New appointment system at Gainsborough hospital to help stop coronavirus spreading

The appointment service will help to minimise waiting times and support social distancing to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Those attending the MIU without a pre-booked appointment will be assessed and may be provided with an appointment to return later in the day.

During lockdown, the MIU’s waiting area at John Coupland Hospital has also been repainted to improve the environment for patients and staff.

The area is now reconfigured to allow safe social distancing, with patients seated two metres apart.

Tracy Pilcher, deputy chief executive of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust and director of nursing, allied health professionals and operations, said:

“During lockdown we’ve been busy looking at the improvements we can make to the services we provide to our patients at Gainsborough Minor Injury Unit, using the learning from the coronavirus outbreak.

“Our local team has done a great job to introduce a bookable appointment service for patients who ‘Talk before you Walk’ by calling NHS111.

“This makes a real difference for our patients by minimising waiting times and the risk of spreading coronavirus. And for our busy medical team, it means we can prioritise our patients more effectively to get the right help in the right timescales to meet their specific needs.

“Many of our team at Gainsborough were redeployed to Lincoln Urgent Treatment Centre and our Clinical Assessment Service providing telephone advice to help support our patients who were unwell.

"It’s great news that they have been able to return to normal duties to deliver great care, close to home from our MIU at John Coupland Hospital.”

The ‘Talk Before You Walk’ campaign highlights the benefits of using the NHS111 telephone service, website or app to get the right medical help first time, every time.

If you live in Gainsborough and require medical help, please remember to first call NHS111, go online to NHS111 online or use the NHS111 app.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor