SINN Féin North Belfast MLA and member of the Assembly Health Committee Carál Ní Chuilín has raised concerns about access to GP services during the pandemic.
It comes after problems reported with the 'Phone First' system which has been introduced for patients accessing local GP services during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In North Belfast I’ve spoken to constituents reporting their frustrations and worry in attempting to contact their GP using the ‘Phone First’ system," she explained.
“These patients have consistently defended their GP practices and are very loyal to their local doctors so it is clearly very difficult for them even to raise this issue.
“However the ‘Phone First’ system isn’t working for many people and I’ve seen at first hand extensive call logs from constituents showing their multiple attempts to access GP services.
“Unfortunately this issue culminated in hundreds of patients visiting the Royal Emergency Department, causing our front-line health staff huge challenges at a time of social distancing and severe pressures on resources.
“Our GPs do a fantastic job of that there is no doubt and they have often stretched themselves to breaking point during the pandemic on behalf of their patients.
“At the Assembly Health Committee we have heard that the ‘Phone First’ system is proving to have the same problems with access to GPs in every constituency and therefore we need to see a rapid improvement in accessing GPs for patients.
“Clearly where a bottleneck arises in the provision of health services then the consequences are manifested in another part of the system such as our Emergency Departments which is concerning. For patients, staff and also for local GPs.”
