GPs hit back in row over hospital

Newark GPs have hit back at the town’s MP over claims they were reluctant to refer patients to Newark Hospital.

Mr Mercer called for patients to demand to be treated at Newark Hospital, and for it to have some ability to accept patients with chest pains or suspected heart attacks so they could be stabilised.

A letter addressed to Mr Mercer, and copied to the Advertiser, has been signed by GPs at Lombard Street Medical Centre and the Fountain Medical Centre.

It describes Mr Mercer’s comments as ill-thought through, ill-researched and says they risk undermining doctors’ credibility with their patients.

The letter says: “We were incensed, disappointed and surprised to read your comments.

“We can assure you that not only are we fully aware of all the facilities at Newark Hospital, but we are also aware of the limitations to acute services which can be provided in the town.

“We fully support Newark Hospital and feel very fortunate to have this excellent facility on our doorstep.

“We positively refer our patients to Newark Hospital in preference to others for out-patient consultations, in-patient and day case surgery, endoscopy, imaging, pathology and in selected cases in-patient medical care.”

The letter accuses Mr Mercer of telling patients to demand to be treated at Newark regardless of their condition and criticised his call for a less risk-adverse attitude to the hospital.

It says: “Please ask yourself where you would wish to be treated if you were having a heart attack — Newark Hospital where the best that could be done would be perhaps thrombolysis (clot-busting) or a fully equipped acute cardio unit where your coronary arteries could be unblocked, stented or even bypassed if the need arose?

“For us to send a patient to Newark with an acute heart attack would be fool-hardy at best and negligent at worst as we would certainly risk causing harm to our patient by denying them access to evidence-based interventions.”

The letter said the minor injuries unit at Newark Hospital could not be upgraded unless other facilities such as anaesthetic back-up and intensive care were also provided.

It said: “Unless there is some miraculous change of government policy in the funding of the NHS, which seems highly unlikely, Newark will never be able to sustain an accident and emergency unit.

“Again, attempts to get this message across to the population of Newark seem to have been fruitless and your remarks only serve to perpetuate the myths.”

Mr Mercer said since receiving the letters he had arranged a series of meetings with GPs to discuss the issues raised.

He said: “In my conversations with the acting chief executive of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Chris Mellor, he made it very clear to me that he believed GPs were not sending enough people to Newark Hospital.

“If that has not occurred then I am delighted that we can put this straight with Newark GPs and, therefore, this can only be a good thing.

“This gives me a chance to ask the doctors to raise up their voices in support of the hospital.”

Mr Mercer said he felt the GPs had viewed his comments in the most austere light possible.

He said: “If nothing else this will smoke out the services that GPs do offer to my constituents that match up closely with the services there are on offer.

“If there is some division between myself and the GPs on this then I want to make that into a creative and useful tension.”

Mr Mercer said he was not calling for people to be treated at Newark if suitable services were not available at the hospital.

He said: “One respects the professional opinions of doctors in these matters but the issue remains that so many of my constituents are saying they are not being treated in Newark when they would like to be.”