Council leader’s disappointment at GP out of hours decision
THE leader of Inverclyde Council has expressed his deep disappointment over a decision to reduce the local GP out of hours service.
Councillor Stephen McCabe says forcing patients on a 50-mile round trip to see a doctor is ‘unacceptable’.
At a meeting on Tuesday 30 April, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) health board voted through changes which permanently ends the previous seven day a week service at Inverclyde Royal Hospital (IRH).
There will now be a limited weekend service at Inverclyde Royal between 10am and 4pm and patients who need to see a GP in the evening or overnight will have to travel to the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) in Paisley.
Councillor McCabe said: “Despite the strength of feeling locally against the proposals to permanently reduce the GP out of hours service, including by this council and more than 6,000 people who signed a petition, it is extremely disappointing that a majority of health board members voted through these changes.
“What our residents are now faced with is a 50-mile round trip to the RAH in Paisley when we have a hospital right on our doorstep at Inverclyde Royal. This is completely unacceptable.
“It’s also another worrying example of locations outwith this area being favoured for services at the expense of IRH and does nothing for the area’s reputation or to help attract healthcare professionals to Inverclyde, let alone retain the talented staff we have here.”
A reduced GP out of hours service was introduced four years ago as a temporary measure.
The health board said that in five of the six areas where there is an out of hours service, there was strong support for the proposed model except for in Inverclyde where only 22 per cent of the public were in favour, with a desire expressed for a return to a seven-day primary care emergency centre at Inverclyde.
Officials said options for Inverclyde had been explored but that there was not enough demand during the evening mid-week for the return of a seven-day service.
Health board bosses added that four patients a night from the Inverclyde area require to be seen face-to-face between 6pm and 8am, which they said is insufficient for the two GPs required to staff each centre.
The new model will have a telephone first approach, supported by home visiting and access to one of the other five primary care emergency centres for those who need to be seen face-to-face.
The health board say transport to other sites, such as the RAH, will also be provided free of charge.
At a full council meeting last week, Inverclyde councillors unanimously backed a motion opposing the plans to reduce the local GP out of hours service and asked that the leader of the council write to the chief executive and chair of NHS GGC, as well as the Scottish health secretary, on behalf of the council to express their concerns.
The full text of the letter from Cllr McCabe is as follows:
Dear Ms Grant
I would like to thank you and your team for providing us with a briefing covering the proposal for the GP OOH Services that will be presented to the NHS Board for approval next week.
You will have heard at first hand the strength of feeling from elected members about their disappointment that despite exclusive public consultation exercise where 22% of our residents were in support of the fulltime return of the service to Inverclyde the proposal is for the service to operate on a Saturday, Sunday’s and public holidays.
The overwhelming view of all the elected members is that the data presented does not tell the full story about the impact for the residents on the decisions that were made in 2020. The data is primarily demand led capturing residents who have been prepared to travel up to 50 miles round trip to see a GP.
We do appreciate that the offer of transport is mandatory, but I would be interested in finding out when this commenced? Also does the data capture the patients who have requested an appointment been offered and then failed to turn up as transport had not been offered, and has it captured the people who have requested an appointment and failed to turn up. There is no consideration of unmet need, there are huge concerns now the deterioration of health and wellbeing outcomes evidenced in the most recent Health and Wellbeing Survey that is due to be presented to our Alliance Board on 17th June 2024 by Beatrix Von Wissmann. The report clearly demonstrates that Inverclyde by far in NHS GGC is the local authority showing the greatest deterioration in health outcomes by 17%. The longstanding inequalities that are prevalent in Inverclyde are not improving and therefore we fail to understand why this service is not reinstated to ensure greater accessibility, visibility and equity like the rest of GG&C. We also fail to understand the rigid position being adopted by NHS GG&C despite the public consultation and can only conclude that the exercise was tokenistic to satisfy Health Improvement Scotland.
There are several outstanding questions that need to be answered as a matter of priority in addition to the questions already submitted by Councillor Martin McCluskey:
- Integrity of data – at what point did NHS GG&C start collecting this? Does it reflect the four years that the service has been reduced?
- The number of patients who were provided with a face-to-face appointment that did not turn up for years 2023, 20233, 2021 and 2020.
- The number of patients who were offered patient transport in the years 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020 that turned up and the number for the same years who did not.
- The number of attendees at A&E who could have been treated by a GP.
- The number of attendees at A&E who advised that they could not access a GP appointment in the daytime and out of hours.
A 50-mile round trip to access emergency GP OOH service is unacceptable for the people living in Inverclyde. Our community deserve equity and equality and as elected members we will not accept that they are treated as second hand citizens by receiving a second-hand GP OOH service. We are united in our GP OOH political and moral intention for the 7-day service to be returned to Inverclyde and following our meeting yesterday raised the attached motion.
That was overwhelming supported.
I look forward to receiving the further requests for information contained with this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Stephen McCabe
Leader of the Council
cc Neil Gray, Cabinet Secretary NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care
Dr Lesley Thomson KC, Chair of NHS GG&C Health Board