Wednesday February 8th 2017
Another Midlothian GP practice is restricting access to new patients, as it struggles to provide services to an ever-growing population.
Gorebridge based Newbyres Medical Centre has introduced restrictions on new patients registering with the practice, in line with steps already taken by Dalkeith, Newbattle, Pathhead and all 3 Bonnyrigg based surgeries.
Labour Councillors were quick to condemn the inaction of both the Scottish Government and the Local SNP administration on Midlothian Council for their “breath-taking complacency on this issue.”
On hearing the news at the weekend, local Gorebridge Councillor Jim Muirhead said:
“It will come as no surprise to the people of Gorebridge that the local surgery has had to close its doors to some new patients, as it is clearly having difficulty in coping with the more than 9,000 patients already on its books.
“This means that every group practice in the East side of Midlothian is now operating restrictions on their patient numbers.
“The SNP councillors in Midlothian should hang their heads in shame for doing nothing to prepare for what we could all see coming, indeed they obstructed attempts to mitigate this. When the Labour Group raised this issue back in May 2015, making constructive suggestions on how the Scottish Government could take steps to reduce the pressures on GP’s, the SNP Group blocked any progress, accusing Labour of trying to make political gain.
“At the time, Councillor Lisa Beattie said “to describe this as a crisis is exaggeration in the extreme”. The truth is that the SNP Councillors in Midlothian are more interested in protecting their Party at Holyrood from, even perceived criticism, while doing nothing to protect the interests of the people they were elected to represent.
“Meanwhile the Scottish Government continues to insist that Midlothian allocates more and more land for housing but fails to provide the resources required to support the increase in population.”
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