Coronavirus: How Peterborough’s GPs are adapting to crisis and what to do if you have Covid-19 symptoms

Across our area, GPs are now undertaking more and more telephone appointments. As a local GP I know the benefit of a telephone consultation. I can speak to many more people on the telephone than I can see face to face. With the current threat of Covid-19 infection transmission, a telephone consultation also helps patients by keeping them safe and well inside their homes.

It also means that GPs who are isolated at home but well themselves can still help run our vital GP services.

As highly qualified medical professionals we are trained to ask the right questions and determine the right course of action for you by listening carefully to what you tell us. This way we can manage many of our patients who need support either on the telephone or increasingly via video calling.

This also means that we don’t have to ask vulnerable members of our community to come into the practice to receive the care they need or to reorder their prescriptions, crucial in this time of self-isolation and social distancing.

Our pharmacies are also playing a vital role in ensuring people have access to the medicines they need during this time, both by filling prescriptions and by providing over the counter medications to help people care for themselves at home.

What to do if you have Covid-19 (Coronavirus) symptoms?

Symptoms can include:

. a new, continuous cough – this means you have been coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours

. a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a thermometer to take your own temperature)

Even if you only have one of these symptoms you, and the people you live with, need to self-isolate for 14 days.

Your first port of call is the specialist NHS 111 online service that you can find at https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19. This new service will take you through a symptom checker and provide you with the right advice to manage your condition at home.

Remember, it is vital to protect others, so do not go to a GP, pharmacy or hospital. If your symptoms get worse please revisit the NHS 111 online service, or if you’re unable to do so please call NHS 111 where they will be able to provide you with the right medical support.

We can all play a vital role in tackling COVID-19 by following this simple advice and by strictly following the new social distancing measures.

Please do your bit and stay at home. Doing this will save lives – literally.

For the latest coronavirus articles, visit: https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/health/coronavirus.