GP cover puts lives at risk (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

GP cover puts lives at risk

LIVES are being put at risk due to inadequate out-of-hours GP cover in the Cotswolds.

That is the verdict of Tetbury doctor Tony Walsh, who says there aren't enough GPs available to man a central call-out system.

His concerns are echoed by worried patient Diane Townsend, who says her friends and family have frequently been let down on emergency calls. In one incident, she says her uncle had to wait almost nine hours before a doctor arrived at his home.

Dr Walsh says he is also aware of one case where a cancer patient was forced to wait up to eight hours.

Both have raised their fears with the Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust (PCT), responsible for local NHS care, and Mrs Townsend is also set to write to Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

Dr Walsh, who is also a Tetbury town councillor, said: "I'm absolutely certain that lives are at risk. There is a struggle with getting doctors in to cover it (out of hours service).

"The problem is, to a degree, a lack of local perspective. It's a steep learning curve for the PCT - I feel quite sorry for them."

Under the old system, most patients were able to contact their individual doctors surgeries out-of-hours and a GP from the practice would be assigned to them.

However, new national regulations mean that all calls go through to a central service, administered by the PCT, and the doctor on call may be unfamiliar to the caller.

Mrs Townsend, who lives in Quenington, says those close to her have already been put at risk by the system. She claims that:

- She was forced to drive her seriously ill husband to hospital because the on-call doctor wouldn't visit. She says he was eventually kept in for 15 days after it was diagnosed he'd suffered a heart attack.

- Her father was unable to get a response after calling the service one weekend. On another occasion, the family had to take him to hospital after being told there would be a lengthy wait for the doctor.

- Her 89-year-old uncle waited for nine hours for a doctor to call.

- Another relative and mother of an 11-month-old baby - who had been suffering from convulsions and a high temperature - was told to take the child to hospital at 4am, even though she had another young child to care for at home.

Mrs Townsend says she was even put at risk herself when she became ill at home two days after an operation to remove her gall bladder.

She says it took an on-call doctor six hours to visit before she was eventually taken to hospital.

She said: "I feel lives are going to be lost because whoever is on the end of the phone isn't able to prioritise properly.

"How ill do you have to before you are treated as a priority?

"If there are no doctors available then local doctors should be able to be called upon."

Cotswold and Vale PCT admits there have been problems with the system and says it is looking into the matter.

However it points out that part of the responsibility falls on the caller to prioritise how serious the matter is.

A spokesman said: "We do not feel that the new 'out of hours' arrangements put patients' lives are at risk; it is not an emergency service and if people do have an emergency that is genuinely life-threatening, they should continue to call 999.

"For those who do contact the Out of Hours service with an emergency, we aim to get a GP to them within one hour.

For urgent matters, a GP should be there within two hours and for routine matters, six hours.

This may be longer than people have previously experienced with local GPs prior to the new Out of Hours service, but it is in line with national standards.

"There have been occasions of peak demand, where people have waited longer to receive a visit from a GP, but we are looking into the reasons behind this.

"We are aware that we need to closely monitor the service in the more outlying areas to ensure we provide a high quality service that matches national standards throughout the whole of Cotswold and Vale."