Managing safe workload
This practice, like most in Scotland, continues to see increasing pressures on our service. Not only is our total practice population rising significantly annually but we also have an ageing and increasingly frail population. Secondary care services are struggling and this is resulting in even more demand on the GP practice.
Despite that the funding from Scottish Government has failed to keep pace and the practice is struggling to manage to meet the demand safely. There is a limit to how many patients our clinician's can safely see in a day as excessive workload can result in unsafe consequences for both the patient and GP.
From 1st March 2025 we will implementing measures from the BMA's safe workload guidance
We feel it is important that we have sufficient time with each patient we see, to safely treat them.
We will still try to see patient's needing seen urgently on the day, however there will be times when your urgent problem may need to be redirected to other parts of the Health Board including NHS 24, A&E and Scottish ambulance service, when we lack the capacity to safely see you. Those with non urgent issues may need to wait longer than currently to be seen. Reception will also continue to signpost patients to more appropriate services which are better placed to support you with certain problems (e.g. Opticians, dentist and pharmacy).
The share of the NHS budget spent in General Practice continues to fall and we hope that Scottish Government will look to rectify this situation so the practice can afford to increase capacity and improve our availability.