well as our higher than ever demand for appointments we now have to meet strict ‘covid safe’ rules such as limits on the numbers of patients in the building, extra cleaning & appropriate social distancing. Our new system reflects these changes and this may initially mean longer waits for routine appointments than we have had during last 12 months. However, we feel that the benefits of seeing your Doctor in person will be worth it!
These pre-bookable appointments can be organised via telephone or online patient access. We are going to start treating eConsults as requests for routine appointments, and all submissions will be offered the next available face to face appointment (eConsults can continue to be used for sick note or medication requests as these will be dealt with differently).
On the day “Emergency Appointments” will continue to be triaged by telephone and a large, but limited, number will be available on a daily basis. We are aiming to return to face to face emergencies in some capacity in the future if Covid-19 numbers remain low. We are also introducing ‘telephone follow up appointments’ that can be organised once you have seen the Doctor in person.
As with any new system, there may be teething problems and we will respond to these as quickly as we can. Please be kind to our receptionists when booking your appointment as they are working within the system the GP’s have created to get you ‘back into the building’. Please only attend the surgery if you have an appointment, be mindful of the social distancing markings, use our electronic check in desks if possible and continue to wear a face mask when inside the surgery.
We are also pleased to announce the re-opening of Bream Surgery from 1st June. Our working days at Yorkley will be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Bream on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Initially, the dispensary will remain closed at Bream whilst we adjust to our new way of working – please can our dispensing patients continue to collect their medication from Yorkley Health Centre.
We’re very thankful for our patients continued understanding and support over what has been an extremely challenging year for all of us. We hope you appreciate the desire to return to face to face working as much as we do.
Best wishes,
The Doctors at Yorkley & Bream.