Barton Surgery has altered its appointments system from this week, with a return to more face-to-face GP consultations.

These appointments have to be kept to the allocated ten minutes for Covid-19 safety and to avoid overcrowding.

With 'unprecedented demand' for GP services over the last six to nine months, and a continuing increase in that demand, the surgery wants to make sure all patients are directed to the most suitable source of medical help, which may not be a GP.

If you contact the surgery your call will be categorised according to its medical need, and you may be signposted towards another source of help to reduce the pressure on GPs.

If you choose to contact the surgery via its EConsult service accessed from its website, please note that there is a 48 hour acknowledgement time, excluding weekends and bank holidays.

Barton Surgery promotes self-help and care.

Within the EConsult service, self-help forms part of the support available, and trained Health Navigators can also direct you to the most relevant support.

There are various online sites available for your self-care and help management:

The NHS website

The Health and Care Video Library

NHS 111 online

Hiblio - Hiblio TV.

Selp therapies via the NHS website (link above)

Your local pharmacy can help with minor ailments including coughs, colds, sore throat, fever, earache, thrush, teething, threadworms, blocked nose, hayfever, athlete's foot, diarrhoea, cold sores, skin rashes, eye infections, mouth ulcers and verrucas.

If none of these services can help, you may have to wait for a GP appointment, and during May you will be able to book telephone consultations with GPs, in advance, for routine matters. To access this service, please sign up to the Barton Surgery's online services via its website.

Patients attending the surgery are asked to keep to the following guidelines for Covid safety:

- Arrive at your exact appointment time, i.e. if you are early please stay in your car or outside until your appointment time and not in the surgery.

- Please wear a face covering when in surgery.

- Do not wear multiple layers of clothing that will need to be removed for the procedure/examination to be performed, as this will also help to minimise any risk.

Do not attend the surgery if you have any of the following symptoms:

- high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)

- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

- loss or change to your sense of smell or taste.

The surgery said: "We would like to thank all patients for their support during these hugely demanding times for everyone, and for the many kind messages of support we have received.

"As you may know, General Practice has seen absolutely unprecedented demand over the last six to nine months and this demand continues to increase. GPs are dealing with more patients than they did in the same period the previous year, along with all the constraints of Covid-19. We are not alone in this, GP surgeries all around the country are experiencing the same issues."