The 900,000 patients with just one out of hours GP

JUST one GP is providing emergency cover for more than 900,000 people on some nights, a whistleblower at an NHS out- of-hours care firm has revealed.

Patients are having to wait more than 12 hours for calls after contacting the 111 non-emergency hotline.

Overworked doctors are also having to work 15-hour shifts in some cases because of a shortage of GPs willing to work unpopular hours.

The ‘unsafe’ service putting people’s lives at risk in Norfolk and Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, is run by Integrated Care 24 (IC24), where staff have been told to alter records to conceal serious problems, according to a leaked report last month.

The whistleblower claimed patient safety was ‘not a priority’ at the firm, adding: ‘It’s an unsafe service. Patient waiting times being breached is a common occurrence.’

Former health minister Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, called for an urgent investigation by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after a second whistleblower told him the firm – which runs several 111 and out-of-hours services in the South East and East of England – had no GPs on call at night in some areas.

Some patients died while waiting to see a doctor, his source claimed.

The CQC last night confirmed that it would

‘It’s an unsafe service’

carry out an inspection of the service to investigate Mr Lamb’s concerns, and said it had asked senior managers for ‘assurances’ about patient safety.

Investigations by the Daily Mail have unearthed serious concerns about out-ofhours care and the 111 hotline, which replaced NHS Direct and handles urgent cases. Evidence of chronic staff shortages, poorly-trained workers and problems with the 111 computer system have been uncovered.

Out-of-hours provision has collapsed since Labour’s botched 2004 GP contract allowed family doctors to ditch after-hours care. IC24 is alleged to have had just one GP available to visit patients at their homes in Norfolk and Wisbech on three weekend nights last month.

Almost half of patients – 11 out of 25 – had to wait more than the maximum waiting time to be seen on one night.

A GP was forced to work a 15-hour shift one Saturday in Thetford, Norfolk, according to documents handed to a local newspaper.

The problems – which were denied by IC24 – coincided with an increase in the number of 999 ambulance call-outs.

Ambulance figures reveal that the average number of emergency responses requested by 111 staff each month since IC24 took over in September is 1,015, compared to 852 when the service was run by the East of England Ambulance NHS Trust.

Critics say this shows excessive waiting times are forcing call handlers to seek the assistance of paramedics.

Mr Lamb said his source accused IC24 of ‘trying to expand too fast – beyond their capacity to do so safely’.

He added: ‘The charges raised with me were very serious. The knock- on effect is it puts more pressure on ambulance services and the A&E system, which is already under great strain.’

The leaked interim report into

‘Trying to expand

too fast’

IC24, by the Norwich Clinical Commissioning Group, found delays in accessing GP services posed a ‘ significant risk to patient safety’.

The IT system prevented patients from being triaged effectively, while staff were ‘asked to alter or not record accurately their contemporaneous notes’ and ‘feared’ reporting concerns.

The report concluded that the NHS was not ‘clinically assured of the safety of the out-of-hours