Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01698 · Session 5

Medical care in rural areas

Closed Submitted 5 Jun 2018 Health
Signatures
0
122 online signatures with a country
Comments
27
Considered
6 meetings
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to:
Ensure strong rural and remote G.P. representation on the remote and rural short life working group, recently established as part of the new GP contract for Scotland.
Adjust the Workload Allocation Formula (WAF) urgently in light of the new contract proposals to guarantee that both primary and ancillary services are, at least, as good as they are now in ALL areas so patients do not experience a rural and remote post code lottery in relation to the provision of health care.
Address remote practice and patient concerns raised in relation to the new G.P. contract.

What the petitioner did first

We and other patients have been contacting community councils, county councils, constituency MSPs, regional MSPs, the outgoing chair of the BMA Scottish G.P Committee, Shona Robison, the Cabinet Minister for Health and Sport and Miles Briggs Shadow Cabinet Minister as well as the First Minister, Fergus Ewing, the Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity and Maurice Corry MSP. Small communities have also been sending petitions to HSCPs.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 13 Sep 2018
    Public Petitions Committee
    New Petitions
    1 mention
  2. 22 Nov 2018
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  3. 4 Apr 2019
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  4. 9 May 2019
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    2 mentions
  5. 27 Jun 2019
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  6. 1 Oct 2019
    Health and Sport Committee
    Primary Care Inquiry
    1 mention

Signatures by country

122 online signatures
  1. Scotland98 80.3%
  2. United Kingdom22 18%
  3. United States2 1.6%

Comments

27 comments, oldest first
  1. Dorothy MCcormick 12 Jun 2018
    No change should be made to the excellent service we now have Rural areas need to have as good a service as Urban areas. Why change something that is working??
  2. Patricia collins 12 Jun 2018
    I think that the belief that one shoe fits all is very nieve. The nhs and social work integrated care is falling apart. The bigger surgeries in the Argyll and bute area are on their knees unable to cope. I think the quicker an actual consultation is done rather that the supposed one the better. Thr rural practices currently offer an excellent service. Leave alone
  3. Katharine Elwis 12 Jun 2018
    Mull and Iona are in desperate need of adequate GP provision. Help us now before there is a tragedy.
  4. Helen Laws 13 Jun 2018
    We need our practice. Rural GP's are a necessity.
  5. Mary Clark 13 Jun 2018
    Done
  6. Linda Leggett 18 Jun 2018
    Please reassure us that our excellent medical practice will continue to serve us without change.
  7. Thelma Ingram 18 Jun 2018
    When your nearest A and E is 50 minutes away by car and not accessible by public transport. GP surgeries in rural areas and small towns need very good staffing of the main medical professions so we are secure medically in rural areas and remote communities.
  8. Joan Morgan 27 Jun 2018
    At present we have excellent medical care from our local surgery, which we cannot afford to lose due to our relatively isolated location.
  9. Mary Braithwaite 27 Jun 2018
    160 people live on the isle of Luing. We have an excellent local GP surgery, and believe the new GP contract will impact negatively on the delivery of health care. Many older folk do not have a car, and there is already too much pressure on voluntary car driving taking folk to the surgery and Oban for appointments. The new GP contract MUST be rethought where rural and remote surgeries are concerned.
  10. Phyllis Malcolm 27 Jun 2018
    The concerns of rural medical practices are more than echoed by their patients who rely on them to provide their service in an efficient and patient centred manner. Alterations to this successful model do not make sense
  11. Norman Bissell 27 Jun 2018
    The new GP Contract fails to take account of the needs of rural and island patients and will worsen the provision of health care in these areas. There should be a different formula agreed within the new Contract that applies to rural and island GPs to enable the current excellent level of service to be maintained. The public meeting held on the Isle of Luing in March 2018 was the largest in living memory and indicates the serious concerns amongst island patients about this issue.
  12. Nigel Ings 27 Jun 2018
    We live on an island and are currently provided with unsurpassed all-round primary care by the practice on the adjacent island. Routine tasks, vaccinations, dispensing, repeat prescriptions are all carried out in one place. The possibility that these services will be taken away and centralised in Oban, at least an hour's travel away is horrible to contemplate. Those without the capacity to drive will be critically disadvantaged. At present our community is well able to look after the modest transport needs entailed in getting to the GP, but finding someone to drive you to Oban will be problematical. Our wonderful GPs and Practice nurses do everything from routine blood tests and vaccinations to rapidly setting up specialist appointments. Nothing will damage the Scottish NHS and its reputation more than pressing ahead with changes that will be highly detrimental to remote and rural populations. Not everyone in Scotland lives in the Central Belt
    - and we're all voters!
  13. Zoe Fleming 27 Jun 2018
    I have a long-term condition and require prescription medicines daily and cannot always drive 20 miles to Oban if the nearest surgery cannot supply. The health matters of a small island community cannot safely be catered for from facilities a ferry ride and a 20 mile drive away.
    The whole island community is really concerned about this development, as half the community is over 60 and others approaching that age.

