Patients lives at risk because of in-adequate out-of-hours service

Out-of-hours services by general practicioners have come under strong criticism with doctors claiming that the provision is putting patients lives at risk.

Doctors have attacked the service in the past and have said that the system is underfunded.

But now a motion drafted by Dr Andy Stewart, from Gunnislake, Cornwall, has been tabled, which goes one step further.

The motion, tabled for the next conference of the British Medical Association (BMA), the professional association for doctors, claims the lack of money has meant that the quality of care patients receive from the provision puts their lives in danger.

Dr Stewart says doctors are concerned that underfunding from central Government, plus the financial difficulties of primary care trusts, will result in a service that is unsafe.

Doctors from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly region warn that the Government’s failure to fund the out-of-hours service adequately is putting patients lives at risk.

Although GPs are responsible for providing the out-of-hours service, under new contracts introduced last April, most family doctors opted out of providing the service and accepted a pay cut of £6,000.

The service was then taken on by NHS Primary Care Trusts, which can provide the service in-house or contract it out to other operators.

The doctors say that locum doctors are being bussed into some parts of the country to provide the out-of-hours provision, with little knowledge of the locality or the system, and some doctors were having to travel as far as 80 miles to reach patients.

A Department of Health spokesman says they disagree that patients are at risk. They say the Government made it clear in March 2004 that it is absolutely essential that whenever a patient needs to see a GP out of hours, they can do so, and has provided more than £300 million in resources to help fund local NHS provision of out-of-hour services.