HOSPITAL TO CLOSE BECAUSE IT CAN’T HIRE A DOCTOR
Patients forced to leave as GP crisis deepens
SCOTTISH hospital has been forced to close after being unable to hire a single doctor.
Health bosses contacted more than 1,000 GPs about covering 30-bed Lockhart Hospital, in Lanarkshire, but none was able to take the post.
Last night the scandal prompted warnings that the nationwide shortage of family doctors is now out of control.
NHS Lanarkshire contacted 420 family doctors, every GP in its area, after Lockhart Hospital, in Lanark, was left without a doctor.
But, with one in four surgeries across Scotland left without enough GPs, and practices closing their lists to patients, no one was able to help.
Following warnings that locums are also in alarmingly short supply, the health board’s appeal to 600 locum doctors beyond Lanarkshire and across the country also failed.
as a result, the last patients yesterday left Lockhart, a lifeline community hospital for mostly elderly people, including the terminally ill. it
was last night unclear if the patients, who have been transferred to other hospitals around 12 miles away, will be able to return. Lockhart has been mothballed and there are fears that it will be closed for good.
Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of BMA Scotland’s GP committee, said: ‘We have been warning for some time that there is a significant problem with the recruitment and retention of GPs in Scotland. With a recent BMA survey showing that one in four practices had a vacant medical position, this figure reflects the increasingly severe problems facing general practice.’
Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘If this was a problem confined to just Lanarkshire it would be bad enough.
‘However, we all know that there is a serious GP shortage across Scotland which can now be labelled as a full-blown crisis.’
Local surgery Lanark Doctors previously provided cover for Lockhart, where patients are visited by consultants and day-today treatment is supervised by a GP. But last year the surgery
‘People were very upset’
said it could no longer cope with its own patients needing urgent appointments and the arrangement ended in January.
The health board agreed to pay for a locum doctor from Biggar Medical Practice to take on the patients at the hospital. But a fortnight ago, the locum withdrew for ‘personal reasons’.
NHS Lanarkshire emailed every one of the area’s 420 GPs, across 107 surgeries, asking for help. Officials also wrote to all 600 locums on the board’s list, offering ‘extremely competitive’ pay, but without success.
More than 60 people this week attended a community council meeting to discuss the matter.
Writing online, Kate Kennedy said: ‘It’s tragic, it’s a lifeline to some old folk. My mum got an extra year at home going in for respite care before we had to look for a nursing home.’
Another member of the public, Marianne Johnston, said: ‘Lockhart was vital for my family during my mum’s last few weeks.’
Leonard Gray, vice-chairman of Royal Burgh of Lanark Community Council, said: ‘People at our meeting on Monday were every upset. A lot of elderly people found (the hospital) so useful because it was so well placed for people to come and visit.’
Some patients affected by the closure were due to leave the hospital anyway. Most have been transferred to Kello Hospital, Biggar, and the rest sent to Lady Home Hospital in Douglas.
It has emerged, however, that Lanark Doctors offered to provide temporary cover until a solution was found. But it was decided that GP’s there should instead address the pressures on their surgery.
The health board is considering the option of running the hospital with nurses if it reopens. This echoes a wider reliance on nurses across the country amid a national GP recruitment crisis.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The number of GPs in Scotland has risen to record levels under this government. Over the next three years, £85million will be invested in primary care. A further £20million package to support GPs was announced in March. We have also pledged to increase GP training places for medical students from 300 to 400 a year.’
NHS Lanarkshire chief executive Calum Campbell said: ‘I would like to reassure people that there has not been a health board plan to close Lockhart and there has been no decision taken to close it permanently.
‘The situation has arisen at short notice as a result of an issue with GP cover.
‘We have reacted to this quickly and appropriately to ensure the safety of patients, but unfortunately it has been extremely challenging to find a sustainable solution to keep the hospital open at this time due to the current GP recruitment and retention difficulties. We’re committed to doing all we can to find sustainable solution that would allow us to reopen the hospital.’