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Care Opinion

GP closed books

Posted By Wee Fifer

"GP closed books"

About: General practices in Fife

(as a service user),

Having been so, so lucky to have a fantastic GP practice in Edinburgh I am now appalled by the service in Fife. I recently moved to Dunfermline and the GP practices in Dunfermline centre have closed their books due to patient over subscription. Patients now need to contact the health board to be allocated. How does the health board plan to use its funding to help alleviate this problem? I feel let down by my NHS.

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Responses

Response from Chris McKenna, Medical Director, NHS Fife Board, NHS Fife 5 years ago
Chris McKenna
Medical Director, NHS Fife Board,
NHS Fife

Submitted on 26/04/2019 at 13:54
Published on Care Opinion at 15:23

Dear Wee Fifer

I was sorry to hear about the trouble you have experienced registering with a General Practitioner and I appreciate the time you have taken to offer your feedback.

Our practices in Dunfermline are currently oversubscribed and to ensure that patient allocations to the practices are done in a fair and equitable manner these are facilitated through our Primary Care Services team. Citizens of the Dunfermline area will always be guaranteed registration with a General Practitioner.

We are working through a number of solutions to help ease the burden the vacancies that we currently have within the GP workforce. These include the introduction of advance practitioners, pharmacists and physiotherapists; while we continue to proactively aim to recruit General Practitioners. Unfortunately there is a national shortage of trained GP's hence the reason we are looking a novel and inventive ways of delivering Primary Care.

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Update posted by Wee Fifer (a service user)

Thank you for the helpful response - it is reassuring to know the board are aware and trying to find solutions. I am now registered at a gp surgery near me. Unfortunately, I am unable to get an appointment with my gp within 4 weeks due to the amount of patients on the books. Appointments are released daily and in my experience go within minutes of the lines opening.

I am a mental health patient and have made good recovery over the last 3 years with the support of my health professionals. With my previous GP I had good consistency of care with access to my gp: appointments were available often within 7-14 days, and in crisis I could sit in the surgery waiting room as a safe space or my gp could call me during telephone hours to help.

It is not currently possible to build a relationship with my new gp as there seem to be no appointments available. I work hard to keep myself well and to use my resources but I am currently off work again and cannot access my gp for appropriate support. When I had access to appropriate care I was recovering well.

Response from Chris McKenna, Medical Director, NHS Fife Board, NHS Fife 4 years ago
Chris McKenna
Medical Director, NHS Fife Board,
NHS Fife

Submitted on 10/05/2019 at 09:02
Published on Care Opinion at 10:33

Thank you for your reply, if you are willing to contact my PA on 01592 640877 and pass on your details I will have a look into this further.

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Update posted by Wee Fifer (a service user)

Thanks for your reply. I think there's been a mistake. I called the number twice that you provided and have got through to a barber shop. Grateful if you could please amend with the correct number.

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