Doctors surgery releases statement after misinformation around GP appointments

Norton Brook Medical Centre in Kingsbridge has had to release a statement regarding the current wait time to see a GP due to swirling misinformation. 

They said that while they had not been offering vaccines physically at Norton Brook, they had been working with other GP surgeries in the South Hams to "staff and organise the vaccination programme firstly at St Boniface and latterly at Follaton House, Totnes". 

They said "as you may imagine, this has impacted greatly on the service we have been able to offer our patients" and although they were hoping their service could start to return to normal in the New Year, "the Prime Minister’s announcement on Sunday, we have again been asked to prioritise some services to focus on the delivery of booster vaccinations" and added a link to a letter from their Clinical Commissioning Group to explain what is being asked of them.

The statement continues: "Please continue to contact us if you are uncertain whether your condition is urgent. The emergency GP will triage your request for a telephone consultation and either phone you or ask our reception team to phone you back and arrange a routine telephone consultation for a future date. If the clinician feels you need to be seen they will arrange a date and time for you to attend the surgery."

The spokesperson then asks for people to continue to be polite to their staff, who are "working extremely hard under unprecedented circumstances" and "like all departments within the NHS and businesses in general we’re currently experiencing high levels of staff absence and we’re working hard to minimise the impact this has on our patients". 

You can read the full statement below: 

We’ve seen a lot of comments on Facebook recently regarding the current waiting time for a routine GP appointment and conflicting information about the COVID-19 vaccination programme. To answer a few of these questions and comments, here is a brief outline of how we’ve been involved in the vaccination programme over the last 12 months and the current situation with COVID boosters.
Exactly 12 months ago today, the South Hams Primary Care Network started vaccinating patients alongside South Devon and Totnes Network at St. Boniface, Buckfastleigh. South Hams Network, which consists of the following GP surgeries, Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Modbury, Chillington and Salcombe have been working together to staff and organise the vaccination programme firstly at St. Boniface and latterly at Follaton House, Totnes. As you may imagine, this has impacted greatly on the service we have been able to offer our patients.
We were all hoping that our service would return to some sort of normality in the new year; however, following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Sunday, we have again been asked to prioritise some services to focus on the delivery of booster vaccinations. The following link will take you to a letter from our Clinical Commissioning Group that explains what we are currently being asked to do:
https://devonccg.nhs.uk/.../gp-practices-clinically...
Please continue to contact us if you are uncertain whether your condition is urgent. The emergency GP will triage your request for a telephone consultation and either phone you or ask our reception team to phone you back and arrange a routine telephone consultation for a future date. If the clinician feels you need to be seen they will arrange a date and time for you to attend the surgery.
Please be polite to our staff as they are working extremely hard under unprecedented circumstances. Like all Departments within the NHS and businesses in general, we’re currently experiencing high levels of staff absence and we’re working hard to minimise the impact this has on our patients.
We hope you all have a relaxing and safe Christmas.