At last night’s (Thursday) meeting of the South Wight Health & Wellbeing Forum it was claimed there would be no Out of Hours GP service this weekend because the contract had lapsed.
OnTheWight got in touch with the Isle of Wight NHS trust first thing this morning and just after 5pm tonight received a response from one of their communications officers.
We’d asked why there was not going to be an Out of Hours GP service this weekend and what solution the IW NHS Trust had put in place to deal with it.
Use the service wisely
Ignoring the first part of our question they replied,
“This weekend (18/02/17 and 19/02/17) the Urgent Care Service at St Mary’s Hospital, will be working at reduced capacity due to a shortage of GPs to cover the shifts.
“Therefore we ask that Islanders and visitors use the service wisely. Anyone with a medical emergency shouldn’t hesitate to call 999, but everyone else needs to consider all the other options available to them.
“Please call NHS111 for advice over the phone or attend your local pharmacy where you can get expert support for minor ailments, alternatively you can also get advice from the NHS choices Website.”
Unhappy negotiations
OnTheWight was informed by a resident attending last night’s Forum that the out of hours GP service has not been renewed as those involved have been unhappy with the negotiations.
Image: connortarter under CC BY 2.0
