Islanders step up campaign to save lifeline GP service
HUNDREDS of islanders in a remote part of Mull and Iona are signing a petition to save their localised 24/7 GP service.
The petition, calling on health bosses to advertise a job vacancy at the end of May when their doctor retires, already has more than 300 names on it.
Residents say ‘it’s a no brainer’ to advertise for a replacement GP for Dr Frank Teunisse, but Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) has other plans.
It is proposing to incorporate Ross of Mull and Iona’s existing independent GP practice into a single, island-wide practice.
Even though the new-shape practice would run an out-ofhours service and still operate out of existing surgeries on Mull and Iona, campaigners say they are ‘unclear’ about what the future holds.
Without a 24/7 GP living locally, people needing help when their surgery was unmanned would either have to travel for more than an hour via a singletrack road across a mountain pass that gets congested in summer and can be impassable in winter or wait for a GP or ambulance to get to them.
Dr Teunisse fears for his patients. He told The Oban Times: ‘I’m glad I won’t be living here when I’m gone. People are so exposed here. There are occasions when ambulances get stuck in the north. It’s life or death. That’s why I came to help them.’
Jonathan Knight, whose wife is severely disabled, has turned their Leob Croft jam shop on the main road two miles east of Bunessan into a stop and sign station as part of a campaign to people backing the petition.
‘The population in our area is about 700, plus all the tourists who visit. There’s many a smaller community than ours who have their own GP.
‘The intention to replace independent single practices with group practices, even when this is incompatible with the geography and remoteness of a particular area, poses a real danger to patients in emergency situations which does not exist when the GP resides locally,’ said Mr Knight.
The HSCP is hosting public meetings next week to brief people on how the singleservice would work and ‘to help allay concerns’.
The meetings are on Monday May 14 at Salen Church, Salen, from 6.30pm to 8pm, at Iona Village Hall from 6.30pm to 8pm on Tuesday May 15, Craignure Village Hall on Wednesday May 16 from 6.30pm to 8pm, Bunessan Village Hall from 6.30pm to 8pm on Thursday May 17, and Aros Hall in Tobermory on Friday May 18 from 6.30pm to 8pm.
‘It’s a great concern to everyone. We need as many people as possible to turn out for these public meetings at Bunessan and Iona to show the strength of feeling, ask questions and get answers,’ said Mr Knight.
Campaigners say only ‘in the unlikely event’ no one applies for Dr Frank’s job will they be satisfied there is a real need to consider an alternative GP service.
The Ross of Mull and Iona have always had their own independent GP practice. Before Dr Frank, Dr Maureen Douglas ran the practice for 28 years. In between, there were locums.
The HSCP says the new GP set-up would be more convenient to patients, including giving them the choice of seeing a male or female doctor.
A spokesman for the HSCP said the Mull and Iona Locality Planning Group voted to progress with the proposal for a single island-wide GP practice and to develop the recruitment strategy so it could advertise a lead GP for the service.
But advertising for a ‘lead GP’ for the single group service brings no pain-relief to campaigners who claim Dr Frank’s practice is a lifeline and saves the NHS thousands of pounds every year.
‘The cost of Dr Frank’s current practice is saving the NHS £180,000 per year over the arrangement before he was appointed when locums were employed costing up to £1,000 per day. And since it is likely to be six months before a permanent GP is appointed as part of the proposed single Mull practice, the health board is likely to squander £90,000 of NHS resources. All this is being done to replace a localised service on the Ross and Mull and Iona which not only works well but is liked by residents and is very good value for money,’ said Mr Knight.