Wellington Medical Practice faces GP shortage
Three doctors have left a medical centre in Telford where patients have had problems getting appointments over the phone.
A meeting of NHS managers heard the centre, which has more than 14,000 patients on its books, needs more support.
The intervention comes despite new managers taking over the running of Wellington Medical Practice and efforts made to install an online appointment system to ease the problems.
Telford & Wrekin CCG Primary Care Commissioning Committee was told new broadband phonelines were due to be installed in all its doctors’ surgeries after NHS England was successful in attracting funding for the scheme. When it is launched, Wellington will be the first medical centre to be receive the new system.
The move follows complaints by patients that they sometimes make dozens of calls before being answered by office staff.
Wellington’s managing partner Dr Derrick Ebenezer told the committee there were issues retaining GPs at the Chapel Lane practice.
He said a new advance nursing practitioner had been employed to ease the pressure on the doctors. He added that three GPs had left due to work pressures and efforts were in hand train the receptionists to signpost patients correctly to the right services if they did not need to see a GP.
Dr Ebenezer said: “We did have three salaried GPs. Three have left. Part of the problem is workload and part of it the overall situation that the practice is in. The doctors are saying a lot of the consultation time is spent with patients talking about not being able to get an appointment. Some of the GPs felt ground down by it and have left. It is a busy practice. One GP who left has not moved on to another practice. She is taking a month off and is looking at her options.
“If we’re looking at an ever decreasing pool of GPs we are going to shoot ourselves in the foot. There needs to be other ways of attracting the right staff with the experience resilience and we need help with that.”
The committee was told problems with patients struggling to get phone appointments were improving after the surgery paid for five extra phone lines to take it up to 15 in total to cope with demand.
Dr Ebenezer is part of a new team that took over the running of the centre last November.
Meanwhile preparations are under way for the closure of Malling Health Wrekin walk-in centre, based next to Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, with patients at its GP arm being transferred to other practices. The walk-in centre itself will close in July under re-organisation plans. The meeting was told that the 8,000 patients on its books are in the process of being transferred.
