Welcome to Bishops Waltham Surgery

Dear All Patients of Bishops Waltham Surgery

We are informing you all that as a practice we have made the decision to temporarily suspend eConsults as of Monday 13^th December 2021 until Monday 20th December 2021.

We have not made this decision lightly but again due to the immense pressure on our services at this present time we are concerned about ‘Patient Safety’ and we strive to try and provide the best service we can to patients during this pressured time.

By the practice not offering eConsults this will increase the number of calls coming in to an already busy Reception Team so….

How can you help us?

• If your call is NOT urgent please call later in the day rather than at 8am or the earlier part of the morning.
• Please consider speaking with a Pharmacist regarding non-urgent problems. The link below will take you to a list of issues a Pharmacist may be able to assist you with. We are aware this may vary from Pharmacy to Pharmacy but we would appreciate your assistance in trying this route if possible:  Pharmacy Ailments
• Where possible please register for the ‘NHS App’ or ‘Patient Access’ to request your repeat medication. Blood test appointments are also available to book via this route.
• While eConsult is switched off please request repeat ‘Fit Notes’ via the GP Contact button on our website or via our generic email address whccg.bwsurgery@nhs.net. This may also be used for general administration queries. However, please do not request appointment bookings via this route as you will be asked to call the surgery.
• If asked by a member of the reception team for a reason for your appointment please provide them with this information. As clinicians we have asked them to do this as knowing what your problem may be helps us to prioritise calls. You may also be offered an appointment with a more appropriate clinician and it ensures the correct length of appointment is booked if your request is for the nursing team.
• We ask that you are respectful to our Team they are all working very hard to provide the best service they can in such busy times.

What is the Practice doing to help?

• When our appointments are full for the day we will offer appointments at the Hub in Botley where available to try and avoid long waiting times or you having to call back.
• We will continue to provide a telephone triage service but would like to assure patients that you will be seen Face to Face if it is felt clinically appropriate.
• We are currently training two new Reception and Admin team members and we are actively recruiting more staff.
• We have two new Advanced Nurse Practitioners join the practice team and they have already shown to be a great asset to the team helping to see patients in their own home as well as in the surgery.
• We have a two new GP Partner joining the practice in the New Year.
• We have sought assistance from Locum GP’s to help increase the capacity and we as Partners have been undertaking extra sessions as well.

We truly appreciate your patience and assistance at these difficult times.

The Partners

Bishops Waltham Surgery