Staff sickness has led to a Cornish doctor’s surgery declaring a ‘black alert’ starting January 4. 

The alert, issued to patients of Port Isaac Surgery means that they will only be responding to the most urgent of medical appointments. 

They’re asking patients to only call the surgery if they ‘have an emergency’, where a medical administrator will take the details before being passed to a clinician for triage. 

In a statement on the practice’s Facebook page, Terri Clare, the practice and business manager revealed that due to staff sickness across the practice, there would be delays to all areas of the operation. 

This includes availability for blood tests and non-urgent requirements, staffing of the dispensary leading to delays for prescriptions and call wait times on the phone. Ms Clare also thanked patients for their patience and reiterated the surgery’s zero-tolerance approach on abuse to its staff.

The statement read: “Port Isaac Practice - Status BLACK.

“We have declared BLACK status due to staff sickness across all areas - please only call the surgery if you have an emergency, a medical administrator will take the details and it will be passed to a clinician to triage - we will only be dealing with emergencies.

“Nursing - we are very short staffed particularly around blood tests and not urgent requirements.

“Dispensary - is very short of staff and we will be running very behind.

“Reception/Admin - will be very busy as we have reverted to telephones - the call wait times may be very long.“We will keep you updated on our status. Please note we operate a zero tolerance policy regarding abuse to our staff.

“Thank you for your patience.”