Ileach Update 28th August 2021
Dr Jo Norwood writes:
Phone Triage
We are aware that some of our patients are becoming understandably frustrated at having to have a telephone appointment with a GP first rather than being able to book an in-person appointment directly. We appreciate that for some of our patients, telephone is not the easiest medium, and in these situations we will continue to arrange face-to-face appointments as necessary. However, for the time being, we must continue to follow government guidelines. In healthcare settings there still requires to be a 2 metre distancing policy, in addition to wearing fluid-resistant (surgical) face masks. This means we must be very careful how many patients we have in our waiting rooms, and stagger our face-to-face clinics between the nursing staff, healthcare assistants and GPs appropriately so as to minimize contact between patients while in our buildings, and minimize risk to our staff. We fully understand that as things get back to a more normal level of movement, patients will want to be able to book in to see their GP face to face without having to speak on the telephone first, and as soon as we are able to facilitate this we will let you know. For the month of September however, given the ongoing clusters of cases we are seeing on Islay, we will keep appointment access as it is – we review this situation on a regular basis and will make changes as soon as it is safe to do so.
Isolation Guidelines
We are aware of some confusion around isolation guidelines recently – it can be difficult to keep up with changing guidelines, but please remember that should anyone in your household develop any symptoms which could be consistent with COVID-19, the entire household must isolate immediately pending a PCR test of the affected person – this includes symptoms in infants and young children with fevers. The guidelines around isolating after a close contact (i.e. being ‘pinged’) have changed for those who have been ‘double-jabbed’, but this does not apply to household contacts, and everyone in the household must isolate pending a swab result of the affected person regardless of vaccination status. Please help to minimize risk to others by keeping children off school and parents home from work should anyone in the house develop a fever or any symptoms, until a swab result is available. We fully appreciate how frustrating and disruptive this is, but, until we are advised that this can change, everything is COVID-19 until proven otherwise, so we must continue to be vigilant and follow isolation guidelines to keep each other safe. Please see the COVID-19 page on our website for links to the government guidelines.
Staff Changes
We have had a few staffing changes within the GP team in recent months. We have bid a fond farewell to Dr Alex Dean, who has left us to move on to pastures new – he will be much missed by Port Ellen patients in particular, and by all of us who have had the pleasure of working with him. He has been back to do a few locum sessions in recent weeks but will be starting his new job on the mainland soon, and we wish him the all the very best for the future. Meanwhile we have welcomed Dr Joanna Phillips, who has moved to Islay from Aberdeen to join our team – she will be mostly based in Port Ellen Surgery, as well as providing A&E and out of hours cover on a rota basis along with the rest of the team. We hope you will make Dr Phillips very welcome as she settles into island life.
Crutches and other equipment
After a little flurry of ankle injuries at Islay Hospital we have become extremely short of crutches – if you happen to have a pair lying around from a previous injury that you are no longer using and have forgotten to return to us, please could you bring these back to Islay Hospital as soon as possible. We would also be very grateful for the return of any occupational therapy equipment that is no longer required, such as zimmer frames. Please contact the hospital if you have any trouble transporting larger items. Thank you!