20th December 2015
GPs in Cumbria have been providing voluntary out-of-hours services, taking on patients registered in other practices and reissuing medications as part of efforts to support communities affected by Storm Desmond. Out-of-hours group Cumbria Health on Call has co-ordinated GPs’ efforts to support the communities, facing extra number patients who have contracted diarrhoea and vomiting symptoms while trying to clean up their homes.
The floods caused by the storm have left thousands without access to their homes and caused Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to cancel all but essential services. Two GPs were also sent by boat to Lake District village Glenridding on Monday to provide treatment for patients, after road access was cut off by the storm.
Administration and patient services manager Jude Rowley, with the Station House Surgery in Kendal, said the situation “promoted fantastic cooperation between practices in Kendal. I came in yesterday morning, and the first thing was a phone call from another practice, offering to see any of our patients if they couldn’t get across town. Obviously we reciprocated as well.”
GPC deputy chair Richard Vautrey has praised the cooperation between practices, saying that “it’s inspiring to see local GPs and their practice teams, as well as many others in the emergency services, responding so quickly and effectively to help their patients at this time of crisis. They are part of the community themselves and fully understand the physical and psychological impact the floods will have on their patients not just in the immediate crisis but over the coming weeks and months.”
Vautrey pointed to the incident as a marker of where the wider NHS needs to go in the future – providing support for rural surgeries in the long term.