Dear doctor, we really wish you were here

Islanders have penned a heartfelt note about the charms of their Hebridean home in a bid to find a new GP.

Frustrated with NHS Highland’s failure to find a permanent placement for Bowmore, Islay Community Council has written its own “Dear Doctor” flyer that has been published in the British Medical Journal.

With snaps of Bowmore’s pretty harbour and the Main Street, featuring its famous round church, the open letter from the community council tries to dispel the myth that Islay, boasting excellent air links, is remote.

Roberta MacNeill, vice chairman of Islay Community Council, said: “The community feels that NHS Highland had very mediocre adverts in the past, saying nothing about the quality of life here. They were fobbing us off; it was a case of us being forced to form a sub-group of the community council to try to get something done.”

The community council took action because of complaints from patients that they were seeing a different doctor every time they attended a surgery and that the cost of locum doctors to provide cover was costing in excess of £140,000 – money which could have been spent on improving services.

The community also believes that six doctors are needed to ensure that round-the-clock cover for the whole island can be spread out to an acceptable level, yet there are only two permanent GPs in place at the moment, plus the locum at Bowmore. Locums have been holding the fort at Bowmore since Dr David Latta retired in June 2010.

MacNeill said: “Since Dr Latta has gone it’s just been disastrous, one patient saw five different doctors in six visits. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Even one of the locums, Dr Iain McNicol, 63, from Appin, Argyll, who has come out of retirement to provide cover in Bowmore, says the “king’s ransom” he is being paid would be better spent elsewhere. He is now writing to NHS Highland suggesting the board formulate an action plan to encourage permanent GP cover. He said: “Bowmore would be a tremendous place to work but the health board needs to give definite leadership.”

McNicol added: “I feel really sorry for the patients, they are getting a raw deal. I first did locum cover over there last April, and a woman patient said to me: ‘You are the 18th doctor I have seen this year.’”

All three Islay surgeries, at Bowmore, Port Ellen and Port Charlotte, pull together to provide out-of-hours cover for the 3,500 population, so everyone is affected by the constantly changing locums.

Bowmore surgery’s recent move into what many people believe is unsuitable accommodation at the island’s community hospital is another problem.

Dr Chris Abell, 56, who moved to Islay from England six years ago, said many factors were contributing to the GP recruitment problems, including the out-of-hours work and doctors having to deal with such a diverse workload – from midwifery to attending road accidents, without the back-up of specialists.

He feels some change will be inevitable to sustain services in the future, and suggests adapting contracts or offering salaried posts. Abell also floats the innovative idea that a community-owned medical centre, which could rent premises to incoming GPs, may attract interest from doctors willing to try island life for a few years.

The Argyll SNP MSP Michael Russell, the education minister at Holyrood, met with islanders last week and says he is backing them in their quest for continuity of care.

He said the island must be looked at as a whole, instead of three separate doctors’ surgeries, and added: “There must be a commitment and action by NHS Highland to restore cover on Islay to six doctors, and the surgery in the hospital must only be seen as a temporary solution.”

An NHS Highland spokesman said: “NHS Highland acknowledges how challenging it has been to attract a suitable GP to the practice.”

An attempt by the other two surgeries to provide permanent cover fell through when one of the remaining GPs retired.

The spokesman added: “Since then NHS Highland has been working with the local community, and the flyer was part of this collaborative effort to fill the post on a permanent basis, and in fact it is currently advertised in the British Medical Journal.”

He added that previous adverts had been unsuccessful due to unsuitable candidates or candidates withdrawing.