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.
Reopening of the Buckshaw Village Surgery site
As you will be aware, the above site has operated with severely restricted access and a reduced number of clinics since the early part of the Covid pandemic.
Access has been further restricted in recent weeks since the allocation of Buckshaw Village Surgery as our main vaccination hub.
However, we are delighted to be able to announce that in the light of forthcoming developments, details of which can be found elsewhere in this newsletter, coupled with the continued improvement of the national situation, we are now able to plan a phased reopening of our Buckshaw Village Surgery site in the coming weeks.
We hope to soon be able reintroduce many of the clinics which had temporarily been moved to other sites within the group and increase face to face appointments.
All changes are of course subject to any change in the national situation or any new Government restrictions which may be imposed.
We would like to thank all our patients for their patience and understanding during the long period of Covid pandemic restrictions and the upheavals which have resulted from the rollout of the vaccine programme.
We are sure you will welcome this news as much as we do and would advise that while current arrangements will continue in the immediate future, we will issue further updates via this website and our Facebook page and Twitter account as soon as more information is to hand.
Covid vaccination programme
As the Covid vaccination rollout continues, we are delighted to announce that NM Health Innovations will continue to be involved as the huge programme now enters its second phase.
As you will be aware, since the turn of the year our main facility Buckshaw Village Surgery has been given over to the vaccine programme as our main vaccination hub.
This decision was taken in order to enable us to concentrate all our resources as effectively as possible and to maximise the speed and efficiency of our vaccination rollout programme.
And the move has proved to be a beneficial one as we have so far delivered approximately 14,000 vaccinations with the figure still rising.
This first phase has involved offering first doses to Cohorts 1 to 9 ie those over the age of 50 and those under 50 who are clinically vulnerable, have underlying health conditions increasing risk of serious disease, or are frontline health, social care or care home workers.
We have also been administering second doses to all those who received first doses from ourselves, with all second doses given within the time limit recommended by the vaccine manufacturers.
We are pleased to advise that we are now working in collaboration with Bridgedale PCN with regards to the second phase of the vaccine programme rollout, which involves all the remaining Cohorts under 50 and the ongoing second dose administration.
The second phase programme will continue to be provided at Buckshaw Village Surgery for the moment, but within the next few weeks, the service will be transferred to the Central Lancashire PCT’s headquarters at Jubilee House, Centurion Way, Leyland.
In the mean time, vaccination clinics for both doses are continuing at the Buckshaw site and all appointments which have already been booked or which are currently being booked will unless advised be at this site.
We will advise full details of the new arrangements as soon as they become available so please continue to monitor this website and our Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates, further information and booking details.
Telephone System
There has been a slight delay in the activation of our new telephone system but we would like to reassure all patients that the vastly upgraded system is due to come into operation shortly.
We are fully aware that many patients have had issues in contacting us and we apologise for any difficulties this has caused.
We are also aware that the problems are particularly frustrating as normal physical access to the surgeries is limited due to restrictions imposed due to the Covid situation.
However, we can confirm that the final sections of work and staff training is now being completed and the new system is shortly to be activated.
We are very optimistic many of the issues faced by patients will be alleviated when this system is in operation and we would once again like to thank all our patients for their continued patience on this matter.