Gibson Lane Practice

NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure is shown below. However it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.”

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GP’s working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice. The average pay for GPs working at the Gibson Lane Practice in the last financial year was £50,092 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 0 full time GPs and 10 part time GPs.”

COVID-19 is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways. It’s caused by a virus called coronavirus.

Stay at home if you have coronavirus symptoms Stay at home if you have either: 

•a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)                                      

•a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

To protect others, do not go to places like a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.

Stay at home.

Use the 111 online coronavirus service to find out what to do. https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19/

Use the 111 coronavirus service Information:

Only call 111 if you cannot get help online.

How long to stay at home

•if you have symptoms of coronavirus, you’ll need to stay at home for 7 days

•if you live with someone who has symptoms, you’ll need to stay at home for 14 days from the day the first person in the home started having symptoms

•If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days. If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible.

Read our advice about staying at home. How to avoid catching and spreading coronavirus (social distancing)

Everyone should do what they can to stop coronavirus spreading

Patients are requesting additional medications due to COVID-19 and patients concerns re self -isolation.

The Practice will NOT be issuing additional supplies of medication.

Patients can order their medication in the normal way to avoid any stock piling causing shortages of medicines in the system.

We ask that patients do the following:-

1. Order their medication either on line, by email or post in the outside post box at Kippax Health Centre, as normal at Monk Fryston and letter box Garforth. We will also accept request via telephone from vulnerable patients /patients self isolating etc whilst we are in pandemic phase. NB We will NOT be reverting back to pharmacies taking 3rd party orders on behalf of the patient

2. We ask that patients nominate a pharmacy for dispensing and collection of medication to reduce footfall in practice. If you have a problem collecting your dispensed medications pharmacies provide a delivery service. Ask your nominated pharmacy for further details.

3. We will be increasing the number of issues that patients can have of their repeat medication before they are due a review to avoid clinically stable patients having to be seen during the pandemic.

Due to the current situation with coronavirus, we have had to change the way we work. We are doing this to try to reduce the footfall in our practice in order to protect both patients and staff. From Monday 16 March, all requests for appointments will be telephone triaged by a doctor. If the doctor feels that a face to face appointment is needed then this will be arranged.

In order to help our staff with this process, please provide as much information to the receptionist who initially takes your call and ensure you provide an up to date telephone number. Some of these GP telephone triage appointments will be available to book online.

Please DO NOT ATTEND THE SURGERY IN PERSON TO BOOK APPOINTMENTS – we are trying to limit how many people come into the surgery. As a result of these changes we are attempting to deal with acute medical problems – routine and chronic reviews are suspended until further notice. We will therefore be flexible about updating and issuing repeat medications.

Please be aware that these changes also apply to any nursing appointments. You may be contacted by the nurse team to determine if you still need to come into the surgery or not.

Hazlewood Avenue Surgery in Garforth is now closed until further notice in order for us to be able to work in the most efficient way. Monk Fryston surgery remains open for now although we may need to review and change its opening hours in due course.

As I am sure you are aware the situation may change and we will inform you of any further changes as they happen. Dr C Hirst

As you will be aware, there are currently concerns in the country regarding coronavirus. As a busy GP practice we are keen to ensure that any potentially infected patients DO NOT ATTEND THE SURGERY IN PERSON. We have therefore increased our telephone appointments – if your problem can be dealt with on the phone please use these rather than a face to face appointment in surgery. We have kept our line appointment booking system open for now but please submit information about why you are booking a face to face appointment – if no information is submitted you may get a telephone call from the surgery.

N.B. If you are well PLEASE think about others who you may pass the virus on to who are elderly or living with long term medical conditions.

We will be closely monitoring the situation with coronavirus as it evolves and we may need to change the way we offer appointments in accordance with this.

The NHS in Leeds and Public Health England (PHE) are well prepared for outbreaks of new infectious diseases. The NHS has put in place measures to ensure the safety of all patients and NHS staff while also ensuring services are available to the public as normal.

The latest information on symptoms of Coronavirus infection and areas where recent travel may have resulted in a high risk of exposure can be found on nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19

NHS 111 has an online coronavirus service that can tell you if you need medical help and advise you what to do.

Use this service if:

•you think you might have coronavirus;

•in the last 14 days you’ve been to a country or area with a high risk of coronavirus;

•you’ve been in close contact with someone with coronavirus.

Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital. Call 111 if you need to speak to someone.

Like the common cold, coronavirus infection usually occurs through close contact with a person with novel coronavirus via cough and sneezes or hand contact. A person can also catch the virus by touching contaminated surfaces if they do not wash their hands.

Testing of suspected coronavirus cases is carried out in line with strict guidelines. This means that suspected cases are kept in isolation, away from public areas of GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals and returned home also in isolation. Any equipment that come into contact with suspected cases are thoroughly cleaned as appropriate. Specific guidance has also been shared with NHS staff to help safeguard them and others. Patients can be reassured that their safety is a top priority and are encouraged to attend all appointments as usual.

Everyone is being reminded to follow Public Health England advice to:

•Always carry tissues with you and use them to catch your cough or sneeze. Then bin the tissue, and wash your hands, or use a sanitiser gel.

•Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after using public transport. Use a sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available.

•Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

•Avoid close contact with people who are unwell.

We have noticed recently that many of our nurse appointments are wasted as patients don’t come to appointments that have been booked.

Many of these appointments are made to review long term conditions such as asthma, copd and diabetes. Some of these appointments can be up to 30 minutes long. As a result we are losing a huge amount of time from our appointment system.

We appreciate that unexpected things may crop up but please try and give us 48 hours notice if you are unable to attend – in this way we can offer your appointment to someone else who may be on a waiting list for an appointment.

If you are invited to come for a review and don’t want to come in, please tell us – we would rather know this and take you off our recall system than spend time trying to make appointments that are then wasted.

DR C HIRST