If you are going to A&E because you can't get an appointment with us - then tell us!

Our local Accident and Emergency departments at Pinderfields and Pontefract say that are struggling to cope with increasing numbers of patients. They are particularly concerned at the moment because they are about to move into the new hospital at Pinderfields and are concerned that with a recent rise in the number of attendances they will not be able to cope with the move AND provide a safe service.

One of the issues that they say is increasing their demand is the number of patients they are seeing who say they cannot get an appointment with their GP. They are particularly concerned about the number of children who are attending between 5.00 pm and 7.00 pm who they think should have been seen by their GP.

The practice does lots of things to unsure that we have enough appointment slots for patients who either need to be seen or think they need to be seen on the same day. We have an on-call doctor who does a lunchtime surgery that is not booked until the morning and the on-call doctors afternoon surgery is not booked until the afternoon. Our receptionist will always squeeze babies and young children into extra slots for the on-call doctor. The practice doctors think that it is our job to see patients on the same day who want to be seen.

I am not really sure that what the hospital is claiming is true for our patients, but if you are thinking of going to A&E because you can't get an appointment with us, then tell us and we would hope to be able to squeeze you in.

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