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Written by a carer at Shere Surgery and Dispensary
13th April 2020


I am writing to express my gratitude to and support of Dr. Emma Watts. I have never met Dr. Watts, and my only knowledge of her is through a friend of mine who has a private teaching practice attended by Dr. Watts' child.  Similarly to many people in this country, I watched increasingly bewildered as events unfolded around Covid-19. The seeming lack of any kind of coherent strategy around government announcements in the early days of the impending pandemic I know led to the majority of people feeling something of a sense of "non-urgency". Indeed, for myself this was all too obvious. We had the news reports of what was happening in other countries, but it seemed not quite real to us……..yet.  We were consistently assured that the best way forward was to wash our hands thoroughly, and all was well.  Throughout this time, I was constantly in touch with my friend, who was very much categorised as "in a vulnerable group".  For myself, I have a daughter with chronic asthma and a mother who is eighty and who, five years ago, had a kidney transplant and therefore has low immunity due to anti-rejection medicine, but who is otherwise very healthy.  Very early in the government's "containment" phase, my friend very kindly and gently told me of the advice she had been given by Dr. Watts, about how she should truly be considering more stringent and careful (actually read as "caring") measures for her student/parent community, and for herself, for many clearly explained reasons. I was again slightly confused as to why we were not being advised in such a way generally, but my daughter is now in her second year studying medicine at Bristol, and she was constantly in touch, basically pleading with me to implement very careful measures around myself, working in an international boarding school, and especially with regards to my extended family and my mother, in line with what was being discussed in her community by her professors and doctors she came into contact with whilst on placement.  When her university closed due to the need for her professors to be available to handle the pandemic, I picked her up, already being more wary than many of my actions during the journey to and from Bristol (to Manchester). My mother was already in lockdown, partly because of my daughter's insistence that it was dangerous to behave in any other way, and in large part due to the advice from Dr. Watts, which convinced my extended family that this was a sensible and eminently possible way to protect our mum.  My own outlook, along with that of my family, was changed. I am aware that, already at the early stage, and through until now, the advice given by Dr. Watts and passed on by my friend could well have been instrumental and indeed vital in caring about (read "saving") at least one life, and who knows how many more, before we were instructed officially of the seriousness of what was to come.  I will always be grateful for this, to someone I never met, for care and advice to myself and my family which otherwise may not have been given…….in time.  Thank you so much Dr. Watts. 

15th April 2020
Response from Dr Emma Watts

Wow, I am completely blown away by this review. I deeply care about my patients, and I deeply care about my job. When I advised my daughter's music teacher, I did it with caution as my remit does not strictly extend that far, and yet I could see unmet need and uncertainty. Also, I was worried about the vulnerable people involved, and potential young learners as vectors. My advice was given along with discussion, carefully and cautiously. The timeline of events following does feel that the advice was timely and correct. I am glad about that, but also mindful of the fact that at the time we only had other countries experiences to model from and we didn't know quite how things were going to go in the UK. The time taken to post this review is truly humbling, and at a time when we are stretched and stressed, it was lovely to read. I hope all of you remain safe through this pandemic, and that your daughter enjoys her medical school experience. Emma

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Written by a carer at Shere Surgery and Dispensary
11th April 2020


