Update on GP Out-of-Hours service, Friday 23 March 5pm

We are continuing to experience difficulties filling some of our Out-of-Hours rotas in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire this weekend due to acute GP shortages. As always, efforts continue and the situation may improve but currently we are unable to keep the following sites open at the following times:

Prince Philip Hospital – Friday 23 March (From 10.30pm-8am)

                                   Saturday 24 March (From 2pm-8am)

                                   Sunday 25 March (From 2pm-8am)

Glangwili General Hospital – Saturday 24 March (From 11pm-8am)

                                          Sunday 25 March (From 11pm-8am)

Llandysul – Sunday 25 March (From 11pm-8am)

Pembrokeshire – Sunday 25 March (From Midnight-8am)

All closed centres will be supported with GP advice from 11pm – 8am and Nurse advice from 7pm – 8am.

Care can still be provided in alternative ways and patients will be advised when they call 111 (Carmarthenshire) or GP Out of Hours (Pembrokeshire) which is accessed by calling your usual GP.

If you are unwell during the evenings and weekends you can access the following:

• for health information and advice, including online symptom checkers, please visit NHS Direct Wales: www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk
• call 111 (Carmarthenshire only) – they can help to signpost you to the right service, for example a GP, nurse, pharmacist or Minor Injury Unit, they also provide health information on a wide range of conditions for self care if appropriate
• use your community pharmacy, some of these have enhanced services like ‘triage and treat’ for treatment of minor conditions
• ONLY in an emergency for serious or life-threatening conditions should you dial 999

Chief Executive Steve Moore said: “On behalf of the Health Board I would again like to apologise for any concern or inconvenience caused due to ongoing staffing issues in the Out of Hours GP service. This is a familiar trend among other health boards across the country and we know that all of our staff and GPs are working really hard to provide safe services for our patients, for which we are appreciative. We are working together across the whole health board area and across different services to provide a safety net for our patients.

“The public’s health is our number one priority and although we sometimes cannot achieve everything that we want to achieve, we are doing our utmost to ensure that we can continue to provide services that are safe and robust for our local communities.”

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