The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Call for return of Angus out-of-hours services
MSP raises concerns over patients facing 60-mile round trip in emergencies
A call has been made to return outof-hours medical services for Angus patients facing lengthy journeys for emergency treatment.
Changes to Angus GP out-of-hours (OOH) provision and the running of minor injury and illness units (MIIU) were brought in following the coronavirus outbreak.
North East Conservative MSP Liam Kerr has now raised the issue of their return with healthcare bosses after concerns were raised to him about accessing out-of-hours care.
Mr Kerr pointed out that while Angus OOH services had been moved to King’s Cross Hospital in Dundee and minor injury services were either closed or operating at a much-reduced level, services in the Perth and Kinross area remain unchanged.
He said: “While I appreciate we live in unprecedented times, constituents have expressed concern.
“Presently, to seek emergency help overnight it is necessary for my constituents in Angus to travel to Dundee, either to King’s Cross Hospital or Ninewells Hospital accident and emergency department, with some constituents forced to make a 60-plusmile round trip.
“Angus has areas of significant deprivation and these changes impact most heavily on these deprived populations.
“I firmly believe that any ongoing reduction in provision of services will be detrimental to the communities of Angus, who normally benefit from convenient, easily accessible local services provided through the GP OOH and MIIU services.
“I would like to seek an assurance that measures currently in place are only temporary and provision of GP OOH and MIIU services will be restored to, as a minimum, pre-Covid-19 levels as soon as permissible.”
A spokesperson for Angus Health and Social Care Partnership said plans are being made to adapt services during the pandemic.
“To allow the continued delivery of services which are safe for our staff and patients during Covid-19, some temporary changes have been made to the provision of minor injury and out-ofhours GP services in Angus,” they said.
“We continue to plan for how we can adapt our service provision, realising that some measures such as physical distancing and the use of PPE may remain in place for some time.
“We are also looking forward to working with our local communities again to ensure that services are designed together and are reflective of the health needs of the local population.”