WE CAN ONLY DEAL WITH URGENT REQUESTS
Please read this important message
Over the last 12 months the GP Practices in South West Lincolnshire have worked together to provide one of the most active Covid-19 local vaccination centres in the Country. In a year we have given quarter of a million first, second and booster doses of this life-saving vaccine.
We were asked recently to step up further and offer all adults in our area, and many from beyond, a booster vaccination before the end of January, we stepped up.
As cases of the Omicron variant double every 2-3 days we have now been asked by NHS England to step up even further and vaccinate more people each day than we have ever done before for the next 3 weeks and again we will do that.
We are going to need your help to do this though. The healthcare professionals giving the vaccine have mostly been doing this on top of their day job in general practice and to allow us to do more we must make this final push our priority.
Until the New Year we are going to have to cancel some routine appointments at all local GP Practices and we are going to ask you only to approach our Practice if you feel that your care need is urgent and cannot wait 3 weeks, or that you cannot get that help from elsewhere such as a local pharmacy.
If you feel your need is urgent then please still approach us in the usual way through askmyGP, we are here to help. If we feel that your healthcare need can safely wait then we will tell you and ask you to come back in the New Year, please accept this.
We don’t take this decision lightly but without taking these measures now it is possible that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 could overwhelm our local services and you can help us now to protect the NHS and protect those who are at greatest risk.
Please do not contact the Practice regarding the Covid-19 Booster, we will contact you. You will be given an opportunity to book online or via the telephone and it is incredibly important that you take up that offer.
These measures are short-term, we are doing this with the full support of NHS England and Lincolnshire CCG to put up our best defence for you and your loved ones.
Thank you.
We have been asked to inform you that, contrary to what you might hear on the TV or radio, the Covid-19 vaccination centre at The Meres should only be used for booked appointments. They are not able to accept walk-in patients due to the available resources they have for staffing. It will cause unnecessary delays and queues if people just turn up without an appointment and creates issues for our volunteer taskforce.
Boosters are available 182 days after the date of the second vaccination, for patients over the age of 50 or those in at risk categories. Please continue to book either via your GP surgery or by contacting 119.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
General Practice Data for Planning and Research: GP Practice Privacy Notice
Posted on June 8th, 2021
Under data protection law we must tell you about how we use your personal information. This includes the personal information that we share with other organisations and why we do so. Our main GP practice privacy notice is on our website. This additional privacy notice provides details about the personal information that we are sharing with NHS Digital for its General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.
Opting out
If you don’t want your identifiable patient data (personally identifiable data in the diagram above) to be shared for purposes except for your own care, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both. These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail in the above links. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt out using either option.
Opt out form (Link)