A Covid-19 assessment centre has been set up in the car park of Russell Howard Park to help tackle the outbreak.

The centre, which goes live today (April 14), will be used to see patients who have "severe" coronavirus symptoms.

Dr Caroline O’Keeffe is one of the partners at CGH Partnership and the lead GP for the assessment centre.

She was pleased to have helped in setting up the new service from the St Andrews Centre.

"This is where we will be able to see patients who have severe Covid symptoms and carry out assessments to see if they need to be referred to hospital, or can continue to manage at home," Dr O'Keeffe said.

"This service is a referral only service staffed by GP practices in and around Basingstoke.

"Please note that this is not a testing centre, as there is no national community testing at this time."

She also stressed that they are not operating a walk-in service and asked anyone feeling unwell to contact a GP practice first.

"We will be seeing patients both in the St Andrews Centre, but also in their vehicles, using tents in the car park," she added.

"For both car and clinic appointments our staff will be wearing protective clothing."

This news came as a delight to South Ham Councillor Colin Regan.

Basingstoke Gazette:

He said: "My fellow South Ham ward councillors and I welcome the establishment of a Conronavirus assessment centre in our ward. 

"We support all the public services in the fight defeat the terrible virus."

An assessment at the clinic is likely to include checking a temperature with a thermometer and measuring the amount of oxygen in the patient’s blood using a fingertip monitor, as well as checking the pulse and breathing rate.

Dr O'Keeffe finished by saying this was not the way they would normally provide healthcare.

"Reducing social contact is the only way to help limit the spread of Covid-19," she said.

So by sticking to this procedure you will be doing your bit to keep all of us healthy and keep our staff able to work to look after us all.

"Thank you for your support for our staff at what we’re sure you’ll realise is a challenging time for them."