Norton Brook Coronavirus Update

In response to the growing Coronavirus outbreak we are now offering a 'telephone first' only service. This will involve us triaging all appointments. We will endeavour to manage as much as possible without bringing patients into the health centre either via our econsult online consultation service (see below), over the telephone, or when appropriate via video calls. This will allow us to protect our patients and ourselves from infection and help reduce the spread of the virus. Please be patient with us and provide as much detail as possible to our receptionists when calling in to help them know how best to help you. We will close the external doors to the health centre and ask that you wait outside prior to your appointment after you have alerted the reception staff of your arrival.

25/3/20

As you may have heard in the news, the Government have said that if you have anyone in your household with a temperature of 37.8c, or above, or a new, continuous cough, that the whole household must self isolate for 14 days. If you live alone then you are advised to self isolate for 7 days. This means that we could potentially have a number of staff and clinicians at Norton Brook in self isolation. Whilst we have contingency plans in place to allow our doctors to continue with telephone consultations with access to the electronic clinical records from home, this could cause unprecedented pressure on our service.

We have made the difficult decision to stop advanced booking of appointments with our clinical staff and ask that you all call on the day. We are aware that it is possible that this may result in some frustration in accessing our services. We will do our utmost to respond accordingly but there may be times where we are under such extreme pressure that we will have to prioritise according to clinical need. It may not always be possible to call you back on the day for less urgent problems during times of such high demand but the duty doctor will be aware of the reason for all of your calls. We would urge you to use the NHS website where you can.

It is important that you give our receptionists as much detail as you can for your reason to need to speak to one of our clinicians. This will help us to prioritise our workload. Remember that you do not need to call us or 111 if you have symptoms of Coronavirus and are able to manage these at home, and that you must not visit the surgery if you have a fever or a new continuous cough or during any self isolation period. 

From Friday 20th March onwards, those who have COVID-19 or are advised to self-isolate will be able to obtain an "isolation note" by visiting NHS 111 online and completing an online form, rather than visiting a doctor.

For COVID-19 cases this replaces the usual need to provide a "fit note" after seven days of sickness absence. Isolation notes will also be accepted by Jobcentre Plus as evidence of your inability to attend. The latest Government guidance can be found here.

Please be patient with us whilst we work in these unprecedented times.

The team at Norton Brook.

17/3/20

Norton Brook Medical Centre covers a large rural area in the South Hams; the practice boundary is a five mile radius around Kingsbridge. Our friendly team includes 9 GPs, 3 practice nurses, 2 HCAs and a phlebotomy team. Our non-clinical team consists of our practice manager and large helpful team of reception, administration and secretarial staff.

Norton Brook Privacy Notice Click link to access Practice's privacy notice which explains how we collect and use personal data

Access

Our surgery is accessible to patients using a wheelchair. We also provide free parking spaces outside our practice. This includes a number of dedicated disabled spaces which are reserved for patients displaying a disabled badge. All of our consulting rooms are based on the ground floor.

For the hard of hearing, we have a Hearing Loop. If any disabled patient has a problem getting access to the medical centre or using our facilities, we are anxious to be told.

Patient Participation Group

For more information please follow the link PPG

Norton Brook Patient Support and Transport

For more information please follow the link Patient Support