BMA expresses concerns over roll out of NHS helpline
The British Medical Association (BMA) said the deadline for introducing the new 111 telephone number needs to be relaxed from its current date of April 2013.
In the short-term, 111 will run alongside existing local telephone services and NHS Direct, but it will eventually become the single number for non-emergency care.
In a letter to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, the BMA said its doctors had raised a "number of serious problems and concerns" in the pilot schemes used to test the number.
These issues, together with not allowing enough time for doctors to get involved in the project, mean there could be an increased burden on A&E and GP surgeries from patients not getting the help they need, it said.
Concerns have also been raised about the level of medical training staff will have in the new service, and whether they will be able to direct patients to the right help.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs committee, said: "GPs have been telling us for quite some time about problems with the way the NHS 111 is being rolled out and the wider impact it could have on the health service.
Concern over rural medical cover
"I'd given up," she said. "I never thought I'd see back here again."
However, the nurse who treated Mrs Wilkinson is retiring and changes to the contract of another local nurse means she will no longer be on call. Mrs Wilkinson describes the situation as "very, very worrying".
A group of local residents will travel to Edinburgh next week to urge the health minister to intervene.
The Scottish Ambulance Service has offered to station an ambulance technician in Kilchoan but residents say they need someone with more skills.
On Islay, residents plan to take matters into their own hands. They are going to place adverts themselves for doctors willing to take on "an island parish".
They are looking for people like Dr Chris Abell who moved to the island five years ago from England.
"I came here because I wanted to go back to a more old-fashioned type of general practice," he said.
“I think it goes back to the fact GPs do not make evening calls any more, so the ambulance services are running to stand still with the growing number of
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