EXCLUSIVE: Lanarkshire mum faces 7-hour wait in A&E for 1-year old's medicine due to out of hours GP shortage
A Lanarkshire mum's telling Clyde 1 there were no out of hours GPs available, and she was advised to go to A&E to get the prescription.
A Lanarkshire mum spent seven hours waiting in A&E in a Lanarkshire hospital for a prescription for medicine for her 1-year old, due to a shortage of out of hours doctors.
The mum is telling Clyde 1 she contacted the out of hours doctors on Sunday 13th June after her child developed a bad cough following a recent chest infection, but no one was available, and later that morning received a call-back from NHS 24 telling her to go to A&E instead.
The mum said: "My daughter had a bad cough and it got worse over the weekend, and I thought to myself 'I need antibiotics'.
"I know of a few people that have tried to get a GP out of hours over the weekend, and they have been told – this is your choice: either phone an ambulance and get a paramedic to come, or go and sit in A&E, that’s the only way that you are going to see a doctor."
"I knew what I needed, I phoned out of hours at 7am on the Sunday, and I got a call back from another doctor, and by about 8am she told me 'nope there are no doctors available, all you can do is go to A&E'.
"I got to A&E at 9am and it was queued out the door which is standard I suppose, but there were people there who had been there from the night before, gone home for a sleep, and come back.
"Two girls sitting next to me were told by NHS 24 to phone an ambulance the night before and the ambulance didn’t come - they said for 12 hours.
"By the time I saw the triage nurse, she was sort of almost laughing and kind of had her head in her hands because A&E was packed full of people that didn’t really need to be there, but they were there because there was no out of hours GP."
The mum said she had also heard of people being advised to call for an ambulance to get a paramedic to write a prescription for them.
She said: "I know of a few people that have tried to get a GP out of hours over the weekend, and they have been told – this is your choice: either phone an ambulance and get a paramedic to come, or go and sit in A&E, that’s the only way that you are going to see a doctor.
"I know of people that have phoned ambulances and I know of people that have gone and sat and waited in A&E to see a doctor - so that’s two or three people I know and that’s the choice they’ve been given."
Dr Chris Williams, joint chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, says there is an ongoing issue with shortages of GPs.
Dr Williams said: "Our GP work force are stretched thin across in hours and out of hours.
"There aren't short-term fixes to this.
"We've seen attempts to bring other types of healthcare worker into GP surgeries, into out of hours, so that there's a good skill mix.
"Through the pandemic, there were some people who had retired and who came back to try and bolster things - I think that workforce is falling away slightly.
"Our GP work force are stretched thin across in hours and out of hours."
"We have all sorts of GPs and other staff that have worked continuously throughout the pandemic and who now are in a situation where they need rest."
The Cabinet Health Secretary for Scotland says this is not a problem he's aware of, but will be one he will look into.
Humza Yousaf said: "Let me say how sorry I am to hear of that mother's experience - that shouldn't be the experience for people.
"You're of course telling me this for the first time so I'll go away and look at this to see if there's a specific problem in Lanarkshire health board.
"We invested a lot in out of hours GPs, in fact £35 million on the back of a review that was done in 2015.
"The out of hours service is used and used well in Scotland.
"That is not the experience I would expect, so I will take that one back and I will look and see if we can get more details from Lanarkshire health board."
Maureen Dearie, NHS Lanarkshire locality general manager, said: "There are currently challenges nationally and locally with the provision of GP to work in out of hours (OOH) services.
"In Lanarkshire we are working to address these issues by actively trying to recruit salaried GPs, Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) and Nurse Practitioner (NP) posts within the OOH service.
"The OOH service was running as normal over the weekend, except overnight when there was no GP face-to-face cover. During this time it remained operational and was led by senior Advanced Nurse Practitioner who had access, if required, to a GP who was working remotely.
"It is important to note that as well as GP cover, the OOHs Hub includes other specialist staff such as advanced nurse practitioners and nurse practitioners who, like GPs, are able to see, assess and treat patients as well as issue prescriptions. The Hub also includes community psychiatric nurses and clinical support workers.
"NHS 24 triages calls and passes on any cases that require an OOH appointment (either at home or at centre) to the Hamilton Hub.
"Patients can also visit NHS inform at www.nhsinform.scot and/or NHS 24 on 111 to ensure they are able to access the most appropriate level of care."
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