A GP practice has defended itself against a leaflet circulated by Labour claiming that its patients are finding it difficult to get a GP appointment.
GP partners at Mount Road Practice, in Kidsgrove, near Stoke-on-Trent, hit back at claims made by the local Labour party branch, which circulated a leaflet saying that ‘residents find it hard to book an appointment’ at their surgery and that ‘Kidsgrove NHS is struggling to cope’.
In a letter to the Kidsgrove Labour team, Dr Bhushan Rao and Dr Hannah Bradshaw said that they worried the leaflet, which named their practice, was spreading misinformation.
They pointed out that according to the GP patient survey, ‘85% of patients were satisfied with the appointment they were given’ at the practice, and that ‘100% of their patients had their appointment within two weeks’.
The letter said: ‘At Mount Road Practice we focus heavily on access at the surgery and over the last two years have made continuous changes to improve this further.
‘We were disappointed that you felt it was appropriate to use potential hearsay for political gain without approaching us first to ensure you had all the facts.
‘It is also disappointing that you have not approached our patient participation group who work closely with our surgery and provide valuable input to us.’
The letter also said that A&E attendance rates are regularly monitored by the practice as a marker of access, and that ‘patients registered with Mount Road Practice are 18% less likely to attend A&E than the average practice in North Staffordshire’.
Dr Rao and Dr Bradshaw said they had concerns that the information on the leaflet might discourage patients from contacting the practice.
The letter added: ‘We have concerns that your article might discourage patients from contacting us about medical conditions if they feel they might never get an appointment. This is obviously worrying as their condition may worsen without being seen.
‘As you can see, the comments on your leaflet about “residents find it hard to book an appointment at Mount Road Practice, Kidsgrove” have very little factual basis when compared to the validated statistics above and consequently are misleading.’
In a statement on Facebook, the practice said it was ‘extremely concerned and disappointed about this misinformation’, adding: ‘We would like to put our patients minds at ease that this information is not in line with the feedback that we receive from our patients monthly and we have written to the Labour team to explain this.’
Pulse has approached Stoke-on-Trent Labour for comment.
Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North Jonathan Gullis said: ‘Utterly shameful that Stoke-on-Trent and Kidsgrove Labour have been putting out false information about a hardworking local GP surgery.
‘The unnecessary distress caused to patients is unacceptable, and the undermining of our local NHS is utterly shameful.
‘They must apologise immediately and withdraw all leaflets distributed, or make a generous donation to our local NHS as compensation.’
In August, Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he wants to end the ‘like it or lump it’ approach to patient access, confirming this would mean practices offering poorer continuity of care receiving less money.
Recently, he said he ‘made it very clear’ to hospitals that any funding that becomes ‘available’ under a Labour Government would go to primary care and other non-acute sectors.
What is going on here?
If there is a strong PPG, with good representation, then better information should have been available to the CLP.
On the other hand the response contains the information that 18% of patients were not satisfied with the appointment offered.
it has given the MP opportunity to demand the CLP fund local health services, and defelct attention from the fact that ANY difficulty in getting satisfactory NHS care at present is due to the Conservatives’ health and fiscal policies!
Everyone seems to be shooting themselves in the feet as fast as they can.