A number of responses have been received following last week’s report concerning a shortage of GPs at Pembroke Dock’s Argyle Street Surgery.

In the article, local MP Simon Hart and Angela Burns AM both expressed their fears that patient safety could be at risk because of the shortage of doctors at what is Wales’ biggest surgery.

“Patients have been coming to us with concerns about Argyle Street regularly over the past six years,” said Mr. Hart. “But in the past month, the complaints have gone through the roof.”

However, both the MP and AM came under fire in a response from the GP partners of the Argyle Medical Group, who were “dismayed that they had sought to publicise the issues without meeting with us first” and were concerned that “negative publicity was having an adverse effect on recruitment to healthcare locally.”

“Our primary purpose is to run a safe clinically effective service, we believe that we do this,” said the GP partners in a statement issued to the Observer. “We have been inspected by Health Inspectorate Wales who said of us ‘overall patients were happy with the service provided by the practice’. We do not turn away any patient whose problem is urgent and have systems in place to ensure this.

“We are well aware of the issues surrounding telephone access and patients’ unhappiness with this. As hard as we are trying to improve, if we do not have the GP manpower, we cannot provide all the appointments that are wanted. We recognised the shortage of GPs in the UK and have been innovative with the employment of a Practice Pharmacist (one of the first in Wales) and we have plans to introduce other Advanced Health Care Practitioners.

“With our Patient Participation Group we have been looking at alternative access routes such as online booking and telephone consultations. It is important to note that this may not significantly increase the number of available appointments, as this will not happen until we have managed to recruit. However, we hope this may release some pressure from the phone system.

“As a practice, we are dismayed that our local AM and MP have sought to publicise these issues without meeting with us first. We fear that negative publicity surrounding the hospital and now General Practice is having an adverse effect on recruitment to healthcare locally. We feel this is unhelpful in the current climate and is having an adverse effect on General Practice staff where morale is already at an all time low.

“We would like to clarify that our practice manager is not standing down due to current difficulties; this is merely a rumour. An 18,000 patient practice in North Wales failed recently because they could not find any doctors to work for them; presumably this is not what the AM and MP want for South Pembrokeshire?

“We believe that everyone at AMG is working as hard as they can in increasingly challenging circumstances and we do not believe that we can ask any more from them; we hope that both the AM and MP recognise this fact.

“We agree that improvements are needed and we are dealing with this at a practice level. However, many of the problems are not unique to us and progress can only be achieved through a collaborative approach between practices, the Health Board and Welsh Government.”

PROACTIVE STANCE

Dennis Evans, chair of Patient Participation Group (PPG), agreed that phoning the surgery for an appointment continued to be a problematic area, however the (PPG) was working closely with senior management at the surgery in an attempt to improve the situation.

“In a recent ‘Choose Well’ campaign that the PPG ran in conjunction with the surgery, patients indicated that there was a need to look at how the appointment system operated,” he said. “Senior management took the criticisms on board and at a recent PPG meeting, we were informed that the practice are looking to introduce three new initiatives which should help to improve the appointment system.

“The group urged the practice to implement these changes as soon as possible, but complimented the practice for the proactive stance that they are taking in trying to improve the situation.”

GP SHORTAGE A

UK-WIDE CHALLENGE

A statement was also received from assistant director of primary care for the Hywel Dda University Health Board, Elaine Lorton, who said: “We are working with Argyle Practice, its active Patient Participation Group and the local community to make improvements to appointment access at the practice. This includes reviewing how patients make appointments at the desk or in advance, and the practice has already made adjustments to call handling to provide a greater response at the busiest times.

“We acknowledge there are still capacity challenges; this is due to the equivalent of a 1.5 full-time GP vacancy at the practice. The shortage in the GP workforce, remains a UK-wide challenge, and the practice, together with the University Health Board continues with ongoing recruitment campaigns and exploring new ways of working.

“The practice has appointed a pharmacist who undertakes medication reviews, which has helped to release more GP capacity to see patients. Members of the public can help us by using the Choose Well guidance to support them in choosing the best healthcare service (e.g. community pharmacies, triage and treat services where available, opticians, dentists, etc) according to their need.

“For more information about Choose Well, visit www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/choosewell.”