Welcome to Our Practice
ECONSULT
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed our econsult service, your feedback is appreciated. Please see our latest figures for January below:
1/1/21 to 31/1/21
100% patients who were satisfied with the service
100% patients who would recommend the econsult service to friends or family
82% patients who said their issue was completely resolved seven days after using the service
91% patients who did NOT have to contact the GP practice or any other health service for the same problem in the week after consulting online
https://chapellanesurgery-formby.webgp.com/
FOR GUIDANCE ON USING ECONSULT PLEASE VISIT: https://econsult.net/primary-care
Chapel Lane Surgery is located on Chapel Lane in Formby and covers patients in Formby, Freshfield, Hightown and Ince Blundell.
The surgery is managed as a non-limited partnership between the doctors within the practice. The Partners are Dr J Proctor, Dr Callow, Mrs Katie White and Dr E H Ball
COVID-19 VACCINES
Update 15th Feb 2021
Update
The UK has reached the significant milestone of offering the first COVID vaccination to all patients in the first four priority groups. This represents all people aged 70+ years and those who are considered to be clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) if they were to contract Covid-19.
Any of our patients in these four groups who haven’t been vaccinated should contact the practice as soon as possible to organise an appointment.
NHSE have announced some significant changes to the vaccination rollout programme that will affect patients in cohorts 5-9.
From 15th February the GP-led centres ( ie Sandbrook Road) will focus on priority group 6 (which is people aged 16-64 years with underlying health conditions). The pharmacy-led vaccination centres eg Hirshmans will focus on the age specific groups (5,7,8 and 9).
The definition of each of the priority groups has recently been updated on the gov.uk website and now includes more detail on what constitutes an underlying heath condition.
There are some important things to remember about this change in the delivery programme.
- Until now the GP centres and the pharmacy-led centres have been inviting the same groups of people who could choose to use the 119 national booking service to find a local centre with availability or wait for their GP surgery to invite them.
For this next phase we will each be inviting different groups of patients.
If you have an underlying health condition that is included in the government definition then it will be your GP that will invite you. If you are in a priority group based on your age then you will access the vaccination clinics via the 119 or on-line booking service.
- The definition of an underlying health condition is NOT the same as the ‘at-risk’ group for the flu vaccination programme so don’t assume you will be in priority group 6 just because you received a free flu-jab last autumn.
Some areas of the definition require additional clarification. Please refer to the notes at the bottom of this page for more details on asthma, adult carers and other groups.
Remember, people in group 6 will only be called by their GP surgery - unless they also fall into an age category being invited by letter from NHS England. It seems that priority group 5 – people aged between 65 and 69 are currently receiving those letters and we have no sight at all of when that will move onto group 7 and people aged under 65.
The surgery will invite people in group 6 either by SMS if we have a mobile phone number on record for you or by a phone call. If we cant contact you by either method we will then deliver a letter to their home address. As with earlier groups we will operate robust safety netting procedures to ensure that people aren’t forgotten about.
Priority Group 6 is by far the largest and most complex of the remaining patient groups.
Ainsdale Medical Centre has approx. 1200 patients in this group ( of approx. 6000 across the Ainsdale, Birkdale and Formby GP Network). Our allocation from each 3-day cycle of Pfizer vaccines is approx. 230 vaccines so its clear that this group will take a while to get through.
The throughput at a Pfizer clinic is much slower than a clinic delivering the Astra Zeneca vaccine because of the need to observe all patients for 15 minutes after their vaccination. The GP-led centres have no influence over which type of vaccine is delivered from the central supply.
The request for patients not to call the surgery to ask about when they will receive their vaccine is more important than ever as we enter this next important phase of the roll-out. Some of the rules for eligibility are complex and there is a real danger of our resources being overwhelmed by too many phone calls seeking clarification.
We know that waiting for the vaccine can be a very anxious time but we ask our patients to support us as we do this work at the same time as running our normal services.
We would encourage everyone who can to make full use of the government website and the on-line resources provided by organisations who support people with different conditions.
Asthma.
