Oban Times From Our Files - 13.2.25

GP out-of-hours service ‘unaffordable’

 

The out-of-hours GP service in Argyll and Bute is at breaking point as the cost of the service reaches £3 million.

 

NHS Highland health board members have now been forced to replace GPs with nurses in an attempt to slash the cost of the service.

 

It costs £21 per hour for a care nurse as opposed to £129.89 for a locum doctor.

 

Pilot projects using nurses will be implemented in Mid Argyll and Kintyre from next month.

 

Gill MacVicar, director of operations at NHS Highland, said the current system for patients needing urgent care was not affordable. Figures reveal that providing the service in some areas of Argyll and Bute can top £2,157 per patient, in stark contrast to Inverness, where the cost is £85.49.

 

Ms MacVicar said: ‘The strain on finances of delivering out-of-hours care is so severe it will now mean other important developments are not able to be progressed.’

 

The model of care used between the hours of 6pm and 8am was put in place in 2004 when GPs were able to opt out of providing the service on a practice basis.

 

Since 2008, the responsibility for the service is managed at a local level. In that time, the cost has risen by 20 times. In Oban, there are on average 54 call-outs a week for advice or an urgent appointment at home or in the hospital. 

 

On Mull, there is an average of two, while Lochgilphead sees seven and Campbeltown two every week.

 

However, a spokesman for NHS Highland said: ‘One of the main reasons for the variation in costs across Argyll and Bute is that in certain localities, such as Mid Argyll and Kintyre, the costs include the provision of GP services within local hospitals, whereas in other areas such as Oban the costs are solely for GP out-of-hours services in the community.

TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO

Thursday February 17, 2000

New woodland for Glen Creran

 

A new woodland at Glen Creran is to be created following the recent felling of conifers for timber.

 

A ground-breaking initiative between local residents working in partnership with the Forestry Commission will see the reintroduction of deciduous trees, which traditionally characterised the west coast of Argyll, in the area between Glasdrum nature reserve and Elleric.

 

Native Argyll oak, ash, aspen and hazel trees have been planted and it is hoped that birch, sycamore and beach trees will also be introduced.

 

Mike Rayworth, chairman of Glen Creran Residents Management Committee, was pleased that they have been able to create a model for community management appropriate to local needs.

 

‘Over the years there has been limited regeneration within the oakwoods due to pressure from deer grazing, the spread of rhododendron and the planting of evergreen conifers, he said. 

 

Now that substantial areas of ground have been freed from commercial timber production we have a tremendous new opportunity to restore the woodlands to their former glory and bring pleasure to locals and visitors alike.’

 

Forest Enterprise hopes to create new public footpaths through the woodland from the car park at Elleric. Plans are also being developed to involve local people in practical aspects of woodland management including small timber working.

 

Donald Hutchinson, chairman of Appin Community Council, is keen to see the Glen Creran model extended to other parts of Appin: ‘The creation of local employment and training opportunities is vital in this rural area.

 

‘We also hope that Appin School will be able to use the woodlands as an educational resource as well as becoming actively involved in practical work within the woodlands.’

 

Concern voiced over potential heroin problem

 

Argyll has the potential to have a serious heroin problem according to a leading figure in the area’s health board.

 

But Dr David Bell, Argyll and Clyde Health Board’s consultant in public health medicine (addictions) stressed there was no evidence that current heroin use had reached alarming levels.

 

‘The area around Oban certainly has a great deal of cannabis and Ecstasy use going on,’ Dr Bell told The Oban Times. ‘If you are talking about the amount of heroin being used in and around Oban I have no evidence that it is very great

 

‘I have suspicions that there is a great deal more going on than we have evidence for.’

 

Dr Bell said that the best data available measured the number of new attenders at drug services or people who had not attended for six months.

 

Across Argyll and Clyde, there were 730 new clients in 1995/96 rising to 1,443 in 1998/99. Of the 1,443, 72 per cent were heroin users.

 

Figures for the Oban area showed there were two new clients in 1998/99. In 1997/

98 there were three, with none in the previous year and one in 1995/96.

 

‘I would be surprised if in Oban you had less than a dozen or so heroin users and I would be surprised if you had more than a couple of dozen altogether at the moment, said Dr Bell.

