A HEALTH boss has offered to hold a public meeting in Ulverston following a double whammy of problems for patients in the town.

Leigh Griffin, the chief executive of Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust, hopes to organise the meeting in the next two to three weeks after it was announced that minor injuries treatment would no longer be available at Ulverston Health Centre, and that all three GPs at one of the practices at the centre had resigned from their practice.

Dr Griffin told a meeting of the PCT that "significant lessons" should be learned from the way in which patients and public had been kept informed.

"It may be quite timely and helpful to offer a public meeting in Ulverston to hear a range of local concerns and to also put them in context, and outline what the PCT is doing."

Dr Griffin was speaking after the PCT agreed to support changes at Ulverston Health Centre which would end the minor injuries service previously been offered from the treatment room.

Minor injuries accounted for only five per cent of the treatment room's work, or between 50 and 60 patients each month, the PCT board was told. Of those patients, roughly half would still be treated by GPs at the practices because they would be judged an emergency.

That would leave 20 to 30 people each month who would not be able to receive treatment from April. They would be able to use the telephone helpline NHS Direct, or the accident and emergency department at Barrow's Furness General Hospital The vast majority of patients, who use the treatment room for having blood samples taken, or dressings, would be unaffected.

All staff affected had either been appointed to posts with practices in the health centre or had made alternative arrangements, he said.

Dr Griffin was also asked about the decision by Drs Philomena Swarbrick, Jorg Schmidt and Jane Watkin to resign from their 4,500 patient-practice at the health centre, for private reasons.

Speaking after the PCT meeting Dr Griffin pledged that people in Ulverston would be able to continue to see a GP.

"There will not be a day, there will not be an hour, when they won't have a GP in Ulverston."

Discussions were taking place with individual doctors, and about the possibility of practice mergers. The fall-back position would be for the PCT to directly supply GPs to run the practice. Dr Griffin said they would be speaking to staff immediately.

Practice manager Sheila Gibbs said the three GPs' resignations had come "completely out of the blue", and that the 11 other staff were waiting to hear from the PCT.

Mayor of Ulverston Norman Bishop-Rowe said there was a lot of concern in the town about whether patients would be able to see a GP. One elderly woman had been "very distressed" about the news.

The end of the minor injuries treatment was also of concern, partly because of the high cost of a bus or taxi from Ulverston to Barrow.

"There's a great deal of uncertainty and a lot of worry," he said, adding: "The commitment of the board to have a public meeting in Ulverston is greatly appreciated."