Update from Tiree Medical Practice
Firstly, we would like to say thank you to a lot of people.Thank you for the very moving and uplifting spectacle of the Tractor Run on Easter Monday. It really proved that Tiree can show unity whilst still staying safely distanced.
The Medical Team join you in thanking all the other essential workers on the island, who continue to keep things moving and working safely. We are greatly in all of your debt. Thank you for your fantastic generosity in donating to the collection for The Surgery Fund.
This fund is used exclusively to pay for equipment and projects to improve health provision on the island; things that simply would not be available without your generosity.
One of the first things your most recent donations will pay for is the temporary Covid-19 assessment room. It is a vital facility, which allows us to see and assess patients who may have Covid-19, without risking introducing infection to the surgery building and patients who need to be seen there. We will update you on other items that your donations have paid for, as we make other purchases in the coming months.
Thank you to Tiree Development Trust, who have agreed to fund the purchase of a blood analyser for the Medical Practice. This will allow us to make much more accurate assessments of unwell patients, who may need to be evacuated. It will help us if people are unwell with Covid-19, but also improve assessment and treatment of other emergency problems into the future.
Thank you to all people making equipment and clothing to help with front line Covid-19 work.
Thank you again to everyone who is being so patient with changes working practices at the surgery.
Thank you to Dr John, who continues the very long interruption of his retirement to help with the Covid-19 response.
We are pleased to say we have seen no patients with new Covid-19 like symptoms in over two weeks. We cannot say for certain that there is therefore no Covid-19 on Tiree, but it is obviously good news. We believe this is largely due to your diligent following of the social distancing guidelines.
We do need to remember that the virus can be passed on by people with very mild or even no symptoms at all. We need to remain as vigilant as ever, but we are happy to be able to report this news. It leads to the obvious question ‘what now?’.
We don’t know what changes to control measures either the UK government or the Scottish Government are planning. It seems most likely that for the time being, the lockdown will continue as it is. When change does come, we don’t know if there will be any special provision for the islands generally or Tiree in particular. We do not know if any relaxation of lockdown will include the return of holiday makers or other visitors to Tiree. Like you, we can only wait and see what the future brings and hope that wisdom prevails in making these difficult decisions.
As regards testing for Covid-19 in front line staff; so far, it has been very difficult to get testing agreed. We will continue to push for testing, if there are more staff with symptoms. We are being given assurances that access to testing will continue to improve. As yet, these assurances only relate to the testing of front-line healthcare and social care workers, in order to allow them to return to work without unnecessary delay. It is understandable that other people want to know if there is Covid-19 here. If they get symptoms, they will of course want to know if they have it and it is likely that we will still be limited to presumed diagnosis on the basis of symptoms for some time to come. It is very disappointingly that mass testing is not yet available, and is still some way off, but we will continue to seek testing for anyone who develops Covid-19 symptoms.
We hope that the situation will improve over time and we will continue to push for this.
As regards other medical problems. We said in our last update to please remember that we are still open for all the other medical issues which arise. Sometimes this will include a face to face assessment and sometimes either via a phone call or the new Near Me video call service which has been introduced. Either way we do want you to contact us as usual with problems you want to discuss.
We appreciate that the lockdown is stressful, inconvenient, and for some also a considerable financial strain. We thank you for your persistence in pulling together to deal with this huge challenge, which is clearly not going away any time soon. We are sorry we can only report the limited good news about reduced cases, but it is some good news at least.
Best wishes to all from the Medical Team.