 

‘My predecessor was told very firmly about three years ago that Argyll and Bute did not have a drug problem that was the accepted wisdom at the time.

 

‘The whole place is not alive with people spaced out on heroin but if somebody asks ‘Has our society the potential to develop a serious heroin problem?’ I am afraid it has.’ 

 

However, Dr Bell stressed that alcohol abuse also needed to be tackled as that problem was far more prevalent.

 

Over the next year, Dr Bell hopes to obtain more accurate figures on the prevalence of drug use across Argyll and Clyde. A new drugs strategy is also due to be published by this summer.

 

Dr Bell said the way to tackle the problem was for the whole community to work together.

 

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Thursday February 13, 1975

Delay in mail deliveries upsets islanders

 

A row has erupted on Islay over the island’s mail delivery service. Islanders have complained that letters arriving on the island by the morning plane are not delivered until the following day.

 

The mail arrives about 11.40am. But letters for Port Ellen are not delivered until 1pm or later the following day it is alleged.

 

Said a local resident: ‘Surely it would be better to have the mail delivered in the afternoon of the day it arrives? After all, people are paying first class mail charges and they have the right to expect such a service.’

 

But Mr JD Gillies, head postmaster at Oban, explained on Monday that the situation had arisen because of the change in BEA’s winter timetable.

 

‘Last summer the boat and air mails arrived on the island within half an hour of each other and therefore could be amalgamated. In the present situation the boat mail arrives at 08.30 a.m. and plane mail at 11.35 a.m. Because of the length of time between arrivals it would not be realistic to hold up one mail to await the other nor would it be realistic or feasible to have two deliveries’, said Mr Gillies.

 

Mr Gillies also pointed out that mail from the plane was delivered to sub-offices throughout the island on the day it arrived and could be uplifted by callers before the next delivery.

 

Coll and Tiree protest over timetables

 

The people of Coll and Tiree are dissatisfied with both the temporary timetable being operated by Caledonian MacBrayne and the proposed summer timetable.

 

Farmers coming from these islands to a Tuesday sale in Oban will have to leave home on Saturday and return the following Thursday.

 

Landladies in both islands who have taken bookings for the Easter period now find themselves faced with the task of writing to advise people of the changed ferry arrangements.

 

Major Nicholas Bristol, who runs preparatory courses for Voluntary

Service Overseas at Breachacha Castle, faces the same problem as he has had to change his courses to a Tuesday to Saturday basis.

 

These and other drawbacks apply if the timetable is adhered to: but what really frightens the Inner Isles people is that if the Columba is delayed or stranded by weather or break-down on her Monday-Wednesday-Friday service to Lochboisdale and Castlebay they will be left without any service and their mail and grocery deliveries will be disrupted.

 

With the sailings proposed for the summer - fewer than ever before - there is only one day a week on which the Tiree police officers, vet or dentist will be able to travel to Coll and get back next day.

 

In protesting about the Caledonian MacBrayne services to Mr Iain MacCormick, MP, and the Scottish Transport Users Consultative Committee, the islanders have absolved from all blame the manager and staffs of the company locally and the captains and crews.

 

They believe that efficiency has been on the downgrade since the Scottish Transport Group took over.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Saturday February 14, 1925

Glimpses of the homeland

 

This picture is reproduced from the photograph of a scene on the Barcaldine Estate, descriptive of a portion of the Teithil Burn, which flows through Glen Dubh in a series of waterfalls and enters the sea near Salt Croits.

 

For many years the golden eagle has occupied a corrie in Glen Dubh known as Eas Garbh. The Teithil Burn skirts one side of the famous Barcaldine House gardens, about three acres in extent, which some years ago were regarded as one of the finest gardens in Argyllshire. Over 80 years ago the Barcaldine Estate belonged to the family of Sir Duncan Campbell, Bart., C.V.O, of Barcaldine Castle.

 

It was purchased in 1886 by Mrs Margaret Ogilvie, who was succeeded by Mr F. Menteith Ogilvie. On the death of Mr Menteith Ogilvie the estate became the property of Mr James Methven. The present owners are the Forestry Commissioners, who purchased the property from Mr. Methven last Martinmas. Mr Methven still occupies the Mansion house.