Worries on city GP night service

A spotcheck was made on the service over a bank holiday

Concerns have been raised about the way the GP out-of-hours service in Cardiff is being run.

A health service watchdog listed its worries, seen by BBC Wales, after making an unannounced spotcheck.

Plaid Cymru said the privately-run service was in crisis, with some people not receiving urgent medication, and GPs' leaders have expressed worries.

The Welsh Assembly Government said there had been a low number of complaints about the service.

Cardiff Community Health Council (CHC) drew up its list of worries after making the check over a busy bank holiday in March.

We will investigate all substantial allegations raised by the CHC but feel that some of their comments are misguided Tim Flanagan, Healthcare Service 24

CHC representatives spoke to patients and staff in an effort to assess how well the service, launched last autumn and based at Cardiff Royal Infirmary, was being run.

The resulting report highlighted long waiting times as a significant problem. Patients said that, after calling the centre, they often faced a long wait for someone to ring back.

It also said there was a lack of knowledge about where people had to go to pick up prescriptions outside normal surgery hours.

The service was previously run by a GP co-operative

The firm which runs the service, Healthcare Services 24, won the bid ahead of competition from a co-operative of Cardiff GPs who had previously been in charge of the system.

Plaid health spokesman Rhodri Glyn Thomas said it has received concerns over doctors who were not fully registered GPs but who had been working for the service, contrary to assembly guidelines.

A shortage of staff was also putting more pressure on accident and emergency units, he said.

He said: "The situation is very serious and worrying. I am told that patients in Cardiff who are seriously ill are getting a delayed, poor quality service.

"People's health is being put at risk by this out-of-hours GP service."

Performance review

Dr Andrew Dearden, chairman of the Welsh GP committee, said: "Certainly GPs in Cardiff have had some real concerns over the last six months and they have expressed these both to the companies involved and the local health board."

He said GPs had been assured only fully-trained GPs would be used on night visits, and not qualified hospital doctors, as had happened previously.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Local Health Board, which awarded the out-of-hours contract, said the performance of the service was closely monitored, and had recently undergone a six-month performance review.

The board planned to devise an action plan, based on that review.

Healthcare Service 24 managing director Tim Flanagan said: "We will investigate all substantial allegations raised by the community health council but feel that some of their comments are misguided.

'Detailed audit'

"It is simply incorrect to say that the doctors are not qualified for the job.

"The local health board has just audited the service and is confident that it is working effectively.

"We are not complacent but the findings of the detailed audit should provide reassurance to the community."

He said the service had responded to 32,500 people in its first six months and only 1 in 1,000 patients or their GPs had had reason to complain.

The assembly government said: "The number of patient complaints about Cardiff's out-of-hours service that have reached the assembly government has been low since the new system came in last autumn.

"While there has been an increase in number of patients attending A & E, this cannot merely be attributed to the out-of-hours service."