An East Lancashire medical centre has issued some advice to patients as they tackle staff shortages, limited appointments and try to recover from the aftermath of the pandemic.

Barnoldswick Medical Centre, in Park Road, has written an open letter to patients explaining why they might not be able to get an appointment.

They also talked candidly about the pressures they have been facing during and after lockdown.

In a letter, the medical centre said: “We are writing this letter to our patients to update you on the current situation at Barnoldswick Medical Centre.

“Demand for our services has increased significantly, even compared to pre-pandemic levels. We have additional care Primary Care Network staff to try and help with the increased demand.

“We have had to accommodate staff annual leave, sick leave and increased levels of Covid-related sickness absence; this has all had an impact on the number of appointments we have to offer.

“We are limited in the number of further additional staff we can recruit and we are also running out of space in our building.”

They added they are also facing addition restraint as they support universities in training up doctors and support junior doctors to finish their specialist training in general practice.

To be compliant with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) they also need to have regular meetings to discuss significant events and update their clinical knowledge.

Many of the GPs at the practice are also classed as part-time with some working evenings and weekend to ensure their workload is completed.

They said: “Some of our GPs have young families so we experience the same pressures for annual leave around school holidays that many of our patients do to.

“Many of our staff are regularly working overtime to cover extra shifts.

“If staff are on leave and we then also have someone off sick or isolating this impacts even further.”

Barnoldswick Medical Centre added that their phone lines have been “incredibly busy”.

They said: “Patients will often come to us first [instead of hospitals and community services] to try and chase a referral or help them manage their condition at home while they await specialist input; this is having a huge impact on appointment availability.

“Our phone lines are incredibly busy. Our reception staff are working non-stop to answer them as quicky as possible… all our staff are doing their very best in difficult circumstances.

“They want to help and they also find it frustrating when they cannot offer patients what they want – we are not a limitless services.

“When we run out of appointments we cannot offer more.

“We hope the above will help you to understand that we are doing our best as a practice in what continues to be an unprecedented time.”

They also offered some advice to patients on what they can do to relieve the burden on GPs.

They said:

  1. Consider if the surgery should be your first port of call. Your local community pharmacy can help with a range of common problems and some can even see you and prescribe medication for certain conditions.
  2. Use their e-consultation tool which will guide you to the correct care.
  3. If you are unable to attend an appointment let the surgery know
  4. Don’t book an appointment asking doctor to expedite referral or chase up hospital
  5. Support reception team when they ask you the reason for appointment

 

Data released earlier this year shows the proportion of GPs in England working full-time at local surgeries has fallen to the lowest level since current records began five years ago.

Patient satisfaction with GP services in east Lancashire was also found to have dropped to its lowest ever level, figures show.

Between January and April more than 700,000 people responded – including 4,560 patients in the NHS East Lancashire CCG area.

The results show 69.6 per cent of people in the area would describe their GP experience as ‘good’ – down from 82.3 per cent in spring 2021, and the lowest in any year since 2018, when comparable data is first available.

The survey further found that 36.5 per cent of people with long-term health conditions do not feel they have had enough support from local services – up from 27.6 per cent last year.

Beccy Baird, senior policy fellow at the King’s Fund think tank, said that while the data may show fewer GPs contracted to do full-time hours, many were still working very long days.

She told the PA news agency: “They might be contracted to work six sessions a week, which is three days.

“But those could be 12-hour days, so on paper it’s 24 hours a week but actually in reality it’s 38 to 40 hours a week.

“They are seeing more patients than ever before, which means GPs are working really hard and having to make very complex decisions, so to protect themselves they are reducing their working hours.”

Barnoldswick Medical Centre has been approached for further comment about the letter.