Covid-19 – Advice for people with health conditions

We sincerely hope you are coping with the current Covid-19 crisis and we are doing all we can to help under the circumstances. Obviously this is a worrying time so we are happy to provide telephone consultations to give advice. Please do not come to the surgery if you have a fever and/or cough.

In line with NHS England’s advice however we must advise those most at risk to self-isolate and take extra precautions (as many of you are already doing) these include patients who:

1. Solid organ transplant recipients
2. People with specific cancers:
   • people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy or radical radiotherapy for lung cancer
   • people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
   • people having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
   • people having other targeted cancer treatments which can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors
   • people who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months, or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs
3. People with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe COPD.
4. People with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as SCID, homozygous sickle cell).
5. People on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection.
6. Women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired.

Some of you will receive a letter from the NHS in the next few days.

Please also follow NHS 111 advice about self-isolating for seven days if you get symptoms (or until your fever has resolved), or for 14 days from the start of symptoms in the first person in your household. Please remember you may cough for a few weeks after the infection but you can stop isolation.

Covid-19 testing compliant with Public Health England is still not available in the community at present (even privately) and we do not advise using the kits you may find available online or elsewhere.

We do understand how difficult this is for everyone but please bear with us at this difficult time.