Coronavirus: Worthing doctors' surgery closes due to visitors not 'following the precautions'

St Lawrence Surgery, in St Lawrence Avenue, announced on its website today that patients were not to come to the surgery unless for an appointment.

The statement said: "Sadly some people have not been following the precautions that we have put in place to keep our staff and other patients safe, therefore we must now ask patients not to come to the surgery at all, unless you are attending for an appointment."

The surgery gave out the following advice:

"If you are wanting an appointment/advice/or need to contact us, please call us on 01903 222 900 where we are running a telephone triage service for all patients.

"If you have an appointment booked within the next few days, when you arrive at the surgery ring the doorbell on the right, where you will be screened by one of our receptionists before entering the building.

"We are encouraging parents to continue to bring children/book children in for their childhood immunisations.

"Tarring Community Pharmacy remains open but are serving customers from the side window.

"Prescription update – Currently, where appropriate, for patients on stable repeat medication we have increased our usual repeat prescriptions to 56 days. This is a temporary change. We are asking that prescriptions are requested via your online access account or via our website under ‘Contact us’. This is to limit the spread of touch contact.

"Anyone who does not have a nominated pharmacy, your prescription will be sent to Tarring Community Pharmacy who is currently operating via their side window.

"Our phone waiting times will inevitably rise with more care being provided on the telephones and less staff and our priority is the safety of our staff and our patients, therefore please bear with us.

"Please see the latest information and advice regarding Coronavirus via these links."