Otherwise known as ‘get your hospital tests done at your local practice’.
We understand that it is more convenient for you to get all of your tests done at the GP practice rather than in your hospital clinic. However, GP Practices are not contractually responsible for carrying out tests or other monitoring for hospital outwith the ‘GP Enhanced Services Programme: Disease modifying drugs’ service agreement which covers only a few medications. GP phlebotomy services are for exclusive use for essential GP services.
During the COVID pandemic GP Practices willingly but temporarily carried out a variety of hospital monitoring services to prevent patients from having to travel to hospitals and potentially catch or spread COVID infection. Both the ‘GP Enhanced Services Programme: Disease modifying drugs’ service agreement and GP Practice activity during the pandemic have understandably led to the misunderstanding that GP Practices are responsible for carrying out hospital services.
GP Practices are only contractually responsible for the work that their GPs generate and taking on extra services without the adequate competencies or resources only lessens the GP services that they are responsible for providing. Over the past few years our practice has experienced an unsustainably high workload leading to long waiting times for our own tests irrespective of hospital tests. The more hospital testing our practice carries out, the longer you have to wait to get your GP tests for cancer, thyroid, anaemia, bowel, liver kidney.
For these reasons the Almond Group Practice will not be carrying out services or monitoring on the behalf of hospital clinics until such a time that adequate training, resources and funding are provide by the Healthboard and Scottish Government. This position is supported by the Local Medical Committee (LMC)