Access to appointments at Blackhall Medical Centre

There has been considerable coverage lately in both the national and local media about access to appointments at GPs' surgeries, with many members of the public understandably concerned that there is a diminishing prospect of seeing their local doctor when they want to.

I was contacted recently by concerned residents in the Blackhall area asking about the current position at the Blackhall Community Health Centre - and specifically with regard to the availablility of patient appointments at the GP practice on Hesleden Road in Blackhall Colliery.

I raised residents' concerns with the Director of Commissioning (Primary Care) at the County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) last week and in response I received this explanation of the current position:

I have met with the Practice Manager today from Blackhall. She has given me a very detailed position on the practice access and resources. 

She agrees that demand is greater than their capacity so they are working extra to keep up and putting on locum cover to give additional capacity. But she believes that is true of the whole country at the moment and likely to worsen.

Today they had four GPs and one Nurse practitioner all day . That is the staffing I would expect in a practice of this size. In addition as they are a teaching practice they have two GP registrars which also helps with workload.

They operate a telephone triage model but for any patient that clinically requires they offer face to face also

As a partnership they are reviewing the position, monitoring demand and reviewing whether the current model of access is broadly meeting patient demand.

The duty doctor is dealing with 70 patients per day which is significantly excessive. Most of the associated paperwork that follows patient care is being done on an evening or weekends to maximise time for patient contact.

As suggested in the response above, it would appear that this is a nation-wide issue with a complex range of factors involved - not least the ongoing prevalence of Covid-19 and the risk of infection in enclosed public spaces like waiting rooms in doctors' surgeries where members of the public are expected to gather in close proximity. 

In addition it appears unlikely that this position will be resolved any time soon so I'll maintain contact with the CCG and update on progress in due course.