The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
GPs: Shock at ‘postcode lottery’ on wait for treatment.
Leading Tayside medical figure blames the troubling picture largely on workforce and recruitment issues
Patients who need to see their GP face immense problems trying to contact surgeries by phone and booking non-emergency appointments, according to stark new analysis.
A raft of figures show people face a postcode lottery when it comes to how long they will have to wait for treatment.
The Health and Care Experience Survey of more than 100,000 people across the country revealed:
Two-thirds of people in key Fife areas – Crossgates, Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly – had difficulty contacting their surgery by phone
Only a third of patients in Lochgelly and Brechin reported a positive overall experience with their GP surgery.
Around half of respondents using the Benarty Medical Centre in Lochore struggled to be seen by anyone within two days of calling.
Just one in five registered with Maryfield Medical Centre in Dundee was able to make an appointment with their doctor more than three working days in advance
Most people in Tayside and Fife, however, reported positive overall experiences.
Dr Andrew Cowie, chairman of Tayside Local Medical Committee and a GP at Hawkhill Medical Centre, claimed some of the individual figures were inaccurate but said he recognised the overall picture, which he blamed largely on workforce and recruitment issues.
He said: “We would all like to work in a service with a full complement of staff.
“No one knows more than the people who actively work on the service where it could be better.”
Dr Cowie added: “I recognise patients are not getting as good a service as we would like to offer.”
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “This survey shows that, across Scotland, nearly nine out of 10 patients positively rated the care they received from their GP, with the vast majority of patients continuing to feel as though they receive a good service from their local GP surgery.
“However we recognise that there is more work to do to support GP services... That is why we are investing £85 million over three years through the Primary Care Fund to put in place long-term, sustainable change within community health services.
“This includes a £23.5 million investment in 2016/17 which includes work to develop new ways of working with multidisciplinary teams both in and out of hours, which will elevate the role of GPs as medical experts in the community.”
AGP’s surgery is much more than simply somewhere people go for treatment when they are unwell. That is a practice’s primary purpose, of course, but it also serves as a vital hub for a community.
Statistics, overlooked by many when they were first released last month, will therefore make for deeply concerning reading in many local areas.
Both rhyme and reason seem to have been suspended when it comes to where problems are most pronounced.
From Lochgelly to Brechin, Kelty to Forfar, satisfaction is low with the service on offer.
In each of these towns, just a third of people who responded to this survey were happy with their experience.
Practical problems were often at the heart of such miserable feedback, with the cliché of never being able to get through to a surgery on the phone when you need to borne out in a number of cases.
It should be pointed out that there were many positives in the analysis, with the lowest overall rating for a surgery still reporting two-thirds of patients being satisfied in the round.
The Scottish Government is also making moves to revolutionise our community services so pressure is not heaped on the frontline when it is avoidable.
Many of the problems recorded in this survey are result of staff shortages, however.
This, combined with an ageing workforce of GPs, will do nothing to help an already straining system.