April 12th brought the start of our routine 2nd doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination at the practice. Thank you to all our patients for our well-wishes at this time, please continue to exercise measures to keep yourselves safe.
The Practice have now also invited all eligible patients in the priority groups allocated to us by Powys Teaching Health Board for their first AstraZeneca vaccination. The patients invited by us were identified by lists provided to us from the Health Board and were within the below national priority groups:
- 75 – 79 years
- 18 + – Clinically extremely vulnerable adults (shielding)
- 18 – 50 years – adults with underlying health conditions
- Mop up lists for patients aged over 80 and over 70 who were not able to attend the mass vaccination sites.
Please note that currently, Powys Teaching Health Board are not asking practices for any further support in delivering first dose vaccinations at this time and we will not be receiving any vaccine supplies other than to complete our second dose appointments so please do not contact the Practice for an appointment or with any vaccination queries. For those who felt they were unable to travel to the Mass Vaccination Centre, please reconsider if you are able to attend. For those without transport, there are volunteer groups and car schemes available to assist. It is important to get your vaccine as soon as it is offered to you, and unfortunately the Practice is unable to assure anyone of any further first dose appointments.
The Practice continues to experience many patient queries and frustrations from patients who feel they are unable to travel to the mass vaccination sites for their vaccinations. Please note the practice is highly sympathetic to this situation, and is motivated and willing to continue to vaccinate more patients. Unfortunately this does not seem to be possible due to limited vaccine supplies, but we remain ready to deliver vaccinations in the future to as many of our patients as possible should this situation change.
For up to date COVID-19 vaccination information and to answer any queries you may have please go to Powys Teaching Health Boards website COVID-19 Vaccination – Powys Teaching Health Board (nhs.wales)
At this time, your General Practice is unable to offer you certification of your COVID vaccination, a vaccination passport or a letter to prove you have been vaccinated against COVID-19. these proof of vaccination documents have not yet been developed and as such cannot be provided by your GP. As soon as we have further information we will share it with you.
We are asking all patients who are attending clinics and appointments to wear a face covering within the practice and use alcohol gel on hands on entry and exit of the building. We are doing this to keep everyone safe, and also to ensure we are able to see everyone who needs to be seen.
Please ensure you bring a face covering with you to your appointment.
We are operating a ‘virtual queue’ from the car park wherever possible. On arrival to the practice, please ring 01639 846923 to register your arrival. Please be assured that everyone will be seen in order of appointment time. We are currently in the process of purchasing banners for the carpark displaying this number, but in the meantime we ask you to bear with us regarding the smaller posters already displayed – we know this is not ideal, and hope to have an improvement shortly.
If you are using the intercom system at the front door, we ask you to please continue to keep social distancing measures in mind.
Baby clinic is working well in Abercrave Surgery (contact details here), and we will continue to hold the clinics from that site for the foreseeable future.
We have been trialing an increase in the time period to access GP appointments for non-urgent advice. The time period has been temporarily increased from 10:00 to 11:00 where safe to do so. Therefore, please contact the practice between 08:30 and 11:00 if you would like to discuss a routine issue. There may be days of increased demand where this time will need to be reduced in order to provide safe care for routine issues, and we ask for your understanding on these days. We are trialing this new measure after listening to patient feedback, and if successful, we would like to make this a permanent change. Access to urgent care continues throughout the day.
We are continually reviewing and developing our ways of working, and have developed a new system for our chronic disease management. You may receive a text message from the practice asking you to contact us with your email address in order for us to contact you. We are doing this to enable our clinicians to assess your condition in a safe and effective way.
Please continue to check the government website for the latest guidance on Covid-19. Should you need a test, you can apply for a test by ringing 119 (18001 119 for those with speech or hearing difficulties) or online at the gov.wales site
These tests continue to be conducted at a drive-through testing centre, or you can apply for a home testing kit.
Thank you.