An out-of-hours service used by scores of family doctors in Bradford has come under fire after it collapsed under demand over Christmas.

Healthcall normally deals with 4,000 calls in a month from patients but in the five days from Christmas Eve received 3,000 for out-of-hours help prompted by a major outbreak of flu.

The switchboard used by the Leeds end of the operation collapsed on Sunday and a red alert was declared under the system.

GPs on holiday were asked to take telephone calls and in some cases on Monday opened up surgeries to deal with patients.

Many patients fed up with waiting went to casualty at Bradford Royal Infirmary, causing long waits there.

Now discussions are underway to make sure no major problems occur over the New Year holiday.

The deputising service, which covers 184 GPs in the Bradford area as far as Bingley, is asking family doctors to deal with their own patients over the phone to assess their condition before calling out a doctor, or to ask the patient to visit an out-of-hours clinic.

One GP, who asked not to be named but operates under a different out-of-hours system used by a co-operative in north Bradford, said it had been a shambles.

Healthcall patients had come looking for treatment after they were unable to get through to operators of the service or told they would have long waits.

"We managed and they didn't and we ended up seeing a lot of their patients," he said.

"We were very busy but we got round to everybody.

"People are furious about it because it puts everybody in a bad light."

Dr Peter Rennie, medical director of Healthcall and also a GP in Idle, said there had been unprecedented demand for the service and any system was bound to creak under that kind of pressure.

"I don't think there has been an epidemic of this magnitude since we set the service up and it led to the highest number of call-outs we have ever had," he said. "What we have to try to ensure is those people who are in a serious condition do get seen quicker than most people who aren't."

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