I wanted to update you all on the massive changes we have had in General Practice in such a short time. Across the 15 Basingstoke practices we have had to provide provision for 3 streams of work with regard to coronavirus risk. These are coded as green , amber and red sites. 

Green sites see patients for routine, non infectious but essential work eg childhood immunisations, pregnant women, blood tests/injections/wound care.
Amber sites are for unwell patients who do not have COVID symptoms - malaise, abdominal pain, chronic disease complications.
Red sites are for any suspected COVID patients to be assessed to see if they need admission or can be managed and supported at home. There is a home visiting arm to this site to assess patients who are housebound or shielding safely whereby black cabs have been rented to drive the GPs and nurses around with a safe barrier between driver and clinician.  

At the Clift we have divided the surgery in half such that the dispensary is a green site and waiting room for green category patients and the reception end is amber where after a telephone call, if a patient with any condition not suspected to be coronavirus will be seen in their car if appropriate - or brought straight into a room to be assessed with full PPE worn. No red category patients are seen at The Clift.  

The red site is CAMROSE Surgery in South Ham where the surgery is staffed by all Basingstoke GPs on a prorata basis. The patients asked to attend this site are seen in their car in marquis tents or brought into the building if this is not feasible. There is another red case at Hook for triaging and dispatching home visits, again managed by a rota of all Basingstoke GPs whereby black cabs have been commissioned to provide a safe barrier between driver and clinician in driving to patients who are housebound or shielding. 

There is no Self referral or walk in ability at any of these sites so to manage we have totally transferred our workload to telephone and video consultation clinics whereby we try to manage patients remotely where safe to do so but also can see and assess them in a safe and considered manner where clinical assessment is necessary. We are adopting econsults for sick notes and medication queries with the ambition to expand this further to provide accessibility in these strange times.  

There is a lot we have learnt is these rapidly changing times and we all miss seeing our patients. However, working more collaboratively with wider GP surgeries has bred a desire to continue the positive consequences of these changes. We all feel the face of General Practice will change going forward but need to be mindful of how our patients understand this and help mould it.  In this crisis our patient population has embraced all the changes without argument as needs must. We are, in house, trying to harness what we like and dislike about all this to help form a permanent way of working.  We'd like to get the  perspective from the patients we serve about their likes and dislikes about the changes so far, so we hope to run a survey via the Patient Participation Group shortly"

Clift Meadow Surgery: https://www.cliftsurgery.co.uk/

Patient Participation Group: https://www.cliftsurgery.co.uk/ppg.aspx