Midhurst GP urges patients to not fear visiting doctors' surgery

That was the message from Dr Paul Fludder, at Riverbank Medical Centre, in Dodsley Lane, Easebourne, where staff are continuing to help patients during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Fludder said staff are 'very much managing' during the crisis.

He said: "When the lockdown started, we had a week where it was very quiet. I think people were avoiding contacting the GP surgery because they felt they were a burden or scared about the situation.

"Since then the numbers have steadily increased. I think we are about 2/3 to 3/4 of the volumes that we have normally, prior to Covid[-19].

"I have dealt with 30 people and that is pretty much normal for me so we are coming back to normal but we are not there yet.

"We are coping at full capacity and we've had hardly any staff off sick for any reason

"People are working remotely and using technology more which in a way is a good thing. Patients appreciate it as well."

Dr Fludder said Riverbank Medical Centre has always been, and will continue to be, open to patients concerned about their health,

"We've always followed Public Health England guidelines," he said. "We are still doing home visits where appropriate.

"We were lucky as a practice as we were doing telephone triage for all our patients before all this. That's a system where you can speak to a doctor and they can say whether you need to come in or we can signpost you to another service.

"We've also introduced video consultations so we can assess them remotely, and we've also got e-consultations, another new thing, which is an online questionnaire."

The GP said a 'proportion of people' will need to be seen face-to-face, with two tents set up outside the surgery.

He explained: "The hot site is for people with Covid symptoms and need to be seen. They wouldn't come into the practice and staff would be wearing full PPE equipment.

"The tents will be cleaned after each consultation. We still have a designated isolation room on one end of the building which is very separate from the rest of the practice.

"They can be seen in there when the weather is bad but 95 per cent of our Covid patients get seen in the tents.

"The cold site is for our other patients who have other problems which don't sound Covid related but there is an assumption that every patient has it. They would be telephone triaged and given a specific time.

"Patients are told not to come in early to minimise time spent in medical centre."

During the pandemic, one member of staff stands outside the front door, 'as a friendly meet and greet' to answer questions and check on symptoms.

It was a method introduced to ensure that patients are coming in to the surgery 'appropriately'.

Dr Fludder added: "We have social distancing in the waiting room and we are trying to keep it as empty as possible. We don't want people coming in with large family groups.

"The clinician will come out and meet them wearing full PPE and patients will go into rooms, which cleaned after every consultation, without touching doors.

"We then have a standard face-to-face consultations but all prescriptions are now sent electronically to the pharmacist."

The surgery is also offering Covid-19 packs to concerned patients. These include thermometers and oxygen saturation and blood pressure monitors.

"Things are changing rapidly," he GP continued. "We get several emails each day about how things need to be tweaked and changed and we have a daily meeting with all the doctors and practice manager to discuss any new changes.

"It is important to keep staff informed and raise morale which I think is still pretty good. Staff are very clear about PPE and we have enough of it.

"Patients shouldn't fear coming to the medical centre if it's appropriate. We are very careful with the precautions we take with patient safety.

"We are trying to get back to a new normality but no one knows what the new normal will be in general practice.

"We don't know when we will get there but we are very keen to be ahead of the curve which I think we have been. We are working intensively to get back to a more normal service, whatever it is."

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