Crisis fear over night doctors

Out-of-hours GP care for patients in Rochdale Borough is faring well despite fears of a national overnight cover crisis.

According to information provided to Rochdale Online by Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT, BARDOC, who currently provide cover during evenings, weekends and on public holidays, have five GPs and two duty nurses providing cover during the week from 6pm, and seven GPs, three duty nurses and pharmacist support during peak times at weekends, covering the 400,000 population of Rochdale and Bury boroughs.

Two of the worst primary care trust areas identified in a study by a national newspaper were Bolton — with only one out-of-hours GP for 270,000 patients — and Ashton, Leigh and Wigan which had only one GP for 310,000 patients.

The Devon area was best with a minimum eight doctors for a population of 110,000.

Out of 32 trusts, the country-wide average was one GP to answer calls for a population of 142,000.

Family doctors were allowed to opt-out of working nights and weekends in 2004, with many primary care trusts taking on the responsibility.

A spokesperson for NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, commented: “The local out of hours GP provider is Bury and Rochdale Doctors on Call, also known as BARDOC. BARDOC has been providing services in the borough for 13 years and has a proven track record.

“BARDOC provides a high quality, value for money service that sufficiently meets the needs of our population.

“The service has the capacity to mobilise additional clinical workforce at very short notice as demonstrated during the peak of the Flu Pandemic last year, when they experienced a threefold increase in the numbers of patients accessing the service.”