Deputy Clinical Chair of NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, Dr Andy Seymour said:
“It should be recognised that the increase in demand for services is a challenge for the whole health and social care community and all parts of the NHS need to continue to work together to make further improvements to the system for patients.
GPs and their teams are working extremely hard to meet the needs of patients and most GP surgeries schedule appointment slots to match periods of high demand.
We are working with our members practices in Gloucester City to look at ways of providing additional ‘on the day’ urgent appointments. We already have in place appointment slots within our Gloucester Health Access Centre that can be used for patients who need GP care, but have presented at the Emergency Department.
We are also currently carrying out further survey work with patients in local emergency departments to find out more about their views on accessing services.
The public can help too by finding out more about our Choose Well campaign and making the right healthcare choices. Information is available at www.choosewellglos.nhs.uk”