Turriff community voices its concern over healthcare provision
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A packed Baden Powell Centre saw over 200 local residents attend a public meeting on Monday evening which was called by local MP David Duguid to voice community concerns over healthcare provision.
Three principal matters were raised, namely access to the local GP practice, the Minor Injury Unit at Turriff and Ambulance coverage.
Addressing the meeting Mr Duguid said: "The idea behind this meeting was to have a session in which the residents of Turriff and surrounding areas could express your concerns and raise any issues you have with the health service, ambulance provision and minor injury unit.
"The idea was to have representatives here to speak on their behalf - I had no response whatsoever from the Scottish Ambulance Service, Aberdeen Health and Social Care Partnership had no one available as they have so many on leave at present (though the have provided a statement) and Turriff Medical Practice also declined as they wanted to meet with me privately before the meeting, and to be fair we did give them quite short notice as we had issues contacting them, as some of you have probably found.
"In order to help me take the issues forward I am delighted to welcome MSP Gillian Martin and fellow MSP Tess Whyte who will also take your issues forward."
Audience member Stewart Whyte was the first to speak on his own experience: "Firstly I must say I an devastated that those who were asked to attend have not turned up", a comment that was met with universal applause in the room, "I am worried that none of them are committed to Turriff Hospital and that this is death by a thousand cuts until they say that it is no longer viable and we can close it.
"I wanted to hear them say that they value the hospital, but I am worried that the opportunities for Turriff are being missed.
"I have had to travel to get physiotherapy - to Fraserburgh and Huntly, why don't people there have to travel to Turriff to get specialist services, it could be screening, mental health or for cancer support - there is an opportunity being missed and I am worried that they are not committed to the hospital and there is no one here to tell us that this opinion is wrong."
Examples of issues raised by the audience included access to GPs, econsultation and the continued use of Covid protocols in relation to the waiting room area which as one persons said: "Even if you do get through all the hoops and finally get an appointment, you have to get permission to enter the building, and when you do get in there is no one there, more than two people in the waiting room is unheard of", which also received unilateral recognition from the audience.
On appointments, MSP Gillian Martin highlighted her own situation as she is registered with a practice in Dyce.
Their system still allows patients who phone for appointments to look past the day of contact and arrange for a time period in the future, a situation she said; "May be old fashioned but seems to be working."
She also stated that the phone system, while used across the practices, was manageable and could be altered to configurations to suit, noting the issue with Inverurie's system which dropped calls after 30 minutes.
She said; "In Turriff, Inverurie and Meldrum there is this system where you must phone through at a certain point in the day and if you don't get through or if you cant phone at that time, your never going to get an appointment.
"That is why we need to have practice managers here to answer the queries.
"Is your practice patient centred or do you have limited capacity that you are trying to manage - this system is not patient centred."
She went on to explain that the Holyrood Health Committee which she chairs and which Tess Whyte is also member has just concluded and inquiry into primary care provision and the principal issue put by all respondents was the inability to access patient records (eg for pharmacists, nurses) so that it caused a continued bottleneck at practices when treatment and advice could be sought elsewhere.
On the issues surrounding Minor Injury Units reading the AHSCP statement on minor injury unit provision Mr Duguid quoted: "The minor injury service across Aberdeenshire is in the process of re-mobilising we are currently focussing on ensuring that the staff at each unit have the required training and experience to deliver the service.
"The minor injury service in line with the national move to schedule urgent care appointments must now be access by calling NHS 24 on 111 where appointments will be assessed and may not be at the nearest unit."
Examples were cited from the audience of phoning 11 and being sent to Huntly or Fraserburgh when there is no way of getting there without your own transport.
People with strong bleeds having to drive to Banff and the concerns over the area being one of high risk due to the agriculture and meat processing plant in the town.
Mr Duguid asked the room: "Has anyone used the 111 process and actually been dealt with in Turriff?."
With derision from the room not a single hand was raised.
Ambulance cover for the town has been a long standing issue and the lack of provision stretches back many years.
Several examples were given including a wait of nearly 24 hours for assistance, lack of availability at cardiac incidents and what many considered were "excuses" over the inability to station a unit in Turriff.
Councillor Anne Stirling who sits on the Integration Joint Board, spoke to the assembly and said that work was ongoing into ambulance provision and that it was "positive", but that "it is up to the Scottish Ambulance Service to make their plans public."
The work of the Sandpiper Trust first responders was praised with local volunteer Ian Hendry explaining how the system works while also making a call for more volunteers to come forward.
MSP's highlighted the First Response training for Scottish Fire and Rescue, which they assumed mean that crews were able to assist, but were told in no uncertain terms by the local watch commander that this was not the case and having been trained and gained equipment to do so, they had been removed from this after a short period due to a dispute raised by their union and they had not been participating since pre-lockdown.
Given the right to reply on the meeting, GP Partners at Turruff Medical Practice responded:"As we were not present at the meeting we are not in a position to comment on anything that was discussed.
"We are happy for patients to continue to contact the practice to raise any concerns they have with us directly."
Commenting after the meeting Mr Duguid added: “The packed meeting showed how important these issues are to the people of Turriff and the surrounding area.
“It’s clear that there has been a steady erosion of proper healthcare services and residents are right to voice their concerns about this extremely worrying situation.
“Throughout the meeting, people spoke of their anguish at being on the phone for hours and hours with no response while others have been told to go to Huntly, Fraserburgh and Peterhead to be seen.
“People were admitting in public that they live in fear because of this which is why it’s crucial we get facilities such as Turriff’s MIU back to full capacity.”
He added: “It was disappointing Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership, the ambulance service and health centre didn’t attend despite being given the opportunity to engage with residents.
“However, I’m going to collate the concerns that were raised and bring them forward to the organisations involved and I know they will want to respond to the constructive feedback from the public.
“My intention remains, as before this meeting, to facilitate a constructive dialogue with health service providers to help rebuild the service expected by the people of Turriff and across Banff and Buchan.”
