How you can help your GP to help you

This month health and care organisations in Sussex launched our ‘Keep Sussex Safe’ campaign and this week wearefocusing on our GPpractices and how these important teams are currently working to help you.

A message from Dr Tim Caroe, Chief Medical Officer for Sussex Commissioners and a GP in Eastbourne:

“I would like to assure everyone that the NHS is working extremely hard to continue to provide the care and support that people need during this pandemic.

“GP practices are one of the main NHS services – if not the main service - which people use when they need medical help.

“Our GP practices are open. Every GP practice across Sussex is working hard to continue to provide care, to work to catch up from earlier this year and to do all this with reduced teams due to staff on self-isolation or illness.

“This is a very different situation to what most of us in the NHS are used to. Just as we are having to continue to adapt our personal lives as a result of the pandemic, so are we having to adapt how we are working and how we are looking after our patients.

“Your GP practices are having to provide regular services, protect patients and staff, and support our health and care partners to maintain care for our patients – all whilst maintaining social distancing and intense infection control processes.

“This does mean we are working in new ways – we are asking patients to call practices or visit their surgery’s website in the first instance so we can keep people at the practice buildings to a minimum to keep everyone safe.

“We are also triaging calls – by this we mean a health professional will speak to you to understand a little more about what you need.

“After this step, we are offering more phone and online appointments, but this does not mean that GPs are not seeing people – you will absolutely get a face to face appointment if you need it.

“By working in this way, it means we are actually speaking to and treating a lot more people, so in fact increasing the number of people we are supporting.

“We have made incredible positive steps forward to provide help and support by text message, video and phone – and for many people this has made it much easier to get the help and support they need.

“And it’s not just GPs, our health care assistants and nurses are doing their best to see patients and also delivering flu vaccinations to protect patients ahead of the winter season.

“I know that these different ways of working mean that it often is taking longer than it would have previously to get through to your GP practice; our receptionists are working very hard to manage the increased number of calls and are trying to reach everyone as quickly as they can.

“As we head into the winter months, I would like to ask everyone to be kind to each other.

“I understand how difficult and worrying it can be when you are ill and you are trying to get help.

“GP practices may be working differently and you may get support in a different way but it is still the right place to go for concerns about your health.

“Please work with your GP practice as they work to help you.”