THE health board is set to be quizzed by councillors on steps taken to solve problems experienced by patients trying to access GP services across Wrexham.
Representatives from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board will attend a meeting of Wrexham Council’s safeguarding, communities and wellbeing scrutiny committee this week.
In the last few years, there has been particular concern about the areas served by the Hillcrest, Borras Park and Forge Road Surgeries.
These focused around the reduction in the number of GPs and an over reliance on locums, which was causing a lack of stability and consistency for patients trying to make appointments to see a GP.
But a draft report produced by Shaun Taylor, the health board’s primary care, planning and commissioning manager says recruitment still remains a challenge.
The report says: “Since the last update to the committee in June 2022, the health board has implemented a new operating structure, with the Primary Care team now sitting within the wider East Integrated Health Community (IHC) which has joint responsibility for all primary, secondary and community health care across Wrexham and Flintshire.
“Demands on Primary Care continue to be significantly above pre Covid levels, especially for same day appointment requests. This was most evident in late 2022 when the Strep A outbreak saw a significant and prolonged increase in demand for services, coinciding with staff illness and some prescription drug shortages.
“Primary Care including Pharmacy across Wrexham responded with a number of additional children only clinics, increased support and advice for schools and greater cross Cluster support for ‘hotspots’.
“Recruitment across all staff groups remains a challenge for both GMS and managed practices, and the Health Board continues work with the wider BCU Primary Care Academy to continue to develop roles and support for medical (doctors), clinical (nursing, therapy, health care assistants etc) and administration roles.”
The report says that since last year, meetings have been held with locum GPs to discuss salaried roles, in a bid to move away from agency use.
Four salaried GPs have been appointed, three at Beechley and one other across Beechley and Pen Y Maes.
Five salaried site-specific clinical leads have also been appointed, one each for Hillcrest, Beechley, Pen Y Maes, The Laurels and St Marks.
Throughout last year all practices have had access to e-consult an online triage and consultation platform. But according to the draft report there is little consistency in its usage.
“Numbers remain low in comparison to traditional telephony or footfall”, it says.
“On average e-consult across the six sites receives around 2,000 visitors monthly, of which 750 are new users the new user ratio is increasing month on month by around 10 per cent.
“The most frequent online requests are for skin complaints, which makes sense as patients are able to upload photo’s which speeds up the triaging process.”
Updates have also been provided on the future of other general medical services across Wrexham.
The Hanmer Practice has submitted request to move to a new premises, stating that the current estate is not fit for purpose.
Discussions are ongoing between the practice, the Primary Care team and specialised estates. An initial business case from the practice was reviewed at East IHC in April.
Wrexham Council and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have submitted a joint bid to secure funding for a feasibility study looking at the potential for a joint health and social care capital project in south Wrexham.
This money has allowed the hiring of a specialist organisation to undertake a six-month review of Cefn Mawr and the wider county area which will involve significant stakeholder engagement. Once the study is completed there will be an opportunity to apply for capital funding for any agreed projects.
A Health Board panel met in May and agreed that the Gresford Health Centre, ran by Alyn Family Doctors, can remain closed and may continue to operate out of its other two sites, in Llay and Rossett.
The Gresford centre has been closed since March 2020 when the branch GP surgery initially as part of measures to ensure the safety of premises during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since that time the building has been used exclusively by Community Nursing and Health Visitor services.
This update will be discussed at the scrutiny committee on Wednesday (June 12).
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