AN overwhelmed GP is pleading with the public to give staff a break, with teams “demoralised” at constantly being accused of “being shut”.

Dr Keith Hopcroft, from the Laindon Health Centre, says staff are working remotely and appointments are being carried out over the phone in a bid to avoid filling waiting rooms with sick patients.

However, he is being bombarded by residents asking why the GP surgery “is closed when everything else is open”.

The doctor stressed staff are “doing their absolute best” in difficult circumstances.

Dr Hopcroft, who has been in the industry for 33 years, insisted the system is in place protect patients.

He said: “We are not shut. We have a workforce crisis and it’s not helped by repeated attacks from politicians and the media.

“Yet that’s all we keep hearing, even when we don’t like this any more than patients do.

“So it’s incredible frustrating to keep hearing things like this, and it does have an impact on morale.

“It’s been unbelievably difficult over the last 18 months, the world was turned on it’s head when Covid kicked in.

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“It actually suspended some of the work so we could cope with the pandemic. But all of that suspended work has been reinstated over the last few months, so in addition to our normal GP work we’ve also had a huge backlog.

“We’ve also been responsible for organising the massive flu campaign and Covid vaccine rollout too.”

Dr Hopcroft hopes that by speaking out, GPs and surgery staff can make their side of the story heard.

He added: “We have patients saying ‘when are you opening’ even when they’re seeing us face-to-face. But we are open, its just in a different way.

“People say ‘if I can go to a restaurant or theatre then why can’t I come to a GP practice.’ The answer is because of infection control.

“We are entering winter with masses of flu around and Covid too, and so we wouldn’t want people sitting in a packed waiting room with people coughing and sneezing.

“Advice is people should be working virtually where they can. Hospitals are doing this for certain appointments. We can’t protect our patients by having everyone inside.

“So it really is upsetting when people say ‘what are they doing’, please cut us some slack.”