As you are aware COVID 19 is ever changing, as a Practice we have had to act quickly to reflect changes to government and NHS guidance. 

NEWS Alert regarding prescriptions 

We are upgrading to the next phase of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) which will mean that almost all our prescriptions will be processed electronically from Wednesday 22nd April.

Electronic prescriptions help save the NHS money.  You will receive your prescriptions in the same way as you do now.

We wish to reassure you that we are available to give telephone advice for medical concerns.  We will see you in the surgery if required following a telephone appointment with a clinician.  Please do not ignore symptoms which concern you.

We are meeting as a management and partners team daily to reflect on the ever changing guidance and how we appropriately deploy staff and clinicians to effectively provide care to our patients with extra pressures and demands being faced as a result of COVID-19. We have taken preventive measures to meet the current government guidelines and due to self-isolation and social distancing for vulnerable people we have a reduced staffing and clinician team, which has meant we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close Chasetown and St Chads at Lichfield in order to safely protect and care for our patients and staff.  The team at Darwin would like to thank you for your support and understanding at this time. 

The various changes which are in place are there to help social distancing and self-isolation for the vulnerable, and include the following measures limiting the services to essential services only:-

Unfortunately due to the current Covid-19 outbreak the following non-urgent appointments are to be postponed until further notice and are as follows:-

• All routine Doctor Reviews 

• Insurance/HGV medicals

• All routine Annual reviews (but we will contact you if we feel this is essential)

• Travel advice and travel vaccinations

• New patient reviews

• Over 75 health checks

• Minor Surgery

• Ear checks and irrigation

• Phlebotomy (essential blood tests will be arranged following telephone triage from a clinician)

• Routine medication reviews (essential ones to be conducted by phone)

• Contraceptive services, some of these may be postponed however if you are unsure please contact the surgery via telephone

• All other routine appointments or urgent will be subject to telephone triage by our team

However, if you are concerned as to whether a problem you have may need further assessment please book a telephone appointment with a clinician. Although we want to minimise face to face contact, we are there to give you advice and hopefully reassurance, and we will see you if this is needed. These services will resume once normality returns, if you are unsure of anything please speak with our wonderful team by telephoning the surgery on 01543 674477 Thank you. As part of our continuity plan we will triage all patients and their carers coming to the surgery for an appointment.

Parents of children who are not well please note

COVID19 is unlikely to cause a serious illness in children, but please remember children can still become seriously unwell from other causes that are always around.

Please do not let concerns over COVID19 stop you from contacting medical services.

If you are not sure if your child needs to be seen please go to https://www.what0-18.nhs.uk/national for advice or contact 111 or your GP. For information about crying babies go to https://www.what0-18.nhs.uk/national.

If your child is severely unwell call 999 or go to A&E.

Prescriptions

Please do not come into the surgery to request prescriptions as we are not accepting paper repeats at this time due to Coronavirus. However you are aware that we have been encouraging patients to switch to electronic prescriptions, we are now driving this forward. All prescriptions will be sent by EPS (Electronic Prescription Service).

If you require prescriptions you can either:-

Email the surgery at darwinmedical.practice@nhs.net 

Telephone after 12 pm. 01543 674477, 01543 671705 or 01543 412980

Use NHS App or via patient access

Or your local chemist can arrange on your behalf.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Symptoms

For patients concerned that they may have coronavirus or may have come into contact with someone who has, the NHS 111 online service has created coronavirus pages that tell patients what they should do based on their particular circumstances.

These can be accessed at: https://111.nhs.uk/service/covid-19

NHS text service launched to support patients staying home with Coronavirus

People staying at home suffering with suspected coronavirus symptoms will get regular check-ins from NHS messaging service. Daily texts will be sent by the NHS to new patients who register their Covid-19 symptoms and contact details with the 111 online service. The messages will check how people are, and ensure that those who need help to get them through the isolation period receive it.

The text messages will be sent as a reassurance to those who contact NHS 111 online, complete the assessment, and leave basic information such as their age, mobile number and when their symptoms started.

Get coronavirus support: -

Please follow the link provided

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/advice-for-people-at-high-risk/

https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support