News

Swine flu and Lochgoilhead

Current Situation

As all of you probably know by now we have now many confirmed cases of swine flu all over the Cowal. All I know of are doing very well indeed and I am not concerned about anyone locally at all. We have further a number cases where we are waiting for results to come back. These should come in short order. Sometimes results do take a while and there is little I can do about.

As a consequence of all this the primary school in Lochgoilhead has been closed. Thanks to all staff there who helped to make the medical aspects of this closure extremely smooth and efficient!

A large number of contacts to actual confirmed cases have received Tamiflu to prevent further spread of the disease. This is meant to stop the spread the disease and is no reason as such to go into isolation - nor one to shun anyone over!

A even larger number has received advice and support to understand the illness and its implications for them, including a number of local businesses.

Thanks

I am very grateful to all my staff and to volunteers out of the community who have allowed us to respond to this crisis as well as we could. I am confident that we have so far done all that was needed to prevent further spread and prevent in particular serious illness and death.

I am also grateful to the many variously affected here for their patience and also particularly to those of my patients who graciously accepted short notice cancellation of their appointments for routine reviews etc.

We have been generously supported with Tamiflu supplies by Dunoon Hospital where many staff have been under severe pressure themselves.

Public Health in Inverness has been fantastic with their advice and support at pretty much all hours.

Were are we now?

Even if successful contained (as we all hope) Swine flu is likely to remain a very serious concern for the immediate and mid term future. I would like to ask you to remain vigilant and observe basic hygiene, including ensuring that if you become ill that you do not cough or sneeze over others. Also please do _not_ attend in such a situation at the surgery but call us up and get advice!!!

According to public health officials there is no need to cancel any particular activities at this time, though such advice is subject to frequent review. Personally I would suggest that this summer appears to become a glorious one and we should probably make most use of gardens, water and hills instead of sitting in huddled groups indoors. That will certainly help to keep infectious contacts to the necessary limit.

Dunoon Hospital

Dunoon will remain the hub of activity for the Cowal at this moment, while our practice will endeavour to do as much locally as can be done - including screening and treating of all but the most severely ill. At the same time though we do have plans in place to buddy up with neighbouring practices (Arrochar and Strachur) should the going get tough or should staff become ill themselves. This could result in patients needing to travel and will then be unavoidable.

Out of hours

As this illness may in the wrong circumstances well become a protracted and severe problem for all of us I have taken the firm decision that unless everything else goes to pot, we will continue to take part in the regional out of hours services as always. The massively increased workload right now could - if lasting longer and coupled with staff sickness - result in rapid burn out of our staff and volunteers, which is something we all want to avoid as much as possible. I personally will take part in the Dunoon hospital rota as time allows. The established out of hours service allows for the organised use of external doctors which is definitely A Good Thing as it allows all of us local GPs to recover - particularly if the going gets tough.

Conclusion

Summary: There is much I am extremely grateful about: I think we have overcome a big hurdle in this first week of what may well become a major national health crisis. I would like to ask you all for continued support, particularly if things become protracted and more severe.

Finally: The best website to get up to date serious information remain the Health Protection Scotland pages, here and here.

And then there is the BBC site.

I will endeavour to provide from time to time updates to the local community as time and patient confidentiality allows.