PATIENTS DEMAND ANSWERS OVER GPs
Health chiefs bid to replace 5 who quit
Patients at a health centre where five GPs resigned at once are still in the dark over when the vacant posts will be filled.
The notice period for all five GPs at Deans and Eliburn Medical Practice expired last week but NHS Lothian have so far been unable to confirm if they have replacements lined up.
The Courier reported last month that GP partners at the surgery had decided to resign from their contracts with NHS Lothian for personal reasons and the centre would come under direct management of the
health board. The practice, which has 11,500 registered patients, was set to be handed over to the health board at the end of March and a recruitment campaign was launched to fill the posts of doctors Shah, Sengupta, Catley, MacDonald and McMurtrie.
Jim Forrest, chief officer, West Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, said the recruitment campaign was “progressing” but it remains unclear if the posts have been filled or if locum GPs will have to stand-in in the meantime.
He said: “The recruitment programme we have initiated at Deans and Eliburn Medical Practice, as it comes under the management of the Health Board in the coming months, is progressing and we are working closely with staff to ensure patients continue to receive safe and effective care.”
But patients at the practice are wanting answers and say they are concerned that the posts do not seem to have been filled.
And they hit out at the surgery’s method of allocating appointments.
Receptionists have been asking patients for more information about their ailments before a doctor decides whether an GP hunt The practice appointment should be made. The practice website says the new systems has been a success and has offered an “improved service”.
However, one patient said: “I’ve had to fight tooth and nail to just see a doctor.
“It’s still our right to see a doctor and I think it’s a breach of privacy that anyone should have to give personal information to the receptionists.
“This was apparently put in place because there was a shortage of doctors – before they all resigned.
“This looks like it will continue until new doctors are recruited and goodness knows when that will be. People are getting quite worked up.
“All I hear from anyone I speak to about the practice is complaints. I just hope that when these posts are filled we see improvements.”
GP practices are independent businesses which hold a General Medical Services contract awarded by the health board.
However, practices do have the ability to return their contracts, at which time the responsibility for the provision of the service falls to the Health Board while the Health and Social Care Partnership become responsible for its management.