I am a private teacher with contact with a large number of students of all ages and their families, traditionally working together for long periods within 2 metres and using shared spaces and surfaces. I became concerned about the potential for my classes - and the additional patterns of contact between students even if I were careful myself - to create chains of transmission for coronavirus. I started to research what to do in February. The advice from government, and from doctors I spoke with, was to go about as normal and make no changes. At the beginning of March I nonetheless made some tentative changes, making my living room “deep cleanable” in case we had a positive case in the student community, and I considered creating a mandatory separate place for parents and siblings to wait during classes - a big change when they were used to being present during classes. Emma is part of our community, and she immediately, politely, gently and firmly told me that this was not enough. It was time to only have students in the house, asking parents and siblings to go elsewhere during class, cleaning between students, and teaching from 2 metres distance as much as possible. As this was something of a shock, and a huge change to ask of my student community, with the potential to affect why parents would continue to choose me as their teacher, as well as needing to alter the emphasis of the routines between classes, and ensuring that young children would be able to work effectively without me and a parent at their side during class, I checked again with the government guidelines and other doctors. Again the advice was to carry on as normal. Rather than doing that, I felt able to approach Emma again at a clearly very busy time for her own practice, to discuss what to do. In her spare time Emma calmly supported her advice with scientific advice for me to read, and I swiftly decided that protecting my student community, society and the NHS had become more important than any impact on my teaching, and I decided to take Emma’s advice. On the 5th March I wrote to the students to reduce footfall in the house and no longer have parents or siblings in, implementing meticulous cleaning of shared areas and of everything students touched, and maintaining 2 metres distance in class. Emma took the time to review my proposed protocols to check that I was doing everything possible to create a safe environment and implement contagion control measures. In the BBC reporting on lockdown yesterday it was observed that many of today’s cases of covid death will be sadly stemming from infection chains created in the period before lockdown, and some of those deaths we have already seen stem from infection prior to the dates when I implemented social distancing and cleaning measures in consultation with Emma. Surrey was where one of the first cases was found, and London has been greatly affected. Many of my student community commute to London. Without Emma, even if I had still acted before lockdown, there would have been precious days of indecision and compliance with other official advice in which my entire student network and their extended networks could have become part of a chain of transmission, with untold consequences. It has now been 25 days since my students were taught in real life before moving classes online (also a step taken early in consultation with Emma) and 37 days since early implementation of social distancing in my student community. I am completely convinced that the measures we took so early to protect them when they were having classes before lockdown contributed to the fact that my student community are well today. I believe that Emma’s action in fearlessly and rationally advising me not only saved lives in the general sense of flattening the curve and slowing transmission, but in the specific sense of saving some of our lives by preventing the infection reaching me and preventing chains of transmission in my student community at a critical time. Emma has also ensured that we are well-prepared for dealing safely with future lifting of restrictions because we already worked out and practiced new protocols. I am deeply grateful.

15th April 2020
Response from Dr Emma Watts

Thank you for taking the time to leave this incredible review. I am very grateful for your feedback, but I also understand the sentiment as the time in question was deeply emotive and difficult. There were mixed messages in the media, and this was difficult to manage in terms of business planning for individuals such as yourself. I would ideally have not involved myself, but in terms of precautionary safety it felt appropriate and I was grateful we could have an open and honest dialogue whilst you made adjustments to your business plans. At the time we made decisions based on the best information available. Thankfully, it appears that these were the right decisions. I am pleased about this as it feels protective for all involved, but whatever the consequence had been we would have known we discussed and planned based on best interests of all involved, with the available information at that moment. Silver lining is we have all realised there are effective ways of managing remotely. Looking forward to getting back to normal asap, but with the new understanding that other ways of working are also possible if needed. Stay safe until this has passed.

