SWEEPING changes in the way GP surgeries handle out-of-ours patients have caused concerns about staffing levels and finance amongst patient groups.

Saturday morning clinics will be stopped across the county as part of national changes to reduce doctors' workload.

From October patients seeking a weekend consultation will have to call the Kernowdoc service with urgent problems.

Patients with serious problems will be referred by a call handler either to an emergency clinic, usually in a nearby community hospital, or have a health practitioner visit them at home.

The new scheme will shift responsibility for out-of-hours patients from doctors to Primary Care Trusts. Senior nurses may have to see patients instead of doctors.

Duncan Thurnell-Read, chairman of the West of Cornwall Patients Forum, said concerns were raised at a recent meeting.

"There is a national shortage of experienced nurses and a number of doctors working with Kernowdoc do not wish to continue after October. People will still get their needs met, but we fear not as promptly.

"The new scheme will also be more expensive and with Cornwall's health authority £30 million in debt this will mean less money for developing other services."

Mr Thurnell-Read added that the scheme was designed for an urban setting and did not take into account transport difficulties that people face in Cornwall.

Peter Curnow, out-of-hours project manager for all three of Cornwall's PCTs said that the scheme was more expensive, but there were no current problems with staff.

"These are national changes which we have had to bring in. But they are evolutionary changes, not revolutionary changes. We have brought in the changes slowly, keeping the confidence of our communities and the people who work for us.

"As there is a shift from care by doctors to care by health practitioners it clearly will put pressure on nurses, but at the moment there are no shortages."