WAITING times at some of Pembrokeshire’s struggling GP surgeries could be set to get longer, though preparations are being made to help them combat the build-up.

Argyle Street Surgery, Pembroke Dock has seen huge queues outside its doors in recent weeks, while a GP vacancy at Goodwick Surgery has remained unfilled for almost a year.

Anna Swinfield, general medical services manager for Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion at Hywel Dda Health Board told the Community Health Council what was being done to prevent the queues at Argyle Surgery.

“With regard to Argyle, access to GP appointments has been difficult of late.

“They have had enduring issues with recruitment and one of their partners is off sick,” she said, adding another GP was planning to leave the surgery at the end of the year.

But she added the surgery was offering nurses training to become nurse-practitioners who would be able to refer patients for treatments they needed and help to ease queues.

CHC member Wynne Evans suggested the surgery should adopt more phone lines, allowing them to manage multiple calls at once, which could help to free up appointment slots if patients were calling in to cancel.

Ms Swinfield also addressed a GP vacancy at Goodwick Surgery which has remained empty since it was advertised in January despite the £84,000 salary.

“With regard to Goodwick Surgery, and Fishguard more broadly, the health board is working pro-actively to stabilise services in the area,” said Ms Swinfield.

She stressed that most surgeries across Pembrokeshire are not suffering from long queues and staffing issues.

Dr Evans said difficulties in recruiting GPs across Wales should be acknowledged as the cause of the issue.

“As you will know we have difficulties in recruiting. The figures I had last week were 981 across Wales for GPs,” he said.

“On a positive, we have filled all our GP training spaces in Pembrokeshire. We are the only county in Wales to do so. But the thing with that is we want them to stay after their training as well,” he added.