Doctors to stop making late calls

From April, a team of emergency care practitioners (ECPs) will take over all out-of-hours cover from local genneral practitioners.

The project, one of four being piloted in the country, aims to lift the burden of emergency care from family doctors and reduce the number of home visits.

But Darlington Age Concern said last night that it could leave some elderly patients upset at not being able to see their own doctor.

The charity's chairman, Charles Johnson, said: "Elderly people like to see their own doctor or a doctor they know, and I think that is going to be the difficulty. They won't have that one-to-one with their own doctor out-of-hours.

"I can also see it being very confusing in the initial stages. You would certainly hope that the health people get the message out loud and clear as to how this will work."

Health officials say the new system will be more efficient and will free up time for doctors during the day.

"I think this is a good idea because the days have gone where doctors were expected to work all day and night," said Dr Richard Harker, chairman of Darlington Primary Care Trust's professional executive committee.

"This will be a better use of resources and let the GPs get on with their day-time work, which is when the majority of people need to see them."

Dr Nonnie Crawford, Darlington's director of public health, said: "The ECPs will be highly trained and highly skilled and always have the back-up of a doctor."

A team of seven practitioners, all either paramedics or nurses, began a 15-week training course yesterday and will then do eight weeks training at practices in the town.

From April, patients who need medical help after 6pm or at weekends will have to ring a central number rather than their doctor's surgery.

Dr Harker said: "The use of ECPs will reduce the need for house calls, although these will be done by district nurses or paramedics. Services for the terminally ill will remain unchanged."