A health official has denied out-of-hours GP services are being withdrawn from parts of Shropshire.
Concerns have been raised after it was revealed ShropDoc would no longer have bases at Oswestry and Bridgnorth, while operation hours would be cut at Whitchurch.
The health body has teamed up with the Shropshire Community Health Trust (ShropCom) to take over out of hours services from next Monday.
But they need to make savings of £2 million.
Fran Beck, executive lead for commissioning at Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), has made assurances the same level of service would be provided.
But she said there was a lack of GPs willing to take on out-of-hours roles.
She continued: “It is the same workforce problem being experienced elsewhere because 20 years ago there were lots of young GPs happy to work overtime and out of hours, as well as having a busy full-hours day job.
“It is a major problem these days filling ShropDoc places.
“So what they have done is look at activity and where they can staff to get best value from the resources they have.”
Mrs Beck denied it was a “withdrawal” of services, adding: “It will be delivered in a way to meet the needs of the people of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin – as it is now.”
But Councillor Paul Milner, for Oswestry South, voiced concerns the service would no longer have its base at the Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen as it had for many years.
He said: “I hope these services do really well because it is a very important service and with ShropDoc being graded as outstanding – one of only two in the whole of England to get that award – I hope it lives up to the same standard.”
Mrs Beck gave assurances the furthest anyone would have to travel would be the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
But she explained the service had changed over the past 20 years and means not all calls to the out-of-hours service now require a face-to-face meeting.
Mrs Beck continued: “Under these changes it may be that if you need to see a GP, you will see them in a different place – but you can rest assured that if you need a home visit, you will have one.
“We are moving away from a time when you used to do things face to face. Now you can do an awful lot more through telephone contact or internet contact.
“But we would keen to hear of any patients who are not getting home visits and should be, because we will be monitoring the service.”
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