Home Patient Services New Patients Online Services About Us Medical Info Patient Group Welcome to Springfield Surgery When visiting the surgery, please wear a mask or face covering. Thank you. Covid testing × Coronavirus Face-to-face appointments As the country goes back to a “new normal”, there is increasing frustration amongst patients over how difficult it is to see a GP face-to-face. We share this frustration. So why is it still so difficult?? We have many patients with complex medical needs, who are frail, or have immune systems that don’t work properly. This vulnerable group of patients often need frequent medical care at the practice and remain at risk to the effects of Covid. We are also likely to see patients at the practice who are currently infected with Covid (numbers of infections, admissions and deaths are rising), so we have a strong duty of care to protect this most vulnerable group of patients, as well as the 10% of patients who don’t get protection from the vaccinations. This can only be achieved by maintaining social distancing and managing numbers through the practice, which is simply incompatible with the full waiting rooms we had pre-Covid. Patients who NEED medical care face-to-face (eg. for blood tests, examinations, treatments) will be seen, as we have done throughout the pandemic. But if your care can be provided "virtually" without coming down this helps us to protect everyone. We are therefore asking patients to continue to accept a telephone appointment first, and the doctor will bring you in if necessary. Unlike many other GP practices, we are offering some face-to-face appointments each day which can be directly booked by patients who would prefer to be seen, but these are limited (as explained above) and get booked quickly. Regrettably this means we are unable to see every patient who WANTS a face-to-face appointment, particularly if we can provide care by other means. We are keeping this under regular review. There are also accusations made by the media that GPs are “hiding” and being lazy. This simply isn’t true!! In February 2019 (pre-Covid) we offered 3235 appointments. In February 2020 we offered 3750 appointments. In February 2021 we offered 4565 appointments. In addition we have given nearly 5000 Covid vaccinations this year. This is all with no extra staff or resources. Everyone has been working extra shifts and longer hours to try to meet demand. Just because we are delivering healthcare differently, it doesn’t mean we aren’t working harder than ever!! So we apologize if things aren’t ideal at the moment…. …but we thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Close Cookie Control Our website uses cookies OK Read about cookies Privacy policy