A SINGLE GP practice that has failed to meet national targets for patient access has led to the whole of Morecambe Bay missing out on a key requirement.

The practice which has not been named but is understood to be in the Furness area was not able to meet the requirement to offer an appointment with a GP within 24 hours in January.

In February, the same practice failed to meet the requirement to offer an appointment with a health care professional within 48 hours.

A meeting of Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust was told that, although the other 53 practices in the bay had met 100 per cent of the targets, the fact that one practice had missed out meant the organisation as a whole would not meet the goal.

Performance against the target was one of the things that would be taken into account when the star ratings allocations for health trusts were calculated.

Chief executive Leigh Griffin told the meeting: "This is an issue of real concern to the PCT the fact that the PCT has failed to meet the requirement in primary care access in both January and February.

"With all the other practices we have met these requirements, but we have difficulties in meeting them with this practice."

Dr Griffin, who stressed that the practice met urgent requests immediately, when it provided an impressive response, said that the PCT was working with the practice to try to improve performance.