Archive - Thursday, 7 October 2004


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Medical alert for local AM

MONMOUTH AM David Davies has spoken of his distress at not being able to get medical help for his new-born daughter, who fell ill on the weekend.

Mr Davies and his wife Aliz experienced a panic-stricken few hours at the weekend when six-week-old Sophie experienced breathing problems.

The youngster appeared to have a blocked nose, but David and Aliz decided to call an out-of-hours helpline to be on the safe side.

However, the couple were unable to access the medical help they needed due to changes in the out-of-hours service provided by GPs.

Mr Davies says local people face problems in getting treatment if they fall ill outside of office hours.

He said: "The experience my family had this week suggests that the new service, which came into effect at the beginning of the week, is not up to the standard it should be."

After calling the helpline, a doctor rang the couple an hour later and told them to go to the Chepstow Community Hospital where an appointment had been made.

Mr Davies said: "When my wife got down the hospital, nobody knew anything about the appointment and an hour-and-a-half later she still hadn't been seen and nobody seemed to know when she would be.

"As Sophie seemed to have got better, they gave up and came home." The service was originally provided by local GPs, who received about £6,000 per year for doing so.

Following the new national contract, GPs were released from their obligation to work outside normal hours.

Many GPs said they would be happy to continue to provide the service, but expected to be paid the market rate.

The Gwent LHBs decided to put the contract for this service out to tender and the bid was won by the Health Trust.

Mr Davies added: "The Health Trust and LHB have got a responsibility to ensure that there is always an adequate emergency out-of-hours service available."

Adrian Hearne, spokesman for the Health Trust, said: "There is always out-of-hour care available.

"The new service is based on on an identical structure of the original one. "We will be looking very closely at Mr Davies' comments and make sure all our standards are being met."