COVID-19 Update 3 April 2020

After two weeks we are settling into a new routine in General Practice. This is still an evolving situation but we are managing the vast majority of consultations via phone or video and so minimising the need for patients to leave their home during the lockdown. This has been really helped by the fantastic attitude of our patients and all deserve a big “Thank-you” for making this huge challenge easier to manage.

The changes we introduced last Monday were primarily to protect patients from the risk of disease spread. This has meant a drastic reduction in patients passing through the surgery and as a result very little income over the counter. A lot of patients have asked to arrange online payments and this would be much appreciated to keep the practice running. 

The details for online payment are;

account – 02 0348 0068532 000

reference – your date of birth

We are sending out txt reminders with these details too

We have seen a dramatic drop in ACC claims with people under lockdown not being injured at sport or work. This is a good thing but has dried up another revenue stream that the practice relies on to keep functioning. We are hoping for some stop gap payments from the Ministry to tide us through this time of increased expenditure and wages and decreased cashflow but this remains an area of uncertainty at present.

This week we have continued with our influenza vaccination clinics. These remain constrained by delivery of vaccines and we still have patients eligible for free vaccine (over 65 or under 65 with certain chronic conditions) that still need to be vaccinated. We have had an excellent response at short notice to clinics notified via the website and FaceBook and will continue to advertise clinics this way as vaccine deliveries occur.

With the increase in COVID-19 testing that is happening we are likely to see an increase in case numbers for a while yet. This will finally give us an indication of the degree of community spread and hopefully in a week or two the effect of the lockdown will be known. An ideal situation will see daily case numbers drop but we will have to wait and see. It has been very disheartening to see the media coverage of lockdown rules being flouted. If the people doing this could fully understand how ignorant and selfish they were being they would feel embarrassed. There is no second chance with this. We need to do it right the first time if we are to have any chance of success. 

Influenza Vaccine Clinic Thursday 2 April 2:00pm

Our backorder of vaccines was delivered today so we will again be running an influenza vaccination clinic on Thursday 2 April at 2:00pm. This will again be at the PathLab side of the Medical Centre and will again run until we run out of vaccines or patients. At this stage we are still only able to offer vaccination to those eligible for funded vaccines.

Please queue outside the fence and don’t block the ramp. Remember to space at least 2m apart, bring a sunhat/sunscreen/umbrella and wear sleeves that can be easily lifted to expose the upper arm so that we can administer the immunisation without delay.

Influenza Vaccination Clinic Update

Today we completed another successful Influenza vaccination clinic. We ran out of patients just before we ran out of vaccines so no-one that arrived missed out but we have no further vaccines left. We have had a batch on backorder since last week and will publicise a clinic via the website and Facebook as soon as they are available. The suppliers have indicated this may not be for a week or two.

Over the past week we have administered approximately 500 vaccines which is some kind of record. This has been the result of an outstanding effort by all our staff. Receptionists recording names and nurses and doctors calling patients back. Jackie and Sarah Morris have been in the front line administering vaccines at the vaccine clinics while all nurses have been involved vaccinating opportunistically. Huge credit also goes to our amazing patients who have responded at short notice to website and Facebook notifications, queued safely and in good humour and been generous in their appreciation of the service.

Because there has been such a big push on vaccination we have been asked if the influenza vaccine can prevent COVID-19. The answer to that is no it cannot prevent COVID-19 but it can prevent influenza which causes a very similar but slightly less severe illness. The reason for the push on vaccines is that by preventing influenza as well as we can we will limit those severe cases of influenza that require hospital resources and so free up those resources for COVID-19 patients if needed.

A big advantage of the lockdown and social distancing is that we are interrupting the spread of the normal winter colds and ‘flu as well as COVID-19. If we do this right we still have the chance to nip COVID-19 in the bud and potentially have a record low incidence of influenza as well. Stay home, keep to your bubbles and keep your distance and we can do this.

Influenza Vaccine Clinic Tuesday 31 March 2:30pm

We will again be running an influenza vaccination clinic on Tuesday 31 March at 2:30pm. This will again be at the PathLab side of the Medical Centre and will again run until we run out of vaccines or patients. We have a moderate supply of vaccines but have been warned that our next batch may not arrive for a week or two. At this stage we are still only able to offer vaccination to those eligible for funded vaccines.

Please remember to space at least 2m apart, bring a sunhat/sunscreen/umbrella and wear sleeves that can be easily lifted to expose the upper arm so that we can administer the immunisation without delay.

Influenza Vaccine Clinic Monday 30 March 2pm

We will again be running an influenza vaccination clinic on Monday 30 March at 2pm. This will again be at the PathLab side of the Medical Centre and will again run until we run out of vaccines or patients. We still have a reasonable supply of vaccines but have been warned that our next batch may not arrive for a week or two. At this stage we are still only able to offer vaccination to those eligible for funded vaccines.

Please remember to space at least 2m apart, bring a sunhat/sunscreen/umbrella and wear sleeves that can be easily lifted to expose the upper arm so that we can administer the immunisation without delay.