PATIENTS are being urged not to make unnecessary doctor appointments to ease the load on overworked GPs.

Doctors at the Woodbridge Practice in Thornaby are under increased pressure and it is believed some patients, who abuse the system, are making the situation worse.

Unnecessary home visits, appointments that are not kept and people unnecessarily ringing the emergency out-of-hours service are all causing problems.

Practice manager Cath Milburn said: "Doctors work from 8am until 6pm each day, they also have homes and families.

"Thornaby GPs are working together to provide a quality service for their patent, but how much workload can be sustained in the long-term?"

She said that while genuinely ill patients should not be put off from calling, the after-hours service was being used by some some patients as an extended surgery for appointments, advice and visits, and was proving a drain on resources.

To try to lessen the pressure on doctors and make it easier for genuine patients to get an appointment, a number of new initiatives are being introduced.

These will include a telephone surgery where doctors will call patients at a given time to offer advice, minor illnesses booklets being made available so residents can treat themselves, and encouraging people to speak to health visitor, pharmacist and midwife at the practice rather than the doctor.