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"Overworked and under resourced"

About: General practices in Ayrshire & Arran

(as a service user),

We live in a small village in North Ayrshire. Recently the number of GPs within our practice has dropped to 1 which is putting unbearable strain on not only on the remaining GP but on the community the practice serves.

Appointments are by phone on a first come, first served basis and it quite often impossible to get through. Appointments are now generally via phone consultation and if you miss the call you have to start again.

Recently my daughter had to get blood taken but after a 40 minute wait outside the surgery (in February) she was too cold to undergo the procedure.

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Response from Programme Lead, Governance and Assurance, Primary & Urgent Care, NHS Ayrshire & Arran 3 years ago
Submitted on 22/04/2022 at 14:55
Published on Care Opinion at 15:24


Dear nickhobson25

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide some feedback on the GP services provided in your community and I understand how frustrating this must be for you and your community. A national shortage of GPs is causing many practices difficulty to fill vacant posts. We are currently working with a number of practices to source alternative or locum clinicians to support patients while recruitment is underway.

Many of our GP practices have moved to an “on the day” appointment system where patients phone in the morning to get an appointment that same day. The number of appointments available each day are dependent on the number of clinicians available. During the pandemic, this was changing at very short notice due to staff testing positive with COVID and not being able to attend work.

Throughout the pandemic, GP practices have had to change how they deliver services and most have been trying to assess and treat patients over the phone or by video call. I understand this may not suit everyone and can be frustrating if you miss that all important call back from the GP. The number of phone calls coming in to most of our GP practices has increased and unfortunately resulted in longer waits to get through. We are working with many GP practices to enhance their phone systems or look at different systems which could also help with this.

I’m so sorry to hear that your daughter had a long wait in the cold outside the practice while waiting to have her bloods taken. This was likely due to infection control procedures limiting the number of people in a building at the same time, though I’m sure this offers little comfort to someone whilst waiting in the cold.

If you would like us to fully look into your concerns with the GP practice concerned we would welcome you to provide further information (including the name of the GP practice) to our Feedback and Complaints Team using the following contact information:

PO Box 13, Eglinton House, Ailsa Hospital, Dalmellington Road, Ayr KA6 6AB

Telephone 01292 513620 please note: your call may be recorded

Fax 01292 513665

Email: complaintsteam@aapct.scot.nhs.uk

Freephone number for feedback, comments, concerns and complaints call 0800 169 1441

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