BEWARE - URGENT NOTIFICATION 

In the UK, coronavirus vaccines will only be available via the National Health Service. You can be contacted by the NHS directly (mass vaccination centres) your employer, or your GP Practice to receive your vaccine. Remember, the vaccine is free of charge. At no point will you be asked to pay.

Unfortunately one of our patients has been contacted by a fraudster and she gave him her bank account details.

Please remember:

• The NHS will never ask you for your bank account or card details.
• The NHS will never ask you for your PIN or banking password.
• The NHS will never arrive unannounced at your home to administer the vaccine.
• The NHS will never ask you to prove your identity by sending copies of personal documents such as your passport, driving licence, bills or pay slips.

If you receive a call you believe to be fraudulent, hang up. If you are suspicious about an email you have received, forward it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Suspicious text messages should be forwarded to the number 7726 which is free of charge.

If you believe you are the victim of a fraud, please report this to Action Fraud as soon as possible by calling 0300 123 2040 or visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk

Covid-19 Vaccination update - 22nd January 2021.

Nursing Homes/Housebound Patients

Last weekend we completed the vaccinations for residents and staff at our local nursing homes.  We are currently working through our cohort of patients that are normally housebound, but if you have a friend or relative over the age of 75 who could be brought to one of our vaccination clinics please contact us via our patient portal ‘Engage Consult’. 

Next Vaccination Clinic

We will be running our first AstraZeneca vaccination clinic tomorrow from Kibworth Medical Centre on Smeeton Road. 650+ patients will be attending. This clinic is just for SLMG patients, as Billesdon Surgery and The Croft Medical Centre will be running clinics from their own sites.  Please only attend if you have an appointment. We will not be able to give you a vaccination unless you have an appointment. As usual, we will have a reserve list and these patients will be contacted if we have any cancellations or DNA’s.

Face masks MUST be worn to protect you, other patients and our staff.  If you are unable to wear a face mask you must inform us of this before attending your appointment. Please do not arrive early, as we do not want to keep you waiting unnecessarily.  Please wear a warm coat, but make sure you wear a short-sleeved top underneath your outer layers so that the clinician can reach the top of your arm.

Please note - All other medical and dispensary services will not be open, so please contact 111 if you need medical help or advice during the weekend.

Further Clinics

Our planning is currently being hampered by the uncertainty of vaccine delivery. This is a national issue and all vaccination sites are struggling with this. However, it looks likely that we will have a further delivery of the vaccine towards the end of next week, and therefore our Primary Care Network (SLMG/The Croft/Billesdon Surgery) will hopefully be running clinics from Thursday 28th - Sunday 31st inclusive at the Old School Surgery. We will start contacting patients regarding this next week.

Prioritisation Groups

Please do not telephone the Practice to ask when you will be called for your vaccination.  We are following the JCVI priority list and we cannot deviate from this:

1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2. All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
3. All those 75 years of age and over
4. All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. All those 65 years of age and over
6. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality. Cohort 6 also includes unpaid carers*.
7. All those 60 years of age and over
8. All those 55 years of age and over
9. All those 50 years of age and over

* We will be adding further communications regarding group 6 patients nearer the time.

We are on target to vaccinate groups 1-4 by the middle of February, but this does depend on vaccine delivery.

For further information about the prioritisation groups please click here.

Covid-19 Vaccination Update – 11^th January 2021

As previously advised, SLMG are working in conjunction with our other Primary Care Network (PCN) practices to deliver the Covid-19 vaccination programme. Currently all clinics are being held at the Old School Surgery in Kibworth. This site was chosen by NHSE, because we could totally dedicate the site for the delivery of the vaccination programme. Kibworth Medical Centre was not approved due to the fact that we still need to provide existing GP Services, and we could not totally dedicate this site for vaccinations only.

The clinics started on 29^th December, and so far the three practices involved (SLMG, Billesdon Surgery and the Croft Medical Centre) have completed 2,237 vaccinations. SLMG have completed the majority of the vaccinations, and our figure currently stands at 1341. We had quite a few cancellations on Saturday 9^th January, and therefore some of our >75 age group were invited to attend at short notice. However, we have still not completed the >80’s age group in its entirety.

To date, we have received delivery of the Pfizer vaccine. This does make it extremely difficult to plan, as we are only given 24 hours’ notice of delivery, and the vaccine must be used within 3.5 days. All patients need to be observed for 15 minutes after the vaccine, and therefore we are limited to the number of patients we can have in the building at any one time due to social distancing rules. Logistically, we are hoping things will be easier when we start vaccinating with the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, as the storage/timescales/transportation is far less onerous and the observation time does not currently need to be adhered to. We may be able to offer the Astra-Zeneca vaccine programme at some of our other sites in the future, but this is dependent on approval from NHSE. We are also looking at offering on-line appointments when we move down the JCVI groups.

For the next few weeks we will be vaccinating all of our nursing homes, and we will also be planning to visit our >80’s housebound patients.

All patients that were vaccinated from 29^th – 31^st December will unfortunately not be able to attend their pre-booked appointment for their second dose w/c 18^th January as originally planned. We will be writing to all of these patients from tomorrow. This is because the Government have changed the timescales on receiving the second dose and increased this from 3 weeks to a maximum of 12 weeks. We do not currently know when we will be receiving the Pfizer vaccine for patients who need their second dose, and therefore we will be contacting patients again when this is confirmed.

