VOLUNTARY DRIVERS NEEDED

Many patients rely on Chesham Voluntary Drivers to provide transport to hospital. However, they have a shortage of drivers and need your help. Are you able to help in any way? If so, please contact Philip Roberts on 01494 785513 or email Philip at phil_eileen42@btinternet.com

WE NO LONGER PROVIDE TAXI AND HGV MEDICALS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Other providers we are aware of (but have no recommendation to make) are; d4drivers.uk 0300 30 30 068 and driversmedicals.com  01454 317 436. There may be other providers that you would prefer to use

We are pleased to announce that we have a new doctor starting with us on Wednesdays and Fridays - Dr Minal Patel. She will be taking on all new patients as our existing doctors are full

Dr Waseem Kayani joined us in August as a full-time replacement for Dr Neil Cooper who has retired. He has taken over the care of all patients of Dr Cooper and Dr Lally 

COVID Page click here

Sickness certificates click here

Vacancies - please click on the link on the Further Information menu ----> 

Data Processing by the NHS

For information about how the NHS uses your information for planning and research click here

For a Type 1 opt out form click here

A short video on how the NHS uses your data click here

Since mid-July we have been offering the choice of telephone, video or face-to-face consultations. Unfortunately, there are still some social distancing measures we need to keep in place for the time being

Our waiting room is often full of some very vulnerable patients and likewise our doctors and nurses need to make sure that their rooms and they are kept 'clear of infection' to avoid passing on any infection

Our waiting room capacity is limited to a maximum of 18 seats, therefore,

• please only request a face-to-face if you really need to be seen
• please only attend on your own unless you must be accompanied.
• If you attend with someone else, they may be asked to wait outside until you are called
• please wait outside if you have a cough/cold/fever
• If the waiting room is full, the receptionists may ask you to wait outside and someone will collect you – please do not be offended
• Please continue to wear a face covering for the time being

Dealing with demand

We have always prided ourselves on our ability to provide reasonable access to our doctors, however, the demand for access to doctors is increasing at a rate that is difficult to cope with. This is not unique to Water Meadow Surgery and is happening all over the country

This is being fuelled to a large degree by the huge increase in emails. Dozens of queries arrive each day asking for advice. Please be aware that we do not have the capacity to run an e-consulting service alongside full clinics and our email should not be used for medical concerns.

We are noticing an increasing number of patients using email inappropriately to ask about medical conditions. This is unsafe as it may take several days for an email to be seen by a doctor - this is clearly stated on our website and our automatic email reply. Where clinical concerns are raised we will ask you to make an appointment in the usual way.

We are trying to think of ways that we can ensure that we maintain a safe system where those who need to be seen and heard can do so

One thing we are exploring is updating our website. We hope to be able to offer a place for patients with non-urgent matters to register queries

If you have any non-medical queries, please email us at watermeadow@nhs.net - for example, prescription requests, referral queries, private letters etc - please do NOT use our email for medical queries

Please note that we only accept telephone prescription requests from our patients over the age of 75 or those who are clinically housebound 

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