The Lanarkshire public are reminded that NHS Lanarkshire’s primary care out of hours service is for urgent care only, as experience indicates that many patients call with minor or non-urgent problems.
Almost 200,000 calls came into the service between the start of 2020 and end of May 2022, with 45% handled as advice calls, over a third (38%) resulting in patients being seen at the primary care centre and 8% of calls resulting in home visits. Nine per cent of patients were seen at the Covid assessment centre, although 28% of overall calls were related to Covid.
When your GP surgery is closed and you are too ill to wait, you can access NHS Lanarkshire out of hours service by calling NHS 24 on 111.
Dr Iain Hathorn, NHS Lanarkshire’s clinical director in primary care, said: “Experience within the service shows that many of the calls into the service are for minor or non-urgent problems and many of these patients could have turned to a more appropriate place for help.
“Please help us help you get the right care at the right time to ensure that those who need to use the service for urgent care are prioritised.
“We understand that when someone has an illness or minor ailment they want help as soon as possible. We would like to remind the public that this is an urgent care service. There is no direct access for the patient and it’s not a walk-in service.
“Unless a patient’s condition is life threatening or critical they should seek advice for the appropriate healthcare support by ringing NHS 24 on 111 day or night. They will be able to direct people to the right NHS service, including the out of hours service where appropriate.
“There are a number of options that people can turn to for healthcare with a range of help and advice on NHS Lanarkshire’s website including Meet the Experts which offers a range of services that local healthcare professionals across Lanarkshire can provide.
“The NHS inform website also provides advice on self-care and your local pharmacy is the first port of call for minor ailments. This can also help free up appointments for those who need them with our out of hours service.
“The last couple of years have been extremely busy and the high volume of calls are testament to the excellent hard work and teamwork across the out of hours service. As the figures show, calls are triaged to ensure the patient receives the best form of care, whether that be over the phone, at home or face-to-face at the primary care centre.
“The service has evolved and adapted as a result of the pandemic. The GPs, advanced nurse practitioners and nurse practitioners all work together to ensure patients are seen and treated in a timely manner. There is also a psychiatric nursing liaison service which deals with all adult mental health calls to the service.
“Around about 10 per cent of our referrals comes from professional to professional calls from district nursing, ambulance service and community pharmacy among others.”
One role that has evolved is the paediatric nurse practitioner role which has proven vital due to the high number of under-16s who are seen by the service.
Jane McDonald, NHS Lanarkshire out of hours senior charge nurse, said: “My role is to see, treat and discharge the paediatric patients who come in. Under 16s account for about 40 per cent of our patient group.
“They are sent to us from NHS 24 and are initially assessed by our clinical support workers before coming to me for an assessment and then either send them home with treatment or onto our other acute colleagues.
“There is always support and someone to ask for second opinions or support. It is a good team feeling in the workplace.”
The advanced nurse practitioners (ANP) works closely with the GPs and covers face-to-face consultations in the primary care centre, home visiting and telephone reviews. They also have a role in mentoring trainee ANPs.
Laura Lawson recently qualified as an advanced nurse practitioner within the team.
Laura said: “I’ve been part of the out of hours team now for four years. I started as a nurse practitioner, completed my training for my prescribing and advanced assessment and then took role of trainee ANP, starting in the January just before Covid. I completed my training over past two years and qualified earlier this year as an ANP.
“We are very close knit and it is a great team to be part of. One of the things I like about being here is the GPs are very supportive, you can ask for help, they take you through your training and they become your mentor. You are assigned a GP and they help you through your training, so you have someone to turn to if you are needing help or support which is really good.”