Please do not contact the practice for information about the COVID-19 vaccination programme. We are working within the JCVI guidance and we cannot deviate from this. If you are a healthcare worker and believe you fit the current criteria, please contact us via our on-line portal - Engage Consult. We will ask for relevant documentation to confirm your eligibility prior to booking an appointment for you. If you work for a nursing home, the GP practice that covers the nursing home will make contact with the nursing home manager and arrange your vaccination.

Non Covid-19 appointments - How you can help us –

In order to provide this vital vaccination service at such a challenging time for everyone we are asking for your help:

1. Please understand that your pre-booked appointment for non-Covid-19 services with a GP/clinician may need to be rearranged at short notice. We are only given 24 hours’ notice of when our vaccine will be delivered and therefore it is possible that we will have to rearrange some appointments in order to release members of our team to vaccinate our patients.       We are not provided with extra staff to make this happen so we have to redeploy existing team members to administer the vaccine. This will also take non-clinical staff away from our telephone lines, as each vaccinator needs an administrator to work alongside them. 

2. Where you feel it is safe to do so, please consider postponing non urgent appointments. However, if you are worried that your reason for seeing a clinician could be something serious then you should of course continue to access care from the practice in the normal way. In particular, you should never delay seeing a clinician if you have symptoms that you are worried could be related to cancer or other serious illness. 

3. If you have registered for our on-line services, including our patient portal ‘Engage Consult’, please use this facility and leave the phone lines free for patients that do not have internet access. If you have not registered for on-line services and are able to do so, please register at the earliest opportunity. 

We are grateful for your understanding. We assure you that we are doing everything we can to get eligible patients vaccinated at the earliest opportunity.

Covid-19 vaccination update:

As previously advised, South Leicestershire Medical Group will begin vaccinating eligible patients next week with the first of two doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. We will be working with our member practices from Cross Counties Healthcare Primary Care Network (PCN) to deliver this service. All clinics will take place at Old School Surgery.

We have strict guidelines on which patients we can invite and all patients are being invited in-line with JCVI guidelines. We are limited by the number of vaccinations that have been allocated to us, but please rest assured that if you have not been invited this time around you will be contacted to attend one of our future clinics.

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE PRACTICE – WE WILL CONTACT YOU.

When we contact patients we are giving them the information they need regarding the vaccination programme, but the following link gives further details on where to find Old School Surgery and the parking arrangements. Parking at the surgery is very restricted and therefore we are advising patients to park at Kibworth Grammar School Hall car park.

Please click here to view directions to the site and parking.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

We are very pleased to announce that we have been given a provisional date of 29^th December for our first Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic.

We do not have any authority regarding the date, as this is agreed and confirmed by our Clinical Commissioning Group / Public Health England. The date is therefore subject to change, but this is the date we are currently planning for. People who are over 80 and care home workers will be the first to be invited.  

All Practices have to provide the Covid-19 Vaccination Clinics as part of a Primary Care Network (PCN). Our Network includes Billesdon Surgery and The Croft Medical Centre in Oadby.

Although we have run an extremely successful drive-thru service for Flu Vaccinations at Kibworth Medical Centre, we will not be able to offer a drive-thru Covid-19 Vaccination Service because all patients need to be seated and observed for 15 minutes post vaccination. However, we are delighted to confirm that Old School Surgery has been approved as a Covid-19 Vaccination Centre, and therefore we are hopeful that our patients will be able to have their vaccine at a local designated site.

As our plans progress we will publish updates on our Website and Facebook page. Please do not contact the Practice – we will be contacting patients directly. No appointments will be made until we are told when the vaccine will arrive.

More information can be found in the attached national document:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/944430/PHE_11843_Covid-19_guide_for_adults_leaflet.pdf

PRACTICE UPDATE - 11th December 2020

We are pleased to advise that following the success of opening the waiting room at Kibworth Medical Centre for patients this week to allow them to wait inside if they have an appointment, we will be opening the waiting room at Two Shires Surgery in market harborough as of Monday offering the same service.

Please arrive no more than five minutes before your appointment time and come alone where possible and wear a face covering.

On arrival, press the intercom at the front doors and once the team have confirmed you have an appointment; they will open the doors remotely and let you in.

We will allow a maximum of five patients in at any given time to keep people safe and seating is set to help provide social distancing.

Cleaning items for the chairs and hand gel are provided on entry.

Please note that the main reception desk will not be open at this time and this area will be for waiting purposes only.

Due to Covid 19 lockdown number two, a number of clinical and administrative staff are now shielding and other staff are on sick leave. We will answer your calls and on-line requests as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Stay safe.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Please click here to view important information on changes to our repeat ordering service.

Please click here to view further information explaining why the change is occuring

Please click here to view a statement from the Head of Medicine regarding the change.

Please note the process for eye emergencies has changed

Please see attached poster with details of eye emergency services by clicking here.

The practice is pleased to announce the launch of a new service 'Engage Consult'.

This service allows our patients (once registered with the service) to send messages to the Practice for help and advise without the need to visit or call.

Please note, that whilst this service can be used for medical questions and queries, it is not for medical emergencies.

Please see our services section for more information and register for the service.

Physiotherapy Services

Please click here to view information on the Physiotherapy services available to patients locally.

This self-referral service does not require you to contact the Practice prior to booking.

We hope you can find the information you need on this website.  We have also put together the Frequently Asked Questions section to assist visitors to our site.

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