Stoke Road Surgery is being inundated with requests for sick notes for people who are unwell with
- suspected coronavirus*
- or self isolating because a household member may be affected. If you require a sick note (isolation note) for this purpose, please use the NHS111 online isolation note
Prescriptions are taking longer to get ready at the pharmacies due to a higher volume than usual. For now, please assume it will take up to 3 working days for any prescriptions to be ready, starting from when the request is received at the surgery. We will do our best to turn around requests more quickly than this though.
To help alleviate current pressures, and to ensure medication stays in stock at the pharmacies:
Do not order your medication too soon. We allow our patients to order most medication 14 days before it is actually due, please do not order them earlier than this, they will not be processed.
Do not request more than your normal amount. Much like food/toilet roll – if we increase the quantity on prescriptions, they will soon run out of stock.
- Please request medications online through SystmOnline or via the website wherever possible. Our phone lines are very busy but we can take phone requests for people who are unable to use electronic means and are unable to leave the house.
We have a prescription post box outside our entrance. This is for anyone who has no access to online/mobile ordering. Please use this post box to drop in prescription requests instead of coming into the surgery to drop them in.
If you are on regular medication, please consider if you would benefit having a batch prescription. See video below that explains how it works. Please contact us (ideally via the website) if you would like us to set it up when you next order your prescription.
We trust that you understand the need to avoid stockpiling medicines which will cause problems for everyone.
We have had a lot of requests for inhalers and nebules from people who do not have asthma, or who have not had symptoms for over a year. A past history of asthma, not requiring current treatment is not thought to be a significant risk for the severity of covid 19 and so please do not request inhalers “just in case”, unless you are currently using them to treat your asthma.