Residents in north Glenrothes have hit out at what they have described as the “virtual closure” of a local GP surgery for a week due to a system upgrade.
With Fife currently in the midst of a GP crisis, locals have criticised the move at the North Glen Medical Practice in Huntsman Court which they say has left around 1,200 people in the area without vital services since Monday.
NHS Fife said it had been reassured that appropriate contingency plans had been put in place as the switch to a new clinical system takes place, but the contentious issue was included on the North Glenrothes Community Council (NGCC) agenda on Thursday night.
Local businessman Colin Nikolic, who has campaigned on local matters in the past, described the situation as “absolutely outrageous”.
“The planning of this upgrade meaning closure for a full week is ridiculous and I would imagine is causing chaos/frustration and severe worry for many people in the community,” he pointed out.
“And it would appear that this is going to last for some time after the surgery reopens.
“For the life of me I cannot understand why this was allowed to happen in this way. Surely the NHS has the resources to handle a computer system upgrade an awful lot better than this?
“The surgery has its normal day-to-day problems getting to see GPs, availability of access etc, but I can see an awful lot of grief for the community in the coming weeks and months as I can see the problems being very heavily compounded.
“Why wasn’t this whole thing planned around extra hours keeping the effect on the community to a minimum as would be done in most well run organisations?”
“I certainly can’t imagine any commercial organisation having the gall to treat this customers in this manner – and they couldn’t afford the shutdown anyway.
“This does not reflect well on NHS Fife and they need to act now.”
The change from the Vision clinical system to EMIS Web should see the new system up and running on Monday, and Christian Aitken, practice manager, has asked for people’s help, support and patience over the coming months as this “major piece of work” is undertaken.
“The majority of practices in Fife use this system and we have taken the decision to change in order to be able to work together more efficiently in the future,” Mr Aitken said in a statement.
“We are switching to EMIS Web which will allow the practice to move forward with NHS Fife’s primary care technology and improve patient care and increase efficiency.
“We will do our very best to ensure that our patients continue to receive a good service.”
Prior to the change-over, the surgery warned patients to expect some disruption, adding that prescriptions and consultation/clinic information would have to be handwritten with limited access to records.
Appointments would be limited, the surgery added, with only people with emergency same day appointments being seen, while doctors and nurses would not be able to view computer records or record information.
An NHS Fife spokesperson said: “Whilst North Glen Medical Practice is an independent contractor, NHS Fife has been working closely with them ahead of their transition on to a new clinical system and we are satisfied that the practice has put in place appropriate contingencies during this time. “
