Jackie Baillie's new warning over GP out of hours service

Jackie Baillie made the call after new figures revealed that the service was closed 35 times in the three months from April 4 until June 4.

The service was also closed on 35 separate occasions between January 1 and March 31 – a total of 70 closures in the space of five months, and not far short of the 83 closures of the service in the whole of 2018.

According to Ms Baillie, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde cited “GP availability” as the reason for all the closures of the service.

The latest figures were released following a visit to the Vale by health secretary Jeane Freeman last month, when both she and health board officials said they were committed to securing the long-term future of the service.

Ms Baillie said: “The trend of closures at the Vale of Leven’s out of hours service is not only continuing, but it is getting even worse.

“In the two months between April 4 and June 4, the service suffered 35 closures – that is 35 days that patients in our community were expected to travel all the way to Paisley, or further, for an out of hours GP service.

“This is simply unacceptable. We know that GPs want to work at the Vale, but it is clear that not enough is being done by the health board to ensure that the out-of-hours service at the Vale is fully functioning.

“Following the meeting with the cabinet secretary for health, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has promised that they are looking at ways to strengthen the out of hours service at the Vale.

“It is now more clear than ever that solutions must be found quickly to ensure that patients in the Vale catchment area are not left without a service.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Every patient across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) who requires GP out of hours care needs to contact NHS 24 in the first instance.

"Access to the GP out of hours service via NHS 24 will ensure patients receive safe and high quality patient care by the right service at the right time.

"“The majority of shifts at all our GP out of hours centres are filled but when we don’t fill all our shifts we need to allocate staff to ensure adequate geographical cover is provided and that demand is met.

“When a GP out of hours centre is closed, our GP home visiting service is available as normal for patients who were assessed by NHS 24 as requiring this.

"There is always transport available for patients who do not have access to their own transport.

“This is not an issue which is unique to NHSGGC, nor the Vale of Leven Hospital.

“We have now stared publishing information on closures as part of our NHS Board performance report.

“There are a number of developments under way in primary and community services which will offer people a wider range of choice in terms of getting the support they need out of hours.

“We are taking steps to increase resilience to reduce the reliance on medical staff.”