Dear Patients,

Spa Medical Centre is now being used for the Essential GP Services only, which are urgent planned appointments.

All staff working for Bermondsey Spa Medical Practice are now working remotely from home.

Should you have any queries or in need of any care or require the following:

• Sick Certificates
• Repeat Prescriptions
• Specimen Pots
• General Enquires
• New Registrations

Please contact Bermondsey Spa Medical Practice on 020 3474 6000 or email: souccg.bsmp@nhs.net

URGENT PRESCRIPTIONS

Due to extreme pressures with the Coronavirus pandemic, we are unable to issue any urgent repeat medications.  All repeat requests will be a minimum of 2 working days. 

CORONAVIRUS

The NHS and Public Health England (PHE) are extremely 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.

What to do if you have symptoms

Stay at home for 7 days if you have either:

• a high temperature
• a new continuous cough

Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.

You do not need to contact NHS 111 to tell them you’re staying at home.

Read the advice about staying at home.

Use the NHS 111 online coronavirus service if:

• you feel you cannot cope with your symptoms at home
• your condition gets worse
• your symptoms do not get better after 7 days

Use the 111 coronavirus service

COVID 19 – Requests for MED3 ‘Fit Note’

Click for HERE a COVID-19 Fit note letter for your employer.

Requests for certification of absence from the workplace relating to covid-19 may fall into five categories:

1. Symptomatic so isolating for seven days
Patients can and should self-certify for the first seven days as normal if they are unfit to work. They do not need to contact their GP.

2. Symptomatic and remaining unwell for over seven days
If they remain unwell and unfit to work after seven days, the current advice is to visit www.111.nhs.uk where there is an online self-assessment tool which should be up and running soon. They do not need to contact their GP for a certificate but you can advise patients to use the template form below.

3. Household contact symptoms so isolating for fourteen days as per government advice
GPs cannot and are not the gatekeeper of the statutory sick pay system and can only provide certificates for the purpose of illness, not in relation to government advice regarding self-isolation. Employers are responsible for putting in place arrangements for home/remote working where this is possible. Where it is not, the employee may self-certify and return to work following the relevant absence which their employer may authorise as per government advice.

4. At risk group so following government advice
Where they do become unwell during or after this time, point 1 and 2 applies. They do not need to contact their GP.

5. Those in full time education who are symptomatic or requiring self-isolation.
There is no NHS requirement to issue certification to schools or colleges to confirm absence. These organisations must work with parents and students to ensure that any absence is appropriately recorded, obviating the need for a ‘doctor’s note’. They do not need to contact their GP.

The current Government Guidance for employers and businesses on coronavirus (COVID-19) states;
“By law, medical evidence is not required for the first 7 days of sickness. After 7 days, employers may use their discretion around the need for medical evidence if an employee is staying at home.
We strongly suggest that employers use their discretion around the need for medical evidence for a period of absence where an employee is advised to stay at home either as they are unwell themselves, or live with someone who is, in accordance with the public health advices issued by the government.”

Click for HERE a COVID-19 Fit note letter for your employer.

Bermondsey Spa Medical Practice. Moving forward…

Dr Tariq Bhatti and Dr Das are the Partners and are very keen to improve the patient experience at our practice, so we have developed an Improvement Plan for the future.

As part of this, we have reviewed patient feedback made over the last few months and have identified the key areas for improvement. This is how we are going to address them:

• Getting Appointments – we are in the process of employing more clinical staff with a view to increasing capacity.  This will be regularly monitored by our team to identify any shortfall and addressed accordingly.
• Telephone Access – we are in the process of increasing our reception team and, in collaboration with other providers and our PPG have developed a way to use our resources staff more efficiently

We are also working in partnership with other local providers to share and learn from their experience of ‘Best Practice’.

Very importantly, we are working hard to develop a proactive Patient Participation Group (PPG) to improve patient engagement.  More information about the PPG is available on our website.