I ORGANISED a meeting with Riverside Medical Practice and relevant stakeholders from East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, NHS 24, and the Riverside Medical Practice Patient Participation Group which took place this week.

This was to address ongoing concerns, primarily but not only relating to patients having difficulty contacting Riverside via telephone.

Riverside has now recruited eight call handlers to manage the volume of incoming calls to the practice. The practice has outlined that this should allow them to answer about 10,000 calls monthly, which is the capacity at which they believe telephone access times for patients becomes acceptable. This should also allow for shorter average waiting times in getting through to the practice.

The practice is also bringing in expertise in the form of a senior figure with significant clinical and operational experience, who will be able to evaluate the telephony issues and work out how these can be enhanced and improved going forward.

Whilst I don’t think that the issues will be resolved overnight, I do believe that we are on the right pathway to implementing some serious changes that will improve the service provided to patients. If any constituents have any feedback, you can email me at colin.beattie.msp@parliament.scot

In the meantime, we can all consider whether there are other services which can efficiently deal with our health concerns and a good place to start to identify other local health services is the NHS inform website at nhsinform.scot

I have recently written an objection to the appealed planning application for a McDonald’s in Musselburgh. I know that many of my constituents were very concerned about this planning application, and I have made representations to state why I don’t believe this proposal would be beneficial to the community. My full letter objecting to this appeal is available at facebook.com/ColinBeattieMSP