More than 9,000 patients at a Perth GP practice are being warned only urgent medical conditions will be dealt with for a week in October.
The warning comes from Perth City Medical Centre as they prepare to undergo an IT system changeover.
Its 9,391 patients received a letter on Tuesday warning them that from October 3-10 the practice “will only be able to deal with medically urgent conditions, problems and prescriptions”.
‘Major IT change’ at Perth medical practice
The correspondence says: “Our current IT system is called EMIS and we use this for appointments, consultations and prescribing of medications.
“Unfortunately, EMIS will no longer be supplying Scotland and therefore we are about to undergo a major IT change and will be moving to Vision; our new IT system.
“We will be only the second practice in Scotland to make this change so far.”
Anyone with any concerns is asked to write to the practice manager Claire Todd.
It adds: “During this time we will have limited use of any system.
“We will be able to view your medical record but will be unable to add to it until after the October 10 and the change has been made.
“During this time we will only be able to deal with medically urgent conditions/problems and prescriptions.
“We understand this will have an impact on the appointments that we are able to offer and apologise in advance for any frustrations you may feel.
“We are working hard with NHS Tayside and our IT team to ensure this transition is as smooth as possible whilst maintaining urgent patient care.”
Medication requests could take longer than normal
Patients are being told repeat medication requests can be made slightly earlier than planned.
But requests made during this period may take longer than the usual 48-hour timeframe.
The letter says: “As this will be an entirely new system for all the clinicians and staff to get used to, there will be periods throughout September where our routine appointments will be reduced to allow for preparation of this change and training on the new system.
“We ask for your patience and understanding towards our staff as they will have less available appointments to offer.
“We are hopeful the new Vision system will allow us to access better IT support and may provide opportunity for other digital health services in the future.”
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