Local AM Nick Ramsay has asked the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Vaughan Gething, for a statement on the GP out-of-hours services available in South East Wales.

 

Mr Ramsay raised the issue after being contacted by an 87-year-old constituent who was in urgent need of an out-of-hours appointment following a problem with a catheter in the early hours of the morning.

 

Speaking in the Chamber last week, Mr Ramsay said, “A home visit was requested by phone at 11am and a visit booked but a doctor didn’t finally arrive until 8pm, nine hours later, after several phone calls in the meantime,

 

“The doctor then advised an ambulance to hospital. That arrived. My constituent says that throughout, the staff who dealt with him were second to none but he was really concerned about the delays involved in the out-of-hours service that he experienced. “

 

In response, Mr Gething said he would be interested in following up the case in question.

 

He said, “Blocked catheters are a relatively common issue for an out-of-hours service. It is also part of the challenge about having a district service available as well as part of an improvement we need to see because it should not be the case that a blocked catheter leads to an A and E attendance.

“This is not something that I believe is appropriate either for the health service or, more importantly, for the individual.”