Vale of Leven Hospital staff praised as figures show more than 7500 patients treated at out-of-hours

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Hard-working Vale hospital staff have been praised after figures revealed that more than 7500 people were treated at the out-of-hours unit in the past year.MSP Jackie Baillie said it was “pleasing” that so many people have been able to access healthcare locally.Data obtained by the Dumbarton constituency MSP under Freedom of Information laws revealed that 7637 patients were seen at the facility between the beginning of March last year and the end of February this year.Walk-in cases accounted for 1932 of those who attended – a quarter of all patients seen.The unit was fully reinstated to evening, weekend and overnight operation in February 2021, having been subject to disruption over previous years.Problems had arisen, which board chiefs at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde attributed to difficulties in finding medical professionals to staff the service.However, they confirmed to Labour’s Health spokeswoman that 34 GPs are currently contracted to work a four-week rota, in addition to a further 10, who provide cover as and when required.The board also reported that, since the service was fully reinstated there “has never been a gap in service and there have always been GPs available to provide continual running of out-of-hours via the VOLGP Integrated Care service”.Jackie Baillie said: “It is pleasing that, since the out-of-hours service at the Vale of Leven Hospital was properly reinstated that patients have been able to access the care they should expect locally.“It is testament to the hard-working staff at the Vale of Leven Hospital and the GPs responsible for the out-of-hours service that this has been sustained over the last two years following a prolonged period of uncertainty.“The important aspect now is that this