Following a thorough assessment by the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Team, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust will be reopening more community services in September.
Temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, services have been risk-assessed and a number of changes made to ensure the safety of staff and patients, such as adapting our buildings in line with national guidelines, adopting social distancing measures and increased hand sanitising for all, changing the patient flow through buildings where necessary, asking patients to wear facemasks and checking patients’ temperatures before allowing them in. This means more outpatient clinics, paediatric services and the Community Assessment and Treatment service (CATS) at the Trust’s community hubs can now be resumed.
Services will reopen at the Marlow Community Hub on 7 September, at Rayners Hedge on 14 September and at Thame Community Hub on 21 September.
Alison Pirfo, Director for Community Transformation, said: “We are really pleased to have met the additional infection control requirements in order to make these services available to GP-referred patients again. We know how important it is for people to have accessible care close to home, not only to help them live independently for as long as possible but also to avoid unnecessary hospital visits. Our staff have been really keen to get back to helping these patients out in the community.”
A community hub is a place where different health and social care services can work together, in a way which is best for the local population. They are designed to provide rapid, local care to the people living in the area.
