Coronavirus: Peterborough GP surgery ends initial face-to-face appointments

Thistlemoor Medical Centre in New England said it will have telephone consultations with its 27,000 patients during the coronavirus crisis with patients then assessed as to whether they need to be seen.

Video consultations will also be trialled.

Morning walk-in surgeries have now been suspended.

The new protocol will see all people entering the building having their temperature taken and asked the Covid triage questions.

This could see them refused entry into the building and told to return home and self-isolate.

All patients requesting repeat prescriptions are going to be issued three lots of medication, with requests made over the phone, from a pharmacy or by emailing: [email protected].

The practice stated: “This has not been an easy decision but unfortunately is needed at the moment to protect our patients due to coronavirus and the risk of this being passed to patients whilst in the practice.

“We will instead be trying to help and support our patients by assisting them over the phone or through other methods of communication (including video consultations). This will be a major change for you as well as us so please bear with us whilst we adapt to this change.

“If people come to the practice, we will be taking their name and will arrange a phone call back from one of our clinicians as needed. To direct this in the best way we will need some information about what your enquiry is about.”

Information on different procedures at the practice can be found at: https://www.thistlemoor.co.uk/thistlemoor-medical-centre/coronavirus.

Information on self-isolation can be found at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-advice/.

For general information on coronavirus visit: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/.

The Peterborough Telegraph asked the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, which is responsible for GP services in the county, if any guidance has been issued to GP surgeries with regards to how they contact/treat patients during the current crisis.

A spokeswoman said: “GP practices are making greater use of telephone and online consultations in order to reduce unnecessary trips by patients into their GP surgery. If a face-to-face consultation is required with a doctor, an appointment will be arranged as normal.”