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Listening
 
Written by a carer at Shere Surgery and Dispensary
11th April 2020


I am a private teacher with contact with a large number of students of all ages and their families, traditionally working together for long periods within 2 metres and using shared spaces and surfaces. I became concerned about the potential for my classes - and the additional patterns of contact between students even if I were careful myself - to create chains of transmission for coronavirus. I started to research what to do in February. The advice from government, and from doctors I spoke with, was to go about as normal and make no changes. At the beginning of March I nonetheless made some tentative changes, making my living room “deep cleanable” in case we had a positive case in the student community, and I considered creating a mandatory separate place for parents and siblings to wait during classes - a big change when they were used to being present during classes. Emma is part of our community, and she immediately, politely, gently and firmly told me that this was not enough. It was time to only have students in the house, asking parents and siblings to go elsewhere during class, cleaning between students, and teaching from 2 metres distance as much as possible. As this was something of a shock, and a huge change to ask of my student community, with the potential to affect why parents would continue to choose me as their teacher, as well as needing to alter the emphasis of the routines between classes, and ensuring that young children would be able to work effectively without me and a parent at their side during class, I checked again with the government guidelines and other doctors. Again the advice was to carry on as normal. Rather than doing that, I felt able to approach Emma again at a clearly very busy time for her own practice, to discuss what to do. In her spare time Emma calmly supported her advice with scientific advice for me to read, and due to this I swiftly decided that protecting my student community, society and the NHS had become more important than any impact on my teaching. I decided to take Emma’s advice. On the 5th March I wrote to the students to reduce footfall in the house and no longer have parents or siblings in, implementing meticulous cleaning of shared areas and of everything students touched, and maintaining 2 metres distance in class. Emma took the time to review my proposed protocols to check that I was doing everything possible to create a safe environment and implement contagion control measures. In the BBC reporting on lockdown yesterday it was observed that many of today’s cases of covid death will be sadly stemming from infection chains created in the period before lockdown, and some of those deaths we have already seen stem from infection prior to the dates when I implemented social distancing and cleaning measures in consultation with Emma. Surrey was where one of the first cases was found, and London has been greatly affected. Many of my student community commute to London. Without Emma, even if I had still acted before lockdown, there would have been precious days of indecision and compliance with other official advice in which my entire student network and their extended networks could have become part of a chain of transmission, with untold consequences. It has now been 25 days since my students were taught in real life before moving classes online (also a step taken early in consultation with Emma) and 37 days since early implementation of social distancing in my student community. I am completely convinced that the measures we took so early to protect them when they were having classes before lockdown contributed to the fact that my student community are well today. I believe that Emma’s action in fearlessly and rationally advising me not only saved lives in the general sense of flattening the curve and slowing transmission, but in the specific sense of saving some of our lives by preventing the infection reaching me and preventing chains of transmission in my student community at a critical time. Emma has also ensured that we are well-prepared for dealing safely with future lifting of restrictions because we already worked out and practiced new protocols. I am deeply grateful.

Recommend
Trust
Listening
 
Written by a carer at Shere Surgery and Dispensary
15th January 2020


Dr Emma Watts has been an outstanding doctor caring for my daughter, aged 15 now, over the last 15 months. Not only has she listened tirelessly to all the ailments, she has taken many steps to work out the cause of her ongoing illnesses. Thanks to Emma Watts, my daughter was diagnosed coeliac in the Summer. From the first suggestion to the diagnosis, she has explained every step, reassured my daughter of what each step entails and been there for us both. Since diagnosis there have been many bumps and she has been there still supporting us, listening to us and helping my daughter from liaising with the dietician, my daughters specialist and her school. I feel we are nearly at the end of the start of this new lifestyle for my daughter and Dr Watts has played a very positive role in this process. We have seen Dr Watts both at my daughters school and Shere Surgery. Thanks Dr Watts and I wish she was my Doctor!

15th April 2020
Response from Dr Emma Watts

Thank you for this really kind review. You know how worried I was about your daughter, and although I hated telling her the diagnosis, I was pleased we could finally explain and rationalise the way she was feeling, and that that was normal considering the diagnosis. This diagnosis at this age is a hard thing to manage, hence I really feel I want to support her as much as I can. If we can get over this initial period and help her adjust and accept the diagnosis, we will set her up for coping with it really well as an independent adult, What more could we want?

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Trust
Listening
 
Written by a patient at Shere Surgery and Dispensary
19th September 2019


Emma is a brilliant doctor. Not only does she have enormous energy, empathy, charm and really brilliant listening skills but she also manages to get through everything really promptly without ever giving her patients the feeling of being rushed. She is really excellent with mental health issues and yet still manages to have a depth of knowledge and grasp of statistics in other areas, too. Cannot fault her.

15th April 2020
Response from Dr Emma Watts

Thank you. This profession is time poor, and yet we really care about patients and would wish to deliver more time to everyone. It is hard to manage both and it feels as though you see that I do my best. I really appreciate this, because sometimes it feels as though we are really not achieving as much as we ideally would.

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Profile

GP Partner, Shere Surgery
MSc in Medical Ultrasound and enjoys using this in GP setting.
Minor Surgery & Dermatoscopy enthusiast.

Aside from special interests, I have an absolute belief in the strength of General Practice being about continuity of care. Irrespective of any political directions otherwise, I truly believe we serve our patients best by knowing them, their history, their family, their social and support set up, and their living needs. In my opinion anyone who thinks General Practice can be effectively delivered by a 5 minute video consult on a smart phone, with no knowledge of the patient, has frankly missed the point of General Practice. I will fight these 'developments' to best serve my patients. I will, however, try to embrace technology advances wherever possible, in order to enhance patient care, but only when continuity of care is part of the offering.