URGENT medical care services in Lanarkshire could be running at a third of their full capacity this weekend because of a shortage of GPs.

Currently, out-of-hours GP services are provided at Wishaw General Hospital, Monklands Hospital and Hairmyres Hospital.

Dr Chris Mackintosh, Associate Medical Director Primary Care, said the service had "frequently" been reduced from three centres to one in recent weeks and was likely to be operating at only one site this weekend. With January and February the busiest time for the service, Dr Mackintosh warned that the board couldn't afford to go through another winter with the service operating as it is now.

In November NHS Lanarkshire categorised the out-of-hours services as 'red' in the corporate risk register - the highest possible rating.

A three-month consultation has been launched which aims to centralise services at either Douglas Street Community Health Clinic in Hamilton, or two primary care out-of-hours centres, one in Airdrie Community Health Centre and the one in Hamilton. More than 160 people have responded so far.

MSPs and MPs met with the board yesterday to question medics over the proposals.

Clydesdale MSP Aileen Campbell has dismissed the consultation as "worthless" to her constituents because those seeking medical help face either a trip to Hamilton or to Airdrie.

Dr Mackintosh said: "The service is frequently having to change from three centres to two centre and over the coming weekend they may well be down to one centre.

"It is not something that we can hang around contemplating and looking at different discussions for the next six or nine months. We have got to press on and find something that is workable and is attractive to everyone to come and work for it.

"We certainly can't go into another winter without a substantive change.

"The first thing about delivering a safe service is to provide a deliverable service and the difficulty has been in getting doctors primarily but also nurses and drivers into a services to run it.

"A concentrated service. There are a number of things that the lone worker issue. The GPs who are out doing home visits have a driver with them and that doesn't tend to be a problem but working in the centres you are very often isolated as a clinician.

"The number one thing is safety and I both the options will be safe. When you get beyond safety all the other dimensions of quality then follow on.

"The first thing is the home visiting element is not set to change so are continuing to deliver this service. Those patients are mainly elderly and very few come to the centres and I think that's appropriate and correct.

"I'm a GP so I'm not going to criticise. What they are doing during the day is increasing in complexity and volume and that's driven by medical advances and an ageing population."

The formal consultation follows an extensive review over the past year.

On average, the service sees about 1,500 people each week at its out-of-hours centres, carries out 300 home visits and provides phone advice to 177 patients.

The two previous satellite centres at Central Health Centre, Cumbernauld, and Lanark Health Centre have not been open since June 2014 because of shortages.

Patients requiring 1 hour visits are consistently not able to receive this in 50% with around 1 in 4 patients no being seen within this timescale.

GP surgeries were asked to open on Saturday mornings over Christmas and New Year to relieve strain on the service.