Heywood practice combating a shortage of general practitioners

All current general practitioners at Heywood Health are part time only, but this hasn’t stopped the practice from working around a shortage of GPs.

Heywood Health, previously Argyle Street Medical Centre and York House Surgery, has over 10,000 registered patients and has introduced several measures to tackle solve local demand, including community matrons, advanced nurse practitioners and clinical pharmacists.

Dr Chris Duffy, local Heywood Health GP, explained: “There is a national shortage of GPs, but we are working with NHS England, the CCG and the CQC to tackle our decrease in practice GPs.

“A lot of people are of the mindset that they need to see a GP, but this isn’t necessarily the case.

“We have an advanced nurse practitioner, who deals with minor injuries, mental health problems and can prescribe, community matrons, who conduct home visits, clinical pharmacists who can assist with any medical queries, including drug mismatches and interactions, and also see patients with exacerbated chronic chest ailments.

“Nurses and pharmacists can discuss bloods and statins.

“We’re welcome to any suggestions and are trying to meet demand by going digital. Patients can access their prescriptions online, try online consultations and we are working on patients being able to access their own blood results so the phonelines aren’t congested.”

Practice Manager, Pam Ilnuckyj said: “Across the two sites at Heywood Health, we have 10 regular doctors working, all of whom are part-time and one of whom is a locum. 

“In the past 15 months, two doctors have retired, and two doctors have decreased their sessions due to personal commitments. 

“We are aware of patients’ frustration in trying to obtain an appointment when they wish; we have employed advanced nurse practitioner and a pharmacist to help to receive the workload on the doctors and we are working with the CCG and others looking at innovative ways to continue to deliver high quality practice.”

A spokesperson for the CCG said: “The CCG is working closely with the practice to ensure appropriate staffing levels are maintained and patients continue to receive the consistent good quality service they have come to know from this practice.”

Low GP levels aren’t unique to our local area: according to GP Online, the number of full-time equivalent GPs in England fell by 4% between March 2016 and March 2018, despite a 2014 pledge from then-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that government would ‘train and retain’ 5,000 new GPs by the end of the decade.

In spite of the national GP crisis, Rochdale was ranked as having the best access to out of hours appointments in the whole north west and one of the best in the whole country earlier this year.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/120863/rochdale-nhs-has-best-access-for-out-of-hours-appointments-in-the-north-west