***FLU VACCINATIONS - Friday 18th SEPTEMBER 2020***

If you are aged 65 or over, you will have received your letter from Scottish Government letting you know that you are entitled to a flu vaccination this year. To comply with social distancing rules and to fullyimplement all restrictions which apply during the current pandemic we are carefully considering how to safely deliver the clinics this year. Please do not contact the surgery at present, but keep a check on the website for updates of when our clinics are being held.

From today, we are sending out invitation letters to all of our Over 65 years patients and also to all of our patients who are 18-64 years in a clinical risk group. These are the only groups in the first round of flu vaccinations. Once you receive your letter there is no need to call the practice. Instead, please just follow the instructions on the letter and attend the flu clinics as detailed in the letter. Later in the year, the flu vaccine may be given to people aged 50 to 64. More information will be available later in the autumn. There is an additional cohort this year for all those who are living with a patient who was formerly shielding. This group will also be considered in more detail later in the year.

On behalf of the reception/admin teams, we ask that you don't 'phone us about receiving your flu letter as the 'phone lines have been blocked a few times today due to flu calls. As a result, patients requesting urgent appointments have been unable to get through. Please look at the website for up to date information next week about when/where the clinics are being held - thank you.

Coronavirus Update - Impact on practice procedures.

Following the government's advice for Primary Care, like all other GP practices, Kinmylies has changed some of our routine procedures:

• Prescriptions can no longer be collected from the practice. All scripts will be sent to a pharmacy for processing. Wherever possible, please complete your prescription request online. However, please note that you can still drop off your prescription request in the relevant box in the practice entrance hallway.
  
  
• All routine appointments have been suspended for the foreseeable future. If you call and ask for an appointment, the reception team will take your details and ask a doctor or a nurse to call you back to discuss your request.
  
  
• When you speak to the reception team you will be asked 3 questions about your recent travel, any contact you may have had with a confirmed case of Covid-19 and whether you have any flu symptoms, especially a recent cough and/or a high temperature.
  
  
• Only patients with an appointment which has been confirmed by a clinician will be able to enter the building.
  
  
• Even if a patient has an appointment, they must only attend if they have NO NEW flu like symptoms. It will be treated as an extremely serious matter if you attend an appointment having concealed a cough and or a high temperature.
  
  
• To get up to date information on the virus and what to do please refer to www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus or call 0800 028 2816