Town Council receives positive news about G.P. Services.
Rhuddlan Town Council has heard positive news about G.P. services in the town from the Senior Practice Manager at Healthy Prestatyn Iach (HPI) and an Assistant Director from Betsi Cadwallader University Hospital Trust (BCU).
Councillors had heard concerns from residents that are patients with HPI on a number of issues, especially the retention of an adequate number of G.P.s, the arrangements for making appointments and services for people with diabetes. These concerns were shared with the representatives from HPI and BCU and they agreed to come along to the Town Council’s meeting to respond to them. The meeting was also attended by Gareth Davies MS and the Mayor of Prestatyn and Meliden.
The meeting heard of a number of positive steps that were being taken to address the concerns raised. In terms of the number of G.P.s it was recognised that there is a national shortage and that recruitment into North Wales can often be a problem. This is being addressed by measures such as links with other local surgeries and a programme to relocate doctors from hospitals to G.P. surgeries to address the balance between primary and secondary heath care services. Additional G.P. training will be provided in North Wales, although this is a longer-term solution to the problem. It was mentioned that people did not always need to be seen by a G.P. because a range of services are being provided by the Nurse Practitioners and other health specialists in the team. It was also mentioned that there are still problems from the Covid pandemic in terms of increased demand and a backlog of regular checkups for people with chronic conditions.
The appointments system was discussed and it was explained that there are a number of options available for people to use. It was recognised that making phone-based appointments could be difficult at times and it was hoped that if more people were able to use the web-based systems then this will would release more phone access time for those people that found it difficult to use the web-based ones. A call-back facility is available. All appointment requests are triaged to ensure that they are prioritised correctly.
In terms of services for people with diabetes, it was explained that there are focussed at the Seabank Road Surgery so as to provide a full range of treatments and support in one location rather than at different sites.
Rhuddlan Mayor, Cllr. Mike Kermode said “We had a very open and frank discussion with the senior people responsible for providing G.P. services in Rhuddlan. I was reassured to hear that they are aware of the concerns of their patients are taking positive steps to address them. I recognise that this is happening at a time when there are concerns about G.P. services across Wales and I hope that work that Healthy Prestatyn Iach are doing will maintain and improve services in our town. We will certainly be having more discussions with them in the future if there continue to be concerns.”