Oct 30 - GSLP-Liberal Alliance Says Primary Care Centre Appointments Is A Legacy Of The GSD Years
The GSLP-Liberal Alliance has said issues with the Primary Care Centre appointment system is a legacy of the GSD while they were in government.
A spokesman for the Alliance said: "It is incredible that with every statement they make, the GSD continue to give the impression that they have been living on a different planet over the last few years. It is as if they are simply not aware of what happened before at the time when they used to be in office or they are trying to airbrush that responsibility away. This attitude comes across particularly strongly in their recent statement on the appointments system at the Primary Care Centre.
"The reason why the GSLP-Liberal Government reformed the appointments system at the Primary Care Centre was precisely because the GSD Government had made such a mess of it over the previous sixteen years.
"In a typical display of this lack of memory or of deliberate misrepresentation they now claim the present system was this Government’s brainchild! The system was actually inherited from the GSD. In fact their system was even worse as in their time appointments could only be had every three months, leading to hundreds of missed appointments, much more desperation and longer queues. The system was improved upon the suggestion of staff in 2012 and the queues dropped considerably at the time.
"The recent build up has been dealt with by increasing the number of appointments and employing more doctors. There are now 22 doctors at the Primary Care Centre when there used to be 16.5 in 2011.
"It is amusing that the GSD should come out publicly on this topic the day after the Minister for Health himself made the announcement of a further reform of the system. But there are many differences. For one, while the GSLP/Liberals know exactly what it will be doing, the GSD says they will act “once they come up with a suitable alternative”. This is an admission that they do not have a clue.
"The GSD also say that they will consult, which is exactly what the GSLP/Liberal Government have been doing, working with service users and staff to progress the matter."
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