Welcome to the latest of our weekly newsletters. We regard it as a priority that all our patients are kept fully informed of all developments at Buckshaw Village Surgery, Croston and Adlington Medical Centres, our sites at Lostock Hall and on matters affecting former Eaves Lane Surgery patients. We hope these regular updates will continue to prove useful.
Wearing of Masks/Facial Coverings
We are pleased to confirm that following further reviews of procedure in the NHS, we now no longer require the wearing of masks or other face coverings at our surgery sites.
This regulation was brought in at the beginning of the Covid Pandemic and was continued after lockdowns ended in order to protect our many vulnerable patients attending surgery.
We realise the discomfort and inconvenience the ruling caused some patients but trust you will understand it was made in the best interests of patients and staff.
We sincerely thank you for your cooperation on this issue over the past three years and would advise that we have no objections to patients, particularly those with an immunosuppressed condition, continuing to wear face coverings while on site.
New Staff Members
We are continuing to strengthen our team of clinicians and also our reception and communications team and we hope our patients are enjoying the improved level of service.
Our latest arrivals are Dr Omokayode Ayoade, who begins work at Adlington Medical Centre next week and Alex Atkinson, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner who is based at The Village Surgery, Lostock Hall.
In addition, our Buckshaw Village Surgery team has been strengthened by Practice Nurse Sister Mandy Preece, a new Health Care Assistant in the shape of Krystle Havard, who some of you may know from her previous role as a very popular member of our Adlington Medical Centre reception team, and also Vicki Lea who joins as clinical coder/GP assistant.
We are sure you will join us in welcoming all our new starters on board.
Blood Tests
We have been contacted by the Urgent Care team at Chorley Hospital who have advised that increasing numbers of people have arrived at the unit without an appointment requesting non-urgent blood tests.
The team have tried to fit these patients in but numbers have grown and they are no longer able to do this.
We would request that only patients specifically instructed by us to attend for an urgent blood test should go to the main hospital blood clinic, which is situated in the Assessment and Treatment entrance.
All patients requiring non-urgent blood tests should make an appointment at one of our own on site phlebotomy clinics in the normal way.
Walk-in Clinic
We are delighted to note that our walk-in clinics at Croston Medical Centre, which are held every Monday and Wednesday morning, are continuing to prove very popular with patients.
However, we just wanted to give you a gentle reminder that the walk-in clinics take place from 8.30am to 10.30am and any patients arriving after 10.30am will unfortunately not be seen by our GP as they move straight on to other appointments at that time.
Please also note that as previously advised, these clinics are for Croston patients only and are not open to patients registered at our other surgery sites.