The definition of underlying health condition includes “those with asthma that requires continuous or repeated use of systemic steroids or with previous exacerbations requiring hospital admission”.
This guidance has since been clarified and the following was published on the Asthma UK Twitter account on Feb 13th
“If you have ever had an emergency hospital admission for your asthma, or ever been prescribed three courses of steroid tablets in a three-month period”
Adult Carers
Those who are eligible for a carer’s allowance, or those who are the sole or primary carer of an elderly or disabled person who is at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality and therefore clinically vulnerable.
UPDATE 28th Jan 2021
Update on using 119 to book into an NHS vaccination Centre.
Update Tuesday 19th January
Care Homes and Care Home staff.
Hopefully completed by Friday 22nd January.
Aged 80+ years and health and social care s
We have now vaccinated 35% of our patients aged 80+ years.
We are now booking all remaining patients who are aged 80 or over for a three-day series of clinics over Saturday 23rd January - Monday 25th January.
The clinics are at Sandbrook Road Clinic and will be using the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine. This vaccine only requires a patient to be observed for 15 minutes after the vaccination if they are driving themselves home afterwards.
Over the next few days we will be systematically contacting all patients in this group who have no mobile phone number recorded or who have not responded to a previous SMS invite . This 'safety netting' process is very labour intensive but vital to make sure we don't overlook any vulnerable or socially isolated people.
We hope to complete the 80+ group (who are able to attend) in this series of clinics but won't be able to vaccinate any partners/spouses who are under 80-we are directed to vaccinate each age group in order.
If you are not in that age group then please do not call the surgery about your Covid vaccination yet.
More vaccines are due in next week and additional local capacity is being regularly added to the list of vaccination centres.
After the 80+ patients the next priority groups are
Patients aged 75-80
Patients aged 70-74 and patients over 18 who are clinically extremely vulnerable ( as per the national register).
We will use the same method of allocation in these groups as explained above for the 80+ group.
Oldest first..
The first four priority groups are the people identified by Boris Johnson as being targeted for vaccination by mid-February.
How you will be invited
We are using a new system to invite patients for their vaccination.
- If we have a mobile phone on record for you you will receive your invitation by SMS.
- The message will include a unique link to the booking system.
- Someone else ( a friend or relative perhaps) can use that link to book an appointment for you.
- You, or they, will be asked to enter your date of birth to verify your identity.
- If you don't want to book online then when you receive the SMS message just call the practice and we will be happy to book you in.
- If we don't have a mobile phone number for you we will call you to book your appointment.
- If we send you an SMS but you don't respond we will also call you to make sure you don't miss out.
Its the most advanced booking system we have used in general practice and we think patients will find it very easy to use.
So, when it is your turn to be invited you will either receive an SMS or a phone call from the surgery.
Please do not call the surgery about when you will be vaccinated. The team will be exceptionally busy making sure patients in the priority groups are booking their appointments and looking after all our routine healthcare services which will be running as normal at the surgery
Housebound Patients.
We will include all patients in each of the priority groups regardless of whether we hold information on record that suggests they may be housebound.
Some people will, with the support of family or other carers, be able to make their way to the clinic for such an important appointment. We don't want to deny anyone the opportunity to attend.
Equally, if someone simply cannot leave their home we will arrange for them to be vaccinated. We do not have a schedule yet for vaccinating housebound patients.
The Oxford Vaccine has only just been approved by NHSE for taking out to individual dwellings and the plans for this part of the programme are being worked on. Patients who are unable to leave their homes will be vaccinated in line with the overall priority listing ie 80+ first.
Patients who have COVID or are self isolating because of contact with a positive case will be vaccinated at the centre after their period of isolation ends. Patients with Covid must wait a further 7 days after the end of the isolation period before their vaccination. If you are in the 80+ age group you can contact us to tell us that you need to be deferred and we will follow up at the correct time.
Fraud
We have heard about some scams that might be operating in other parts of the country using SMS messages that look like they are an invitation to book in for Covid vaccinations.
If it helps, our SMS invites will contain your name and they will say Chapel Lane Surgery at the bottom. This specific information would not normally be available to large scales scams. You should always be careful though and if you get your invite you can always call us so one of our reception team can help you book your appointment.