    We request that this whole approach to remote rural and island communities is re-thought with proper consultation, not just open meeting consultations 20 miles away in the evening when we have no vehicle ferry.
  14. Linda Leggett 28 Jun 2018
    If our GP services are not rural-proofed, I would find it hard to get to the hospital for routine procedures. This journey would take an hour as opposed to 20 minutes to our surgery.
  15. Martin Leggett 29 Jun 2018
    I am self employed on the island and would lose money and work if I had to travel to hospital for routine procedures that are currently carried out at our excellent local medical practice.
  16. Linda Michelle Leggett 29 Jun 2018
    We have an excellent service provided by our local Easdale Medical Practice, which will be compromised if rural proofing our surgery does not happen. There are too many people especially elderly folk, who would find it very hard to get to appointments at hospital and with an ageing population, this problem is only going to worsen.
  17. Tooti Cadzow 2 Jul 2018
    We live on the Island of Luing and it already takes us a ferry ride and 25 minutes drive just to get to Easdale Medical Practise. if it all went to Oban it would be incredibly difficult for the elderly and carless people. It is hard enough trying to get people to live on the Island and our numbers drop yearly PLEASE do not exacerbate this.
  18. Angela McLeod 3 Jul 2018
    Should this "Contract" succeed, there will be a huge added cost required for helicopters to outlying areas.
  19. Gemma Wells 5 Jul 2018
    As a home owner on the Isle of Luing I truly believe that the service we currently receive from the local doctors is outstanding, and the new GP contract would without a doubt have a negative impact on this. There are a large number of elderly residents living here and they should be able to feel safe in the knowledge that they will be well looked after. That does not mean having to start travelling further afield or feel that they have been abandoned. Therefore there needs to be special consideration about the impact the new GP contract will have on rural and island communities like ourselves.
  20. Carole Wells 5 Jul 2018
    The new GP contract is not appropriate for those of us who live in rural and island communities, as it does not continue to deliver the current standard of service we receive. Currently our local area is well looked after by a team of professionals who never fail to make you feel safe and well cared for. The changes that would need to be made if the new GP contract came in to full swing would threaten our health and well being.
  21. Carole Wells 5 Jul 2018
    The new GP contract is not appropriate for those of us who live in rural and island communities, as it does not continue to deliver the current standard of service we receive. Currently our local area is well looked after by a team of professionals who never fail to make you feel safe and well cared for. The changes that would need to be made if the new GP contract came in to full swing would threaten our health and well being.
  22. Alison Macleod 7 Jul 2018
    It has been more and more challenging over the last ten years to recruit GPs to remote rural areas like Applecross. This new contract may well make it impossible. The erosion of medical support to remote rural areas is going to reinforce the existing trend of depopulation, which we, as communities, are fighting so hard to resist.
  23. Dr Patrick Mulcahy 11 Jul 2018
    The current GP funding formula in Scotland hugely discriminates against rural practice Is not fit for purpose and needs urgent modification
  24. Catriona Trott 14 Jul 2018
    Knowing someone who often needs urgent medical attention I value the services of our local GP surgery. Without these services many people would not countenance living here.
  25. Gail Greig 14 Jul 2018
    The current contract may help some urban areas to establish multi-disciplinary teams, along the lines rural practices have had for years. But asking health boards or HSCPs to organise them means they will never be part of the real primaryn healthcare team as they will have a centralised, acute-sector culture. They will never be nimble enough to be truly primary-care oriented around our needs as individual patients. And the current formula only works for larger populations where the worried well constantly beat a path to GPs, who tend to over-refer to their consultant hospital colleagues, and thus spend a lot of time writing letters rather than providing hands-on services to patients. The plans will fragment an increasingly fragmented service, making General Practice a boring and even more frustrating job. Please, give Rural GPs the means and respect to do the job many have always done, providing high levels of continuity of care, working with colleagues they know and trust (and frequently employ) to help rural patients receive accurate diagnoses, have personalised treatment plans, and avoid hospital admission wherever possible. Rural GPs are used to looking after and overseeing care for patients with complex needs. Rural patients are used to that approach. Rural patients largely consult when necessary and can be more resilient because the service has been so good, although poorly understood in larger towns and cities, by both Health Boards and the BMA. If the kind of practice described here is what the contract is trying to achieve, try supporting rural GPs, particularly those with GP community hospitals that still work (and are not geriatrician outposts) to see how interesting and fulfilling this type of practice can be for GPs, and how good it can be for patient outcomes. Then we might start to see the tap of never-ending unnecessary referrals to secondary and tertiary care turned off,thereby improving working conditions for consultants,reducing iatrogenic harm
  26. Brian Heaton 17 Jul 2018
    I have been using my local GP survey for the last 15 years and have always received a great service. The new contract threatens the service we receive and for the 1st time in 15 years I have concerns about the healthcare in our area. Rural communities need to be looked after.
  27. Anne Elizabeth Hughes 18 Jul 2018
    Using a formula as a basis for funding to cover such a disparate population is almost inevitably going to be biased. In this instance I fear that it is rural areas that will suffer.