Minister denies GP shortage
The Scottish Executive today denied claims a shortage of GPs in Scotland was leading to elderly care home residents being sent to casualty departments to die.
It has been claimed that new GP contracts have resulted in some family doctors opting out of out-of-hours care, leaving a shortage of medics to help the elderly.
But Scottish deputy health minister Lewis MacDonald said there are systems in place to provide emergency care for those in care homes.
Scottish Care, which represents about 800 care homes north of the border, told politics.co.uk that the new contracts with the government have resulted in some GPs not always being available.
In the worst cases this has led to dying elderly patients being taken to hospital A&E departments to be given pain relief.
Mr Macdonald will meet representatives of Scottish Care on Tuesday to discuss the situation.
But he said the government was “not currently aware” of any pressure on A&E departments to provide emergency care and there were systems in place to cater for patient needs.
He pointed to the NHS 24 in Scotland – the new round-the-clock advice service.
“Care home staff should be aware of the out of hours arrangements, including how to access these through NHS 24 and the systems that exist to ensure that the access takes place without delay,” he said.
Mr Macdonald added: “NHS 24 alerts call-handlers to all patients who are identified by their GP as having special needs which may require speedy access to out of hours services, eg terminally ill patients.”
He also said there was “no link” between the new GP contract and the question of whether GPs issue pain-relief to dying patients.
But the Scottish National party Holyrood leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said it was an “extremely worrying situation” and the Scottish Executive must listen to concerns being voiced.
“Everyone has a right to die with dignity, and it is unacceptable if that right is being denied to elderly people because a shortage of available doctors,” she said.
However, Dr Dean Marshall, a spokesman for British Medical Association (BMA), said the organisation was also unaware of any “widespread problem” of GPs being unavailable to help elderly patients.
“Many doctors continue to work for out of hours service providers and are available to provide medical advice for nursing homes,” Dr Marshall said.
But he added that the BMA would “welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with Scottish Care”.
There are currently 38,000 elderly residents in Scotland, in 1,500 homes.
