Woman with MS admitted to hospital after she can’t get to see her GP

AWOMAN who suffers with multiple sclerosis was admitted to Southport Hospital after she was unable to get an appointment at her GP surgery.

Andrea Jaeger, 48, had just been released from hospital and was admitted again a week later after she was unable to see a doctor to get the medication she needed.

She is a patient at North Meols Surgery in Banks and after ringing every day for a week to try and get an appointment, she was repeatedly told to ring back the next day as the surgery would not take bookings.

Andrea’s condition means that some days she is unable to walk.

This meant that her husband Simon Jaeger, 47, would have had to take her to the doctors and not knowing whether able to get an appointment until the day meant that he ended up having to take a week off work.

The former manager, who worked in housing, was diagnosed with MS around 16 months ago and also suffers with coeliac and crohn’s disease.

Andrea said: “I feel vulnerable and totally at risk from the surgery’s lack of patient support. It’s adding to my already heavy list of worries. Being newly diagnosed as having MS and trying to come to terms with this is massive and enough for anyone, but to know that if you actually need an appointment with the doctor, the chances are you won’t get one or a home visit, it just adds more stress and suffering.”

Her husband contacted the Advertiser because he is fed up with the treatment they have received after being patients at the surgery for about a year.

Mr Jaeger, who works in social care, said: “There’s nobody at the surgery that knows what’s going on. The receptionists are doing what they can but they’re not the ones who own the surgery. It’s a complete and utter shambles. They use locum doctors and they only have one doctor for the whole of Banks but because of where we live we can’t get into another surgery.

“Personally, I recently tried to get a repeat prescription and I couldn’t get it because my records are