A PRIVATE health company has defended itself after it emerged that a North-East GP was asked to handle out-of-hours calls from Wales.

Details about the case, which involved an 84-year-old heart attack victim in the Rhondda Valley, surfaced amid speculation that all out-of-hours GP care could soon be run by the private sector.

Since GPs opted out of weekend and evening working, out-of-hours care has become the responsibility of local primary care trusts.

In many areas, including much of the North-East, this has involved local NHS organisations paying private health provider Primecare for out-of-hours cover.

In a story which made headlines in Wales last October, it was Primecare which put the Welsh family through to a locum doctor in Cleveland, 300 miles away from the caller.

Although the Welsh family were astonished at being connected to a doctor in the North-East, they were more concerned at a two-hour delay before a local doctor could come out and see the patient.

Primecare also provided weekend cover in the Sunderland area in May by flying in German GPs for the weekend, and putting them up in hotels for the duration of their stay.

A spokeswoman for Primecare said it was not unusual for callers to be referred to a doctor who was distant from the caller.

However, the calls were handled by qualified medics who could arrange for home visits to be carried out by local staff, she added.

Primecare provides out-of-hours support for many areas of the North-East, including Sunderland, Tees Valley and the Scarborough area.

The Primecare spokeswoman confirmed that German GPs were still providing weekend cover in some parts of the UK.

"We are not the only providers who are doing this. There is a shortage of GPs in England," the spokeswoman said.

"Our first preference is to use local GPs but, if they are not available, we sometimes use agencies which bring doctors in from Germany. We pay the agencies the same rates as we pay the doctors."

A spokesman for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust declined to say if German GPs were still providing cover on Wearside.

But a spokesman for the trust added: "It is the responsibility of Primecare to use whatever GP resources are available to them.

"The out-of-hours system in our area is operating very well."