Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Health when the out-of-hours service at Dalriada Urgent Care at the Mid Ulster Hospital, Magherafelt, will be reinstated to ensure access for local communities to the necessary face-to-face contact, when required.
Minister of Health: The GP Out of Hours (GP OOHs) service is a core element of health and social care provision in primary care and the service is available Mon-Fri from 6pm to 8am the next morning, as well as 24 hours at weekends and during public holidays.
The majority of patients who contact GP OOHs services across the region do not require to be seen face-to-face. The percentage of patients who contact the GP OOH service, and who need to be seen in an OOH centre (known as base visits) has changed over the years.
In 2015/16, base visits accounted for 40% of Dalriada Urgent Care’s (DUC) patient contacts, in 2019/20 base visits had reduced to 30% of contacts. In 2023/24, 76% of DUC’s patient contacts were managed by telephone or video call with a clinician, home visits accounted for 5% of their contacts and patients seen face to face in a GP OOH centre accounted for 19% of contacts.
Due to workforce challenges, mainly across the GP community, DUC has indicated that they do not currently have the capacity to provide a service from the Mid-Ulster hospital base. DUC provides services to patients in the Mid-Ulster area by telephone, by home visit when clinically appropriate, and in Antrim or Causeway Hospital by appointment. Whilst this approach facilitates more integrated working between the primary care and hospital based urgent and emergency care services, this is constantly kept under review.
These workforce challenges are common to all GP OOH services across the region. Consolidating services to a smaller number of larger centres has improved the recruitment and retention of staff, due to the benefits associated with collaboration, peer support, and equitable workload distribution.
All GP OOH providers are expected to review activity levels and capacity challenges to ensure the efficient use of resources and provision of an effective service, within the budget allocated.
ENDS
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