People working in Health and Social Care
The government has instructed all NHS Trusts to have vaccination hubs running from mid-January. People working in health and social care will be directed to these hubs for their vaccination.
See the NHS website for more information on the national roll-out of the vaccination programme
Update 18th January 2021
Over 80s Covid vaccination letter
Patients over 80+ have started to receive letters from the NHS this weekend, inviting them to go for a Covid vaccination at one of the new mass vaccination centres across the North West or if they prefer to they can wait for their GP to invite them locally.
The mass vaccination centre in our area is the Totally Wicked Rugby centre in St Helens. If patients do decide to book an appointment they can do this via an online booking service at http://www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination. Patients will also be able to book on the phone by calling 119, although they are warned that the phone lines will probably be busy.
Only people who have received a letter will be able to book an appointment via the service.
Who will be staffing the vaccination centres?
NHS England has said that the centres will be the first places to use people who have volunteered to help with the vaccination programme, which include those from St John Ambulance and the NHS Volunteer Responder scheme. NHS staff will also be working at the site.
The St John Ambulance volunteers will either be trained vaccinators, post-vaccination observers or patient advocates, while the NHS Volunteer Responders will be taking on steward roles.
It is also expected that retired clinicians who have volunteered to help with the programme will be working as vaccinators at the sites.
Bookings will be staggered to enable social distancing and a 15-minute observation period. NHS England has said that those who are vaccinated should be in and out of the centres in less than an hour.
What do GPs need to do?
GPs have been asked to ensure vaccination records are kept up to date because the list of people sent invites to the mass vaccination centres will come from GP records. If you do decide to travel to St. Helens then you do not need to call the surgery to tell us. Your GP record will be updated automatically, usually within 24 hours so that we are aware that you have been vaccinated.
However, patients are entitled to wait until they can be vaccinated at their GP-led site if they would rather do this. Practices have been advised to warn patients that this may mean they need to wait longer to be vaccinated if they do this.
How are we doing locally
We have now vaccinated around 35% of our 80+ patients and the majority of care home patients and we expect to have completed this age group by the end of January. More clinics are being planned towards the end of this coming week (the appointments have not been made available for us to book yet) at the Ainsdale centre for health and well being.
We are hoping to get the nod shortly to immunise patients in the surgery using the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine
If you have received the letter and are able to get to St. Helens to an appointment before we can invite you, then you are obviously free to do so but you don’t have to travel that far if you don’t want to.
If you do decide to travel to St. Helens then you do not need to call the surgery to tell us. Your GP record will be updated automatically, usually within 24 hours so that we are aware that you have been vaccinated.
Despite the new centres opening, NHS England has said that it still expects that GP-led services will deliver most of the country's COVID-19 vaccinations.
It is important though that people don’t call the GP surgery as the staff are dealing with extremely high volumes of calls as well as going out to staff the centre at Sandbrook Road during clinic days. Additional calls about this will mean patients wanting to get through to the practice who are ill and need to speak to a Doctor may not be able to get in touch with us in a timely manner.
Thanks to all our patients for your support as we try to vaccinate as many as we can as soon as we get the vaccinations to use
Update 11th January
Vaccine intervals and protection from Covid
• It takes 2 weeks to have an effective immune response after a single dose of the vaccine
• Patients can be confident that both vaccines give effective protection against covid-19 and severe disease from two weeks after a single dose, but it is not 100% so care and caution will still be needed especially for patients who are immune-suppressed
• Those who receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine seem to have 90% protection two weeks after the first dose, but we don’t know how long it lasts
• Those who receive the Oxford-AZ vaccine seem to have 70% protection after the first dose, but we know that this will last for at least 12 weeks until the second dose
• The 12-week booster is crucial for more enduring protection in both vaccinations
Update 10th January
The first Covid vaccination clinics started at the Sandbrook Road Ainsdale centre for health and well being last Friday.
More vaccines are expected this week and we will be contacting and inviting our over 80 year old patients in the next few days
Once again please don’t call the surgery about this.
