COVID-19 & Practice updates

Covid vaccination status

 

Information regarding your COVID vaccination certification.

We are unable to issue this certificate at the practice.

Please see the Gov.uk website for further information.

Proof of your vaccination status will be available on the NHS app, which is also valuable for accessing your health records and ordering repeat prescriptions.

The NHS app can be downloaded from here for iPhone or here for android.  

 

Alternatively, you can call the NHS helpline on 119 (from 17 May) and ask for a letter to be posted to you. This must be at least 5 days after you’ve completed your course of the vaccine, the letter may to take up to 5 days to reach you.

Kind regards Darwen Healthlink

Lancashire and South Cumbria Vaccination Programme has launched a new initiative allowing anyone who is shielding or doesn’t feel comfortable using the existing vaccine services to book to be vaccinated at home.
On completion of a quick questionnaire, someone from the vaccine programme outreach team will be in touch to arrange a convenient time to visit and administer the jab. Please follow the link below.

Darwen Healthlink are pleased to announce that they will be taking part in one of the very first covid vaccination community clinics.  We are working alongside Blackburn with Darwen to deliver this service to our patients so please don't telephone the practice to enquire about getting your vaccination if you think you are eligible.   We will contact you with an invitation to book.  Our telephone lines are extremely  busy at present and we need to ensure that we are there for the patients  who are acutely unwell.
 

Legal Duty to self-isolate after a positive COVID-19 Test

Legal duty to self-isolate - people in England will be required by law to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid-19 or are contacted by NHS Test and Trace. Fines will also be introduced from today for those breaching self-isolation rules, starting at £1,000, in line with the existing penalty for breaking quarantine after international travel. This could increase to up to £10,000 for repeat offences and the most serious breaches, including for those preventing others from self-isolating. Employers who force or allow staff to come to work when they should be selfisolating will also be liable for fines of up to £10,000.

Test and Trace

Protect your loved ones with the official NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app for England and Wales.

It's the fastest way of knowing when you're at risk from coronavirus (COVID-19). The quicker you know, the quicker you can alert your loved ones, and your community. 

The more of us that use it, the better we can control coronavirus.

Useful links during COVID-19

All information on the above links sourced through the most up-to date sources/ re-sources from the NHS UK website. www.nhs.uk

Wearing face masks

The government is advising that the public is to consider wearing face coverings in enclosed public spaces such as shops, when using public transport and visiting health settings including GP surgeries, to help reduce the spread of coronavirus. 


Darwen Healthlink is therefore promoting the use of face mask if at all possible when you attend the practice.  Further guidance on this can be found using the links below.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/public-advised-to-cover-faces-in-enclosed-spaces

 

Guide on making your own face mask

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering

 

 

 

 

How the rules will change on 17th May

Some of the rules on what you can and cannot do will change on 17 May. However, many restrictions remain in place.

For more information from the GOV website please click the image above 

Prescribing Desk

From the 10/06/2020 the prescribing desk will now be open each day:

 

09:00-10:00am - 1 hour

17:00-18:00pm - 1 hour

 

This is to limit the amount  of patients attending the surgery at any one time and therefore reduce the risk of potential covid-19 infection rates

The phone lines will remain the same open from 10:00am-12pm and 14:00pm -16:00pm for queries.

The Reception Desk

Telephone lines and reception desk

08:00am -18:30pm

 

Please only attend for an appointment if you have received a telephone call and been invited in by the GP Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Practice Nurse or Health Care Assistant. 

GP Practice One way system for social distancing

There is now a one way sysetm in operation at the surgery and social distancing measures are in place.

Patients will also notice protective screens are in place at the reception and prescriptions desks, these are purely to protect staff and patients to minimise infection risk.

Patients must follow the new system to abide by goverment social disctancing measures 

New message for Face to face appointments (PPE)

The new message is as follows:

"You have an appointment booked today at the surgery  and we ask that you wear a face covering, this can be a scarf or a face mask as a precautionary measure against Coronavirus.  Visit cdc.gov/coronavirus for more information about cloth face coverings".