City GPs braced for increased workload

Perthshire GPs are preparing to take on 3,000 new patients in September as the majority of Bridge of Earn residents look set to be decanted into the city’s registers next week.

NHS Tayside confirmed last week that the Bridge of Earn surgery will close its doors on Friday following the resignation of its two GPs.

But practices in Perth are already stretched, with doctors saying they cannot cope with the influx.

For the foreseeable future there will be no practice in Bridge of Earn and 3,400 patients will require access to alternative GP services.

The health board’s solution is to distribute approximately 3,000 patients to practices in Perth.

City doctors have pledged to handle the influx of patients as best they can but warned NHS Tayside of the consequences of a sharp increase to their workload in an open letter.

It read: “NHS Tayside has taken the decision to close the GP practice in Bridge of Earn, against the wishes of the population within Bridge of Earn and the Perth City practices. As GPs, we made our concerns abundantly clear to those involved in making this decision.

“It will not have escaped your attention that general practice nationally is under significant pressure at the present time, involving issues surrounding recruitment to unfilled posts and difficulties securing locum cover when needed. In this regard, Perth City is no different from other areas of Scotland.”

Doctors have warned that patients are likely to notice that the service they are accustomed to will become “strained and stretched and perhaps not as swift as they have previously enjoyed”.

“As doctors, we strive to provide our many patients with a safe, efficient and high quality service, a service that we will now extend to Bridge of Earn patients. We will, however, be attempting to meet this challenge with our present staffing levels,” the letter continued.

“We stress that Perth GPs will continue to do our best to accommodate patients from Bridge of Earn and at the same time maintain the ongoing standards of care that are expected of us.”