**IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING CORONAVIRUS**

The NHS in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Public Health England (PHE) are extremely well prepared for outbreaks of new infectious diseases. The NHS has put in place measures to ensure the safety of all patients and NHS staff while also ensuring services are available to the public as normal.

The risk to the general public is moderate. If you have arrived back to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau within 14 days, follow the specific advice for returning travellers.

Anyone who has travelled to China or places listed above in the last 14 days and develops symptoms of cough or fever or shortness of breath, should immediately: 

• Stay indoors and avoid contact with other people as you would with the flu
• Call NHS 111 to inform them of your recent travel to the country

Information for the public is available at gov.uk/coronavirus

Like the common cold, coronavirus infection usually occurs through close contact with a person with novel coronavirus via cough and sneezes or hand contact. A person can also be infected by touching contaminated surfaces if they do not wash their hands.

The risk of being in close contact with a person with coronavirus or contaminated surfaces is very low at the current time, as members of the public who have visited Wuhan, Hubei province, China are currently in isolation.

Testing of suspected coronavirus cases is carried out in line with strict regulations. This means that suspected cases are kept in isolation, away from public areas of the hospital and returned home also in isolation. Any equipment that come into contact with suspected cases are thoroughly cleaned as appropriate. Specific guidance has also been shared with NHS staff to help safeguard them and others.  Patients can be reassured that their safety is a top priority, and are encouraged to attend all appointments as usual.

Everyone is being reminded to follow Public Health England advice to:

• Always carry tissues with you and use them to catch your cough or sneeze. Then bin the tissue, and wash your hands, or use a sanitiser gel.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after using public transport. Use a sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people who are unwell.

You can find the latest information and advice from Public Health England at www.gov.uk/coronavirus.

Welcome to South Hermitage Surgery

We are confident that our website will provide clear and concise help and give our patients the information they require in an easy and convenient format. It has been designed with the patient’s needs at the forefront of everything, from checking surgery times to letting us know what you think of us.

Our dedicated team are here to treat those minor ailments that occur as well as providing specialist management of long-term conditions and clinics covering a wide range of healthcare issues. The technology also means you can now do a lot of things from the comfort of your home such as order a repeat prescription or cancel an appointment.

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Extended Access

For more info regarding Extended Access, visit our News page or click the banner below.

South Hermitage Compassionate Communities (Co-Co)

For the past few months I have been gearing up to launch the South Hermitage Compassionate Community project which started with our Open Meeting at the end of June. We had a great bunch of people attend on a very hot Tuesday evening; it was fantastic to see such a positive turn out.

Co-Co is about the community coming together to offer companionship to one another. The project is a Severn Hospice initiative and it was amazing to have the brains behind the idea, Paul Cronin, come and speak at our meeting.

At the end there was an opportunity to leave contact details for anyone who was interested in continuing the process and finding out more! We are absolutely delighted that the majority of people left their details and will carry on with the next step, which is to attend an information session run by the hospice.

We are welcoming anyone to get in touch who wants to find out more about volunteering or helping with the organisational side of things.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Claire

Community & Care Co-ordinator

SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE

We are now on Facebook and Twitter!

We will be using these channels to communicate news, NHS campaigns and other surgery info. Clicking the below links will take you directly to our pages!

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ASK DEBS!

If you're under 24, why not ask our online Agony Aunt Debs any confidential questions you might have and see if she can help you. Ask Debs or email her on d.mainwaring@nhs.net