News from the Quantock Medical Centre
I don’t know why but I always find it difficult to know what to write about and what people will be interested to her so this month I am going to update you on a few issues.
You may have heard recently the sad news that Victoria Park Medical Centre Bridgwater has had to permanently close due to lack of clinical staff. This will have a huge knock on effect to all the patients registered there and the surrounding Bridgwater Practices are working extremely hard to support these changes and provide care for these patients.
We too as a Practice are finding it increasingly difficult to find locum Doctors and Nurses to support the Practice when our Clinical staff book a much needed break. There will be some weeks we will be operating on very minimal staffing levels and only able to see urgent on the day patients – so please be supportive of your local practice and bear with us.
In order to support the Doctors we have asked our very experienced and qualified Advanced Nurse Practitioner Helen Every to step back from general Practice Nurse Duties to work alongside Dr Stone and Dr Klein using her skills and knowledge to see Patients with minor illness; assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe. We will also be recruiting a new Lead Practice Nurse to support the Nursing team.
You may have notices some empty shelves in Supermarkets and heard about the shortage of lorry drivers across the country – We too have noticed a knock on effect with Dispensary Deliveries and stock, many drivers have left their Pharmaceutical delivery jobs due to low pay, long hours etc and we have notices this in recent months with fewer deliveries, less stock. This in turn has a knock on effect on our dispensary team being able to fulfil your repeat requests in 48 working hours. Again please bear with us we are all doing our best.
We would like to remind everyone coming into the practice to continue to wear face masks as Covid is still about and we need think about the safety and care of others as well as ourselves. A polite reminder that if you have any symptoms of covid including: a high temperature, a new continuous cough, loss or change to your sense of smell or taste please organise a PCR test – please do not book an appointment with a Doctor first as it is a viral illness and we are unable to help you with this, and you will risk passing it on to more vulnerable patients at the Surgery.
Last but not least please book your Flu vaccination appointment to the medical centre 01278 732696 we will be holding clinics from mid September through to October for all patients in a clinical risk group inc: Asthma, copd, chronic lung conditions, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, neurological disease, learning disability, weakened immune system, BMI over 40, diabetes, all aged over 50 years old, pregnant women, carers, close contacts of immunocompromised patients.
The Government have not yet announced plans for covid boosters so we need to go ahead with our Flu Plans as a priority.
Thank you for listening
Helen Stacey Practice Manager
