John Culatto
DOCTORS will be available for limited face-to-face appointments from July 20, according to the Gibraltar Health Authority.
Under COVID-19 restrictions GPs have only been available for telephone appointments.
These telephone appointments are available from 8.15am to 3pm each day and from 4pm to 7pm for the emergency evening clinic.
Patients would only be invited to see the GP face-to-face if the doctor felt it was necessary after talking to them.
“We will be introducing face to face appointments for GPs with effect from 20 July 2020,” said the GHA.
“However, to ensure that we respect social distancing and to minimise cross infection, we will need to limit the number of these appointments.
“Telephone consultations will also continue to be available for those prefer them.”
There were 20 lines running during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Latest figures on COVID-19 show there are still two cases in Gibraltar and a cross-frontier worker active at this time.
Technical issues
Telephone lines will now be scaled down as the staff that ran them are recalled to their departments.
“We have increased this by a further two lines but there is a huge demand on the system at the moment as a result of a return to normality,” said the Gibraltar Government.
“Adding to this, there have been some technical issues which have also slowed things down.”
The government assured the public they would try to call back the patients at least three times, but it would not always be possible.
The telephone numbers to use for the different services are:
- for GP appointments: 20007910 or 20052441
- for enquiries: 20072355
- for repeat prescriptions: 20007909 or prescriptionrepeats@gha.gi
- for sick notes: 20007888
Anyone who needs a GHA health card can register via the Government GHA website.
To do so you need to create a an e-government account with help available via email or by calling 20007833, 20007860 or 20007866.
