Mum had to make 104 calls to GP to get appointment for asthmatic son
BOOKING an appointment for the doctor is ‘like a mad scramble at the Boxing Day sales’ because of the chronic shortage of GPs, a councillor has warned.
One mother is said to have phoned her local surgery 104 times before she could get an appointment for her asthmatic son.
The unprecedented predicament has been made worse in many surgeries with the retirement of just a single GP.
Conservative councillor Linda Holt said the problem was now out of hand at Skeith Medical Centre in Anstruther, Fife, and was proof of the troubles facing the health service.
She said a recent retirement had put a huge strain on resources. Many patients are reporting long waits for calls to be answered, followed by gaps of several weeks before getting face-to-face contact with a GP.
Sources close to the Anstruther practice have also suggested patients wishing to see the same doctor should expect a much longer wait.
A quarter of Scottish surgeries has at least one GP vacancy.
Miss Holt said: ‘Desperate constituents have contacted me because they cannot get an appointment at Skeith Medical Centre. We all know there are not enough GPs to meet the demand for appointments, so GP practices are forced to introduce mechanisms for managing that demand.
‘In practice, that means making it so difficult to get an appointment that people give up so demand reduces. This is a dangerous and unjust way of rationing healthcare.’
Miss Holt said such booking systems mean it is ‘virtually impossible’ to get an appointment by phone because people who queue in person take precedence.
She added: ‘This discriminates against people who, for whatever reason, cannot get to the surgery at these times. Getting a GP appointment has become like a mad scramble at the Boxing Day sales.’
One doctor, who did not want to be named, said the funding received by GPs, per patient per year, is fixed and is ‘realistically enough’ for each patient to have two appointments a year. However, demand is such that the average is now six appointments a year.
Dr Chris McKenna, NHS Fife medical director, said: ‘NHS Fife is working closely with the practice to support their recruitment efforts and assist them in minimising the disruption for patients and staff.’
Last month, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said the new GP contract and investment in multidisciplinary teams would increase capacity in primary care and help reduce GP workload.