Full clinic 'forcing patients into A&E'
PATIENTS needing immediate treatment for minor medical conditions are being turned away by a walk-in centre.
Instead they are pushed into A&E, which is trying to stop its staff being over-run by these sort of patients.
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WALK-IN: The Midway unit.
Now the Midway unit in Newcastle town centre is to be part of a new review of all walk-in services across North Staffordshire just announced by health managers.
It was set up amid fears that, along with the Haywood centre in Burslem, the Midway is not working efficiently enough to take pressure off the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, which is struggling to cope with record numbers of A&E patients.
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The problem at the four-year-old Midway – in Morston House next to the Roebuck Shopping Centre – was highlighted by NHS watchdogs.
Leaders of the borough council's health screening committee claimed its remit had changed over the past two years as so many patients had registered with its GPs that there were not enough slots left for walk-in patients.
Chairman Colin Eastwood said: "I had been sent there for a medical test and while in the waiting room I watched as at least five patients walked in off the street for medical attention.
"They all went over to the desk only to be asked if they were registered there.
"When they said they were not they were given appointments for the following day.
"So they left saying they would go straight to A&E where they could guarantee to be seen that day.
"The Midway seems to be operating as a GP service now when its remit was to have been a medical and walk-in centre."
Mr Eastwood, a Wolstanton councillor, questioned whether the change had come since the nearby High Street practice shut last March.
That could have led to so many of its 5,000 patients registering with GPs at the Midway, no appointments were left for walk-in cases from the street.
The centre is run by North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust, which will be taken over by the area's new GP-led clinical commissioning group (CCG) in April.
CCG chairman Dr Mark Shapley said: "We will not be commissioning the Midway centre – after April 1 that will be the role of the new NHS Commissioning Board."
But, announcing the general review of walk-in services, accountable officer Dr David Hughes, a Leek GP, said: "They may have to work slightly differently than how they do now. We need to make the best use of these centres."
The PCT website still describes the Midway as a "medical and walk-in centre service – if appointments are available – whether patients are registered with the practice or not."
It also provides healthy living services, advice and tests.
6 Comments
by Stonemaiden
Tuesday, February 19 2013, 12:37PM
“The problems all began in 2004 when Drs were able to opt out of 'out of hours' care. A good many of them only work part time because the salaries are high enough to allow this. Surgeries no longer have an emergency surgery on Saturdays and provide no help at all to working people who may need access to a GP after work. I believe the whole service needs a good shake up to make it more user friendly, this , however would not solve the problem of people bothering Drs with trivial complaints. You don't need to see a Dr if you have a cold unless you have an underlying medical condition, no ifs no buts.”
by Youngmum
Tuesday, February 19 2013, 11:58AM
“I have used the walk in centre several times when I have been unable to get in with my own gp for myself and my children and can say nothing bad about the service they offer to get an appointment within 24 hours I think is fantastic considering my own surgery tell me there is a 3 week wait. Why is it acceptable for GPS to turn away their own patients and expect patients to o to the walk in when they have a duty of care to their registered patients. On the one occasion I couldn't be seen at the midway the advice I was given was to contact Hanley walk in or heywood to check waiting times I asked about A@E and the reception advised only for life threatening illness. Midway offer me better service than my own Gp how is this acceptable?”
by Tanavar
Tuesday, February 19 2013, 10:53AM
“Since when did a Walk in Centre become a place to be seen by a doctor when you cannot get an appointment at your own GPs practise? Seems to me the Chairmans time would have been better spent educating the people who said they were going to go to A/E, as to what A/E is actually for and to use his influence to find out why GPs arent seeing their own patients instead of canvassing individuals who cant get an appointment at a busy facility to see where their next port of call is.”
by Stonemaiden
Monday, February 18 2013, 10:42AM
“Isn't one problem the fact that people insist on going for treatment for conditions that are treatable at home. Why do people go when they have stomach bugs for instance. These are over and done with within 48 hours, or the common cold, no one beyond the very young or having underlying medical conditions needs help from a Dr but still they go. I cannot understand why people clog up the medical system with trivial ailments. Don't they feel guilty that while staff are seeing them someone with a much more serious condition is having to wait.”
by FFDP1
Monday, February 18 2013, 10:32AM
“GPs should be forced to help out and see lesser illnesses in there surgery on a daily basis without appointments. If they refuse to do this, cut their pay. A&E needs to be able do there main duties, save life.”
by Anon_mow_cop
Monday, February 18 2013, 9:36AM
“It's simple, if it isn't life-threating then stay away from the A&E, go to your doctor.”