From the New Year in 2024 the practice will be reduced in GP numbers.
The ever increasing demand on GP services, coupled with the loss of staff mean that the practice no longer has the capacity to deal with all the contacts it receives. If the workload becomes unmanageable there is a risk to the safe delivery of care.
In order to prioritise care to those patients with the greatest need it becomes necessary to direct some patients to other NHS services or other sources of assistance where they can be assessed by other healthcare professionals.
Examples of this are many and include;
- Minor injury unit
- Urgent care centre
- A&E Dept
- GP OOH service after 6pm
- Local pharmacy (including new schemes for sore throat and UTI)
- Local opticians, podiatrists, physios
- Community Mental Health Team at Trasna House for patients already known to them
- Self-referral to Antenatal clinic or NHS physio clinic
- Travel clinic in Lisburn for travel vaccination advice
There are more details about some of the services elsewhere on this website.
When the practice has reached its limit for safe working we will aim to deal only with true medical emergencies. In those circumstances if a patient believes their problem is a genuine medical emergency the receptionist will ask for as much information as possible and pass it to the duty doctor for their consideration. Note the doctor will only call back if the problem is clinically urgent. Some cases may be directed to other services.
We are sorry that the NHS in Northern Ireland is in crisis. Until there is better governmental support to reverse this crisis GP practices have to allocate their finite resources to those in greatest need. In the meantime please help us to manage our resources by using the practice service responsibly.
