Fears for the future of health services in Westbury continue to grow as local people say it is virtually impossible to get an appointment with a GP.
With a number of housing estates and developments in various stages of planning, local residents continue to ask questions as to whether Westbury can cope with the expected increase in population and have expressed their concerns about the strain that the local GPs are under.
Westbury is not unique in this problem as there is a nationwide problem with surgeries across the country struggling to cope under the pressures of a growing population. According to research by the Labour Party, in 2015, 14.2million patients waited a week to see their doctor or did not manage to get an appointment.
One concerned resident told the White Horse News, “In Westbury, our GP practice has provided an excellent service, struggling against the ‘odds’ up until recently – presumably they’ve finally been overwhelmed.
“I have not been able to get an appointment with my GP despite trying since early May. Last week I was offered an appointment for the 27th July with my doctor or 23rd June with one of the others, these being the only ones on offer in the whole practice.
“On this occasion, the receptionist suggested that I should ring at 8am when appointments were released. Of course, this was what I’d been trying regularly, and of course the usual experience is that it’s continually engaged and when you finally get connected, you have to wait for your turn, by which time all the appointments have been issued, to which the receptionist said, ‘It’s a pity you didn’t try this morning because we had a lot released’ – how can any of us know which rare day plenty of appointments are released, it’s like a lottery.
“The health provision in Westbury will not be able to care for any further increase in population unless further provision in GP services are created and I fear we will lose our stressed and precious doctors.
“I have received excellent care from the surgery in the past, I can’t fault them, but they themselves are under the burgeoning pressure of the exploding population and well known shortage of GPs.”
Currently, campaigners are battling against a planning application to build houses on the former Westbury Hospital site. Campaigners say the site would be better used to provide healthcare for the area, especially with the increase in population.
However, a report commissioned by the NHS in November last year claimed that the White Horse Health Clinic can provide adequate healthcare for the town’s forseeable future. The report said that the health centre, at that time, had 19,479 registered patients from the area and is ‘future proofed’ for up to 30,000 patients. But local people reject this and say the current problems will only get worse.
Earlier this year, the White Horse Health Centre was ranked amongst the worst in Wiltshire following a NHS satisfaction survey.
The survey showed patients were most pleased with the help they received from nurses but were least impressed with the care given by their GPs, which was rated lower than both the national and Wiltshire average.
At the time, the health centre acknowledged its shortcomings and said it would be addressing problems that the survey had highlighted.
In a statement, practice manager Mark Dickson said, “The White Horse Health Centre is working very closely with Wiltshire CCG to monitor patient levels in the Westbury area. However, with recruitment of GPs and other clinical staff at crisis level nationally, recruitment remains our single biggest obstacle.
“We have been very fortunate to have been able to secure a new GP who will start in August, but we are still actively trying to recruit further clinical staff.
“Pressure on GPs and other healthcare practitioners continues to increase due in part to an ageing and growing population. Westbury is certainly not unique in that sense, with many other areas experiencing similar pressures.
“We are also constantly reviewing our capacity and looking at alternative ways of providing the highest level of care to our patients, to ensure that patients are seen at the right time by the appropriate clinician.
“Our reception staff are all trained to enable them to make appropriate appointments for patients. This means that patients may not always see a GP, but they will see an appropriately trained and skilled clinician who may then consult with a GP if required.
“We are currently looking at how our appointments are structured, especially our duty/on call service. We recently conducted a survey of patients attending the White Horse Health Centre and we are using the results to help us to make changes to the way our appointment system is run for the benefit of our patients.”
