FEARS about the future of out-of-hours GP services are growing after it emerged that almost 6,000 shifts were unfilled in the Southern health trust over the past two years.
The development comes after The Irish News yesterday revealed the Belfast out-of-hours service was suspended last weekend for the first time due to severe staffing shortages, with patients instead told to go to a hospital 'urgent care' centre.
Concerns have been also been raised about the impact of reduced access to GPs during the pandemic, with many people attending overstretched A&E departments as an alternative.
One medic warned the "writing is on the wall" for out-of-hours cover due to the number of GPs retiring as well an increasing number choosing to do work part-time.
The lure of £100 per hour shifts is also not attracting medics to work outside daytime surgery hours.
Detailed figures for the Southern trust give a breakdown for the five areas providing out-of-hours cover - Armagh, Craigavon, Dungannon, Kilkeel and Newry - between March 2019 and February 2021.
Unfilled rotas relate to GPs as well as nurses and pharmacists.
Kilkeel and Dungannon were worst affected, particularly during the Covid-19 surge in January, when there were almost 180 shifts not staffed.
The Irish News is aware of one Co Armagh patient who waited eight hours for a call back after contacting the out-of-hours GP in March in "excruciating pain". She was admitted to hospital the next day where it was discovered she had a potentially life threatening infection and required emergency treatment.
Newry and Armagh SDLP MLA Justin McNulty said he was "gobsmacked" by the extent of the problem after accessing the information about unfilled shifts through a written Assembly question to health minister Robin Swann.
Mr McNulty called for an "urgent rethink" of the service after learning there was one evening when there was "no doctors at all" in one location.
"I am constantly contacted by constituents raising concerns about accessing the GP Out of Hours Service. Many complain of long waits for a call back whilst others say they end up directed to go to the Emergency Departments in Craigavon or Daisy Hill and yet we’re advised to stay away from them too as they are at breaking point as well," he said.
"There is something fundamentally wrong with the service when people cannot access it when they need it.’
"In the last two years 5,968 shifts in the GP Out Of Hours Service have gone unfilled. This is astonishing and explains why it is so difficult to get access to the service.
"It is also fundamentally unfair on those GPs and other health care staff who work the service. They are under extreme pressure trying to prioritise those to see and those to refer to their GP or Emergency Departments.’
"...We cannot boast about a world-class health service when people cannot get to see a GP day or night, they struggle to access mental health services and they wait years on routine surgery. Things must change and it must happen now.’