We will contact those who are to be vaccinated either by letter, phone call or SMS text message.
Update 6th Jan 2021
We have just learned the government has decided to send ‘push’ deliveries to the Vaccination hubs
In effect we are just told we are getting them
Our next delivery is due on Tuesday 12th Jan, with 975 Pfizer and 300 AZ vaccines
We are told delivery times can be up until 630pm so we will run sessions from Wednesday through Friday at the Centre next week
Focus will still be on vaccinating those in Care homes likely using the Oxford AZ vaccine
Care home staff can come to the centre for the Pfizer vaccine
The next AZ vaccines will then be used to make a a start with our housebound patients and both vaccines will be used for those over 80 years old
It is likely that we will now be receiving deliveries on a weekly if not twice weekly basis as the government pushes on to see delivery of the first
dose to as many eligible individuals as possible initially prioritised over delivery of a second vaccine dose.
This should maximise the short-term impact of the programme hoping to vaccinate 13m people by the end of February
The second dose of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine may be given between 3 to 12 weeks following the first dose.
The second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine may be given between 4 to 12 weeks following the first dose.
JCVI advises that the second vaccine dose should be with the same vaccine as for the first dose. Switching between vaccines or missing the
second dose is not advised as this may possibly affect the duration of protection.
Patients aged 80+ years are the next priority group after care homes.
Please don’t call the surgery about this.
We will contact you when we are in a position to invite you to be vaccinated.
We will contact patients either by letter, phone call or SMS when we are able to invite you in for your vaccination.
There are car park facilities, & signs/marshalls will be available to help you navigate around the site.
Please arrive as close as possible to your appointment time & please wear a face covering. If necessary, you may bring one other person with you as a chaperone. Please do not attend if you are unwell on the day or following isolation rules.
You may be required to remain on-site for 15 minutes post-vaccination & a second dose of vaccine will be required; within 12 weeks
We are pleased to be taking part in this programme, which should help us move on from the pandemic and hopefully to a more normal life.
To allow us to prioritise vaccination efforts we will need to supply staff as vaccinators so less urgent activity at the Surgery will be postponed. We know you will understand and support us in this important work.
Update 5th Jan 2021
The national COVID vaccination programme is being delivered via GP Hubs.
We are part of the Ainsdale Birkdale & Formby hub comprising all the surgeries in these areas.
The vaccinations will be delivered from a single location in the Ainsdale and Birkdale area which has been designated as the Ainsdale Centre for Health and Well-Being on Sandbrook Road, Ainsdale
The order in which people will be offered the vaccine is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation (JCVI) about who is most at risk from Coronavirus.
When each delivery of vaccine is received, it will be shared out fairly between practices in Ainsdale, Birkdale and Formby.
The Ainsdale, Birkdale and Formby vaccination delivery hub is expecting to get a delivery of 1375 vaccines on Friday 8th January.
This will include both types of vaccine currently approved - Pfizer and Astra Zeneca (Oxford)
We currently anticipate that these vaccines will be deployed in line with the government priority listing which means the vaccination effort will be focussed on patients in care homes care home staff and some over 80’s
More vaccine will be delivered in the future but we don’t have any specific dates for this at the moment.
Patients aged 80+ years are the next priority group after care homes.
Please don’t call the surgery about this.
We will contact you when we are in a position to invite you to be vaccinated.
We will contact patients either by letter, phone call or SMS when we are able to invite you in for your vaccination.
There are car park facilities, & signs/marshalls will be available to help you navigate around the site.
Please arrive as close as possible to your appointment time & please wear a face covering. If necessary, you may bring one other person with you as a chaperone. Please do not attend if you are unwell on the day or following isolation rules.
You may be required to remain on-site for 15 minutes post-vaccination & a second dose of vaccine will be required; within 12 weeks
We are pleased to be taking part in this programme, which should help us move on from the pandemic and hopefully to a more normal life.
To allow us to prioritise vaccination efforts we will need to supply staff as vaccinators so less urgent activity at the Surgery will be postponed. We know you will understand and support us in this important work.
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