Thank you to our wonderful patients for your continued support whilst we deliver covid vaccinations and continue to provide ‘normal’ NHS services.
‘Normal’ GP services
Following recent information in the national press, we would like to reassure patients that we have continued to see patients face-to-face where clinically necessary following a telephone appointment. Due to social distancing restrictions in the waiting rooms, we will continue to offer telephone appointments, online consultations and face-to-face appointments with GPs. Our nursing and healthcare staff have continued throughout the pandemic to offer face-to-face appointments for tests which cannot be completed remotely. This naturally impacts on our waiting room capacity. To ensure the safety of staff and patients and to meet distancing and infection control guidance, we would encourage patients to contact us by telephone where possible.
Covid vaccinations
We have now delivered over 25,000 covid vaccinations at Brough Surgery on behalf of the River & Wolds PCN (The Ridings Medical Group & Hessle Grange Medical Practice). To put this into context, we normally deliver around 5000 flu vaccines every Winter.
Astra Zeneca vaccines
All patients over the age of 40 will now have been offered a 1st Astra Zeneca vaccine. If you have not been offered a vaccine and are over the age of 40, please contact us to arrange this. For those patients who have had a 1st dose of Astra Zeneca, we are contacting all patients who had their 1st dose more than 8 weeks ago (1st dose 23rd March and before). If you have not been contacted and had your 1st dose before 23rd March, please contact us to arrange your 2nd dose.
Pfizer vaccines
The current JCVI guidance recommends that all patients aged 39 and under receive the Pfizer vaccine where possible. Following the assessment of additional Pfizer/BioNTech research data, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) yesterday approved the refrigerated storage of the Pfizer vaccine for 31 days instead of the original recommended 5 days which comes as a great relief to the practice as we will now be able to deliver more Pfizer clinics for our patients. We are awaiting a delivery of a stock of Pfizer (expected approx. 11th June) and are working with East Riding of Yorkshire CCG to hopefully secure stock before then. Once we have confirmation of stock, we will be contacting patients to book their 1st appointment starting with those aged 39.
Vaccine ‘passports’
We have had a lot of queries about vaccine passports. These are available via the NHS App and you do not require a login from us. For more information, visit https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/the-nhsapp/help/ or contact the help team at https://www.nhs.uk/contact-us/nhs-app-contact-us.
Thank you for your continued support and resilience during the pandemic.
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