By Isle of Wight Observer
An East Cowes resident has been told she must wait more than a month to get a telephone consultation after asking East Cowes Health Centre for an urgent appointment to see a GP.
The elderly lady telephoned on Monday, April 22, and was asked to give full details of her condition to be passed to a triage team for assessment. She received a text two days later telling her that she would receive a telephone call from a ‘clinician’ on May 24.
On asking why it would take more than a month to speak to somebody about her condition, she said she was told that, due to the closure of Wootton Bridge Surgery, the practice had to take on extra patients, adding to an already over-subscribed patient list.
She said: “In the 73 years that I have lived in East Cowes, I have never had to wait a month to see a doctor.”
She contacted her local councillor, Karl Love, about the situation. Cllr Love reported the long wait to Healthwatch Isle of Wight and said: “This level of service, which puts people’s health at risk, is not acceptable.
“It seems the whole of our NHS services are in a rapid and dangerous decline. This is the impact of a far-flung and disconnected commissioning service and urgent action is required to prevent the loss of Island people’s lives.
“The mainland team has little or no understanding of our needs, with our ageing demographic and unreliable and expensive ferry services.”
A spokesman for the surgery said he was unable to discuss individual cases but added: “I would like to reassure your readers and our patients that we assess the clinical needs of all patients’ requests, and signpost them to the most appropriate clinician according to their clinical need. We always endeavour to get our patients seen as soon as we can by the most appropriate person.
If a patient wants to see a particular clinician, they may indeed have to wait some time to see that person.”