Welcome to Bishops Waltham Surgery

eConsult Update – 13th January 2022

Due to the increased work at the practice, eConsult will only be available between 8am & 10am. For all other enquiries outside of this time please call the reception team on 01489 892288. We do apologise for the inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your continued support.

Surgery Update – 15^th December 2021

Dear All Patients of Bishops Waltham Surgery

In light of the recent update from the Prime Minister on Sunday 12^th December 2021 please see below a message from the Practice.

General Practice has once again been called upon to ensure the swift delivery of the Covid Vaccination Booster Programme to ensure all eligible patients are offered a vaccine by the end of December 2021. This is bringing the programme forward for the Colden Common Vaccination Clinic by a whole month. We have also been asked to contact those that have not been vaccinated or behind in the vaccination programme.

In order for us to achieve this we may have to deploy both clinical and administrative staff to the Covid Clinic in Colden Common or be able to provide pop up vaccination clinics within our own surgery at short notice. This means that we will not be able to deal with such a heavy workload as well as vaccinate our local population.  Therefore in line with government recommendations we will not be providing ‘non-urgent’ work.

This does not rest easy with us as sometimes routine matters can often be more important than first thought. However, we are working closely with the Covid Vaccination Team and our fellow Primary Care Network practices (Stokewood, Twyford and Wickham) to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.

What is ‘non-urgent’ work?

• Annual Health Reviews
• Routine blood tests
• Medication Reviews
• eConsults
• Minor Surgery including Coils and Implants

How can you help us?

• If your call is NOT urgent please try not to call and where you feel it is appropriate leave until the New Year.
• 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
• Please Please where possible register for the ‘NHS App’ or ‘Patient Access’ to request your repeat medication.
• Please do not call the practice regarding a Covid Vaccination we will contact you where possible via text message with a link allowing you to book your appointment.
• 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.
• Please remember some of our Admin team may need to be deployed to the Covid Vaccination Centre so our telephone lines may become even busier than normal. Therefore we ask that you are respectful to our Team as they are all working very hard to provide the best service they can in such busy times.

What is the Practice doing to help?

• We have stepped up to the request from the Government to try and ensure our population is vaccinated and patients are kept as safe as possible.
• We will continue to limit the numbers of patients allowed in our waiting area. This is to ensure the safety of both staff and patients.
• 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.
• Unless you hear from us your appointment will continue as planned. We will contact you directly if we need to make any changes to planned appointments.

We truly appreciate your patience and assistance at these very trying times and hope to be offering appointments for ‘non-urgent’ work again by the middle of January 2022.

The Partners

Bishops Waltham Surgery