DOCTORS HAND BACK CONTRACT FOR FURNACE AND INVERARAY TO HSCP
Lochgilphead Medical Centre has announced that it is to withdraw general practice services to Furnace and Inveraray.
The GP partners said in a letter on Tuesday that they had “handed in notice of our intent to return our contract to provide general practice services to the population of Inveraray and Furnace”.
Responsibility for the service will now return to Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP).
In 2019, after the introduction of a “telephone first” system in Inveraray and Furnace surgeries, the number of consulting days in the Furnace surgery was reduced, explained Lochgilphead Medical Centre.
It was then decided to centralise the practice in Inveraray, eight miles away, during the Covid outbreak to help ease the pressures on hygiene and cleaning.
Since then the Furnace surgery has remained closed, despite calls from the villagers to reopen it and a survey by Furnace Community Council last year which saw 60 out of 62 people polled say it was important to have the surgery reopened, with lack of public transport cited as one of the main concerns.
The Loch Fyne-side surgery, also formerly a base for dental, podiatry and other services, had seen resources reduced in the years before the pandemic for a number of reasons, including staffing problems.
Lochgilphead Medical Centre said it was continuing to face recruitment issues – particularly attracting and retaining GPs, so had been regularly using locum staff – and was going to lose senior members of nursing and administration staff in the coming years to retirement.
The medical practice says a number reasons, including out-ofdate infrastructure, a “hesitancy” on the part of Argyll and Bute HSCP to give an “accurate tenancy agreement” and the inefficiency of having two surgeries so close to each other has kept the Furnace surgery closed.
“It is fair to say that the community in Furnace feel very unhappy regarding this ongoing closure and we recognise this,” said the letter from the GP partners.
“At the end of 2022, the practice tried to formalise the closure of Furnace Surgery to provide clarity and certainty to all concerned.
“We attempted to seek advice from the HSCP Primary Care leadership team in relation to this
‘It is fair to say that the community in Furnace feel very unhappy regarding this ongoing closure and we recognise this...’
change to service delivery but sadly found this advice lacking and unhelpful. Over the intervening year, little has moved forward.
“Our Primary Care Leadership Team have now, over 12 months after this was first raised, suggested a threemonth consultation period in relation to the closure of Furnace Surgery.
“We, the general practitioners holding the contract for the delivery of primary care services to Inveraray and Furnace, do not believe that a further consultation period is required and believe that the HSCP have sufficient information regarding the issues at hand and opinions of interested parties to make a decision now.”
The notice of withdrawal of services was done “with a very heavy heart – all the GPs working in Inveraray and Lochgilphead have developed relationships with members of the community in Inveraray and Furnace and greatly enjoy working as GPs in these communities”, said the letter.
“However, we have become increasingly aware of the difficulties we are having providing core general practice services in Lochgilphead and, possibly more importantly, providing the out-of-hours emergency medical services for the whole of Mid Argyll (including the communities of Inveraray and Furnace) through the Mid
Argyll Community Hospital.
“We must act to protect these services, though in doing so every GP partner of Lochgilphead Medical Centre will see a substantial reduction in income as we hand back our contract for Inveraray and Furnace,” the letter added.
Inveraray Community Council received notice of the withdrawal of services on Tuesday and was still assimilating the implications as the Advertiser went to press.
Linda Divers, convener of Inveraray Community Council, said: “We are very concerned. The community council will look into this and find out exactly what is going to happen.”
Lynda Syed, who has lived in Furnace for years, said: “This is a total shock.
“We had resigned ourselves to the Furnace surgery not reopening.
“We are really concerned about what’s going to happen next. We would hope that the community council will be able to meet with whoever will be taking over to ensure that all services will still be available locally to the residents of Furnace and Inveraray.”
The Argyll and Bute HSCP was asked to comment on Lochgilphead Medical Centre’s letter but was unable to provide a response before the Advertiser went to press.
The GPs in Lochgilphead have provided general practice services in Inveraray and Furnace since 2016.
In 2022, a GP at Strachur Medical Practice in Cowal had said that he and colleagues would be happy to operate out of the Furnace GP surgery for part of the regular five-day surgery week, if this would help facilitate the reopening and reuse of the Lochfyneside practice.
z See page 26 for the full letter from Lochgilphead Medical Centre.