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Kinloch Rannoch OOH 'Out of Order'

On Monday 1 June two MSPs came to Kinloch Rannoch to find out for themselves about out-of-hours cover for medical emergencies. As it happens, the Community Council has asked all the elected representatives (the Westminster MP, two MSPs and three Perth and Kinross councillors) to state publicly where they stand. So the meeting at the Dunalastair Hotel was very timely, reported Dick Barbour-Might.
Murdo Fraser was accompanied by Councillor Ian Campbell and by Mary Scanlon, who is the Conservative Party’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.
About twenty local residents were at the meeting. People spoke out about their anger at how senior NHS Tayside managers have utterly disregarded the repeated calls from the community to restore the service which was lost three years ago when the then GP was allowed to opt out. To make matters worse, the Community Council’s appeal to Nicola Sturgeon to intervene has been met with an evasive response from one of her civil servants.
Veronica Grosset, who has worked for many years as a nurse and midwife, said “I know what it’s like to sit with people in distress who are waiting for a doctor or ambulance to come, sometimes from as far away as Perth.” She pointed out that the First Responders scheme, which NHS Tayside has promoted as a substitute for the local GP out-of-hours service, simply cannot cope with the many complex conditions which require the diagnostic skills of a doctor.

Painful Illustration

The NHS24 system, with a single over-stretched doctor covering a huge area out-of-hours, is just not fit for purpose. This sad fact was illustrated by a recent incident. A local resident told the meeting about how she fell, on a Sunday, out-of-hours. Mervyn Shaw took up the story: “When a friend phoned NHS24 she had to answer the same questions three times before eventually getting to speak to a doctor. He asked the same questions all over again and then insisted that he speak to the patient who was lying on the floor, in pain. In the end the friend took the phone and demanded that something be done. A paramedic then drove over from Aberfeldy and called up an ambulance - that was at Perth.”

Action Expected

The point was made very strongly that people expect decisive action from their elected representatives. Alex Grosset, Chair of the Community Council, pointed out that it is not just local residents who are at risk but also the many holiday makers and other visitors.
Mary Scanlon said that what people described would not be tolerated in her own Highlands and Islands constituency and that she would speak directly to Nicola Sturgeon.

MSP Murdo Fraser told Comment that there had been “a very clear message that the local community intends to continue fighting until they see a safe system of 24-hour medical cover put into place.”

See also: OOH: Locals Told: 'Look to the Highlands'