Welcome to Crewkerne Health Centre

Changes to GP services COVID-19

You will be aware of the COVID-19 virus, also known as the coronavirus, and we have some protocols we have to follow to protect our staff and patients.

• Do you have any flu like symptoms including high fevers and shortness of breath?

• Do you have a new persistent dry cough?

If so, please remain at your home to self-isolate and avoid close contact with any other people, advice regarding self-isolation can be found on the government website. If you are symptomatic and self-isolating but have another medical problem please visit https://111.nhs.uk to obtain advice.

Please do not visit the surgery unless instructed otherwise and please be aware that you will be screened during each contact regarding possible symptoms.

You can find up to date information for the public in relations to Coronavirus by visiting: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Sick notes & Covid-19 Self-isolation

Dear Patient/s

The Government’s rules around issuing a sick note (Med3) are that a medical professional can only issue a Med3 when an individual has had more than seven continuous calendar days off sick due to an illness (including weekends).

For any period of illness less than seven days, you are able to complete a self-certification certificate and provide this to your employer. A SC2 form can be downloaded from the internet. In the unlikely event that your employer does not accept a self-certification then your doctor may be able to issue a private sick note for which you may get charged.

In light of the current Coronavirus situation, it is inevitable that a number of employees may be required to quarantine themselves at home based on government advice, for example due to having symptoms or because other members of the household are showing symptoms - even if you are not showing symptoms yourself. In these cases, your GP will not be able to issue a sick note, as the time off work is a precaution to avoid transmission of any illness that is yet to produce symptoms.

In this instance, you are able to complete a self-isolation note via https://111.nhs.uk/isolation-note/

We expect your employer to be sympathetic if you are required to self-isolate and to understand that the reason for this is to protect the welfare of your work colleagues and the wider community.

GPs have a responsibility to prioritise the assessment and management of the healthcare needs of patients who are acutely unwell, rather than spending time dealing with requests for sick notes, particularly when they aren’t in a position to issue one.

This briefing has been written for and on behalf of your GP surgery. For further information, please visit:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection

https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus

Thank you for your understanding.

Dr Berge Balian

Medical Director

NATIONAL EMERGENCY: COVID-19

PATIENT NOTICE

We are bringing in changes to the way that the practice undertakes appointments with immediate effect in order to minimise the risk of COVID-19 to patients and staff.

The practice will be strictly reviewing all patient requests

We are only allowing patients to enter the surgery following a telephone triage call by a clinician; they will advise whether you need to come in.

If needed, we will offer you a face-to-face consultation after the telephone assessment but this is not guaranteed and will be down to individual clinical assessment.

If you have been offered one of these face-to-face consultations please be aware that the surgery doors may be closed. Ring the doorbell available to alert the surgery of your arrival.

Many conditions are able to be safely dealt with during a telephone appointment.

Prescriptions

We are currently experiencing a high demand for repeat prescriptions.

We aim to process all prescription within 3 working days however sometimes we are unable to do this. We encourage patients to request repeat medications when they have approximately 1 week left. 

From January 2020 we will be closing on the

3rd Tuesday of every month

13:30 - 17:00

For emergencies please call 01460 72435 your call will be transferred to the Duty Doctor

We will keep our practice website updated with any further information but if you have any questions, please contact Ruth Bagg, Practice Manager on 01460 72435 or somccg.reception-crewkernehc@nhs.net

We hope this website will prove useful both to new patients and to patients who may have been registered with us for many years. We aim to provide a comprehensive and professional service and we hope the following information will enable you to make full use of the Health Centre.

The building has disabled access and facilities, including a hearing loop.

The doctors, practice nurses, counsellors and administrative staff work in conjunction with the district nurses, midwives, health visitors, school nurses and auxiliary nurses to form a Primary Health Care team. We believe that by working together within that ‘Team’ we can provide a comprehensive service to our patients in the community. We are committed to the values of traditional General Practice and we want to provide the best possible service.

The doctors operate a 'personal list' system and therefore ALL our patients (including children) have a named accountable GP to take responsibility for their care.

The practice also operates a Minor Injuries service which is available from 8am until 6.30pm from Monday to Friday.  Any injury should have occurred in the last 48 hours and no appointment is necessary to access this service. 

The practice is also participating in the improved access scheme which gives patients more opportunities to see a local GP every weekday evening up until 8pm.  Appointments are also available routinely over the weekend.  For further details and how to book please click here.

Online Services

Please note photographic ID and Proof of Address will need to be shown to register for these services for the first time

Please note: Our new appointments system allows booking through Patient Access.  If you have registered for this system, please click the link below to book.  Not all appointments are bookable online however.

Patient Access - Prescriptions, Appointments and Records