COVID-19: How we have changed our procedures

St Wulfstan Surgery is committed to putting quality & compassion at the heart of everything we do.

COVID-19 has presented new challenges, and as such we have had to adapt some of our procedures to continue to deliver care, but in a way that ensures the safety of patients and staff alike. Some of these changes have also been mandated by NHS England.

Visiting the surgery

Please only visit the surgery only of it is absolutely required, either for a face-to-face appointment or if advised by our staff. You can still call us as usual.

Please also consider whether your concern could be managed by ‘self-care’ by accessing the nhs.uk website.

We are requesting visitors wear face coverings when visiting the surgery.

And when attending for an appointment, please enter the building at the time of your appointment and avoid entering sooner. Please also avoid being late, we work very hard to remain punctual out of respect for all of our patients.

Booking Appointments with a GP

GP appointments can be conducted face-to-face or via telephone, and can be booked in online or via reception. The online booking system and/or our reception staff will ask you for a brief explanation of your problem. This is to help receptionists, GP’s and Nurses get you seen by the right person. This also helps GP’s prepare for your consultation.

If during your telephone consultation you & your GP agree that a photograph would be useful then the GP can send a text message to your smartphone where you can reply with a photograph.

Pleaae ensure you book the appropriate appointment type.

  • Telephone Appointments are great where a physics examination is unlikely to be required. For example; medication reviews, reviews of symptoms for which you have already seen a GP, symptoms of anxiety or depression. Rashes are best dealt with by telephone in the first instance as we can have a look at a photo which is often sufficient.

  • Face-To-Face Appointments are necessary where a physical examination is likely to be required. For example; tummy pain, shortness of breath, joint pains etc.

GP appointments can be booked up-to 7 days in advance (https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/nhs-app/).

Booking appointments with our nursing team

Blood tests can be booked online up-to 7 days in advance - this can be done via the NHS App (https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/nhs-app/)

Contraception and HRT appointments can also be booked online or via telephone.

The Telephone consultation

We have found that telephone consultations are satisfactory in dealing with most problems or concerns. They reduce the inconvenience of traveling to the surgery, and the associated issues of parking and pollution.

During your telephone consultation it maybe apparent that a photograph would be useful, for example in the case of a rash. In this case your GP will send you a text message to which you can reply with a photograph from your smartphone.

During your telephone consultation it may also become apparent that a video consultation would be useful, for example to assess your breathing, or to help the assessment of a child. In this case your GP will send a text message to your smartphone containing a link. If you open the link and grant permission for the software to use your camera and microphone, you will then enter a video consultation with your GP.

Thank You

Thanks to all of our patients for your support through this time. These new measures are intended to help protect our patients and staff, but they are also presenting new ways of working that allow us to help you even more efficiently and effectively than we were able to do previously.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions then we are always happy to hear from you.