Letters / Open letter to NHS Shetland over staffing
Dear Shetland News,
This is an open letter to NHS Shetland. With the recent announcement that Lerwick is going to going be hosting a GP drop-in centre, I would like to ask NHS Shetland how this centre is going to be staffed.
Only this week the Lerwick GP practice have said, ‘We are running with reduced clinical staffing this week and response times will be longer’ and this has been anongoing issue for many years. Access to the AskMyGP online system is extremely limited in time and often not open.
If you see a doctor and have an ongoing health issue, you might be lucky to see the same doctor again.
The two health centres on the Westside are operating with locum GPs which we all know cost more than employing permanent GPs. If there are any spare GPs going we would like them here please.
It is a genuine concern amongst people that this will divert resources from already stretched services for those who need it.
Please don’t get me wrong this is, in principle, a good idea but there is much speculation about how and if it will work.
Debra Nicolson
Tresta
