GPissues arestilla problem

Improvements to support GP services across West Lothian have not made it any easier for people to get an appointment with their doctor, a councillor has claimed.

Community treatment and pharmacy centre improvements are being rolled out to back up local GP services.

But amid growing frustration from residents struggling to see their local doctor, Councillor Andrew McGuires has suggested GPs need to engage more with the communities they serve.

The issue was raised at a meeting of the local Integration Joint Board, which heard that support services were being upgraded across the county to serve the 20 GP practices as part of the latest version of the Primary Care Improvement Plan.

Cllr McGuire, who sits as a voting member on the board with three other West Lothian councillors, described the GP service as a closed shop.

He said: “As an elected representative who stays in Armadale I have absolutely no say in how my GP surgery is run and I don’t think that’s probably true of any other public service.”

He cited his frustration, and that of the public in trying to get an appointment, adding: “I have to phone, like everybody, else at eight o’clock in the morning to access treatment.

“Is there an opportunity for consultation in the future with members of the public or a way that local independent GP practices can start to engage better with the people that they seek to represent?”

He told the meeting: “I appreciate this is a very complicated area with lots of different involvement and GPs obviously being independent contractors which makes it particularly difficult.

“As an elected councillor the thing people contact me most about, setting aside housing, is pressure on GP surgeries.

“When I read through this improvement plan there seems to be little to no engagement with the public, with service users.

“I just wondered what our view is on that and would hope we ultimately engage with people using these services.”

Dr Douglas McGowan told the meeting: “I think, in all honesty, there hasn’t been a great deal of public engagement.

“The engagement has predominantly been between the HSCP and the GP practices who have been representing views of their patients .

“The point was to try and sustain GP practices which had been folding at the rate of one to two a year before this investment started.”