GWENT GPs are "a long way down the road" toward improving access for patients by phasing out half day closing for larger practices, says a Welsh doctors' leader.

Dr David Bailey, who practices in Gwent, said just four out of the area's 108 practices with three or more GPs still close for a half a weekday.

Recently, GPs in Wales were criticised for half day closing but Dr Bailey, chairman of the Brtiish Medical Association Wales' GP committee, told the BMA's annual conference of Local Medical Committees (LMCs) that the scale of half-day closing is much less than the 40 per cent reported.

"We investigated and found only 10 per cent of practices with more than two partners closed for a half day," he said, adding that these practices we have been contacted and asked to rethink.

Dr Bailey told the Argus one problem has been that a "significant number" of practices failed to update their websites, leaving details of half day closing available, despite their no longer doing so.

"Gwent is an awful long way down the road on this issue. We've done a lot of good work here with practices, the Community Health Council (CHC), the Local Medical Committee and the health board. We are trying to make it a co-operative effort," he said.

He stressed however, that the BMA Wales remains supportive of smaller practices' - those with one or two GPs - need to balance workload and for the "it is not unreasonable to take a half day."

  • EARLIER this week, the Argus reported the findings of an Aneurin Bevan CHC report into A&E delays at the Royal Gwent Hospital, that concluded part of the demand may be based on public perception or experience that "timely alternatives" to hospital do not exist.

The CHC wants to discover to what extent access, or a perceived lack of it, to GP practices contributes to unnecessary A&E attendance.

Dr Bailey said GPs fully support the idea of patients seeing them first, acknowledging that up-to-date information on access is vital, and he stressed that many GPs provide on-the-day walk-in services.

"You may have to wait to see a GP, but you will wait a damn sight longer in casualty (A&E)," he said.