KNUTSFORD people have been thanked for staying at home during the coronavirus lockdown.

The thanks comes from Dr Paddy Kearns, a GP from the Knutsford Medical Partnership, who said local GPs had been ‘humbled’ by the messages of support they had received from the townspeople.

He said: “I would like to say a really big thank you to the people of Knutsford for your patience during this time – but most importantly, we’ve been really impressed by the way that people are staying indoors and actually slowing down the spread of this virus.

“It really does make a difference, and by doing such a thing you may well be contributing to saving the life of one or more people who would otherwise die in Knutsford.

“We have a lot of staff, doctors, nurses and administration staff who are either ill or not able to work. Therefore, with the limited numbers of staff we have we are providing a service but not a routine service.

“Most of our contact will be done through telephone or video call, because we are very keen to decrease as much as possible the amount of people travelling within Knutsford.

“So we will be available to talk to you, but will be seeing very few people within the GP surgeries.”

He said because there were a limited number of staff they were working as one team of doctors and nurses across Knutsford.

He added: “This will mean if you need to be seen it may well be we will ask you to be seen at a different location than your usual surgery and potentially by a different doctor or nurse from those you know.

“This is particularly important depending on the symptoms you have – we really want to keep people who may have Covid-19 away from other members of the practice populations.

“Thank you for appreciating the pressure that we are under. We have been massively humbled by the messages of support we’ve had from all the people of Knutsford and the surrounding areas."

He said the town's GPs were working really closely with the district nurses, social workers, local support groups and colleagues in the hospital.

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He added: “We’re going to be here for the people of Knutsford through all this. It’s a difficult time – none of us have seen anything like it – but we will remain working for you, but just in a different way than either we’ve known or you’ve known.

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“Please do your best to stay indoors as much as possible, look after yourselves, and if there’s any problems at all we are here. Please just phone your usual telephone number for your usual GP surgery and we will get back to you.”