Night GP service 'staffed by nurses'

[Northerner]

An out-of-hours GP service covering 250,000 patients is using senior nurses when doctors cannot be recruited to work the shifts, it is reported.

The private healthcare provider Harmoni regularly employs advanced nurses to work eight-hour overnight shifts covering districts of up to 150 square miles, a whistleblower claims.

In times of extreme staffing shortages, there has been just one advanced nurse practitioner working overnight in North Somerset, the Daily Mail said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/13/night-gp-service-nurses

 

[Redkite]

Must make sure never to get ill out of hours.....

 

[Copepod]

Knowing one advanced nurse practioner very well - she works for NHS in Scotland, but covers on races in her spare time - I wouldn't worry about being treated by an advanced nurse practioner, compared to some doctors I've encountered. However, the ratio of staff to public is worrying. As the article acknowldges, some doctors fly in from other EU countries, so may be tired and / or unaccustomed to NHS situations.

 

[Highlander]

Very often it is the nurses that solve the problems before the doctor arrives. I have great faith in advanced nurses and would have no fear of being treated by one.