Out of Hours

As of February 1st 2005, Dr Usher no longer covers outside the hours of 8am-6pm, Monday-Friday. Highland Health Board are now responsible for your care outside of these hours. The service they have provided in Caithness is based in Wick, with an on call doctor who will solely work out of hours. As in the rest of Scotland, all calls are initially taken by NHS24, who will decide on what action to take, whether to call 999, give nurse advice, or ask you to attend the doctor in Wick. When you phone the surgery number out of hours, your call will be passed directly to NHS24, so there is no new number for you to remember. At busy times, there may be a delay for your call to be answered, and you may be phoned back. Please be patient. While this new service is not what you are used to, it is the new NHS. Your safety is paramount. If you feel your call is a real emergency requiring an ambulance, for example, if you have severe chest pain, or someone is unconscious, it will remain quicker to dial 999 directly.

I hope that you will use this new service as wisely as you have in the past used the old. If you have any complaints, please address them directly to the organisations concerned.