Doctor calls for closure of holiday park sites

A Powys doctor has taken to social media to ask holiday park owners to close sites and for visitors to return to their own homes.

Dr Alan Woodall, a member of the Dyfed Powys Local Medical Committee has issues the plea on behalf of the NHS Services in Powys.

“This is a plea from NHS services in Powys to those with second homes, our holiday park owners and hotelier. Please close where possible and ask your visitors to return home and act responsibly,” he said.

“Practices across rural Wales have noticed a marked increase in patients coming from elsewhere in the UK to stay at their second homes and holiday park homes to ‘sit out’ the Coronavirus pandemic, thinking this is safer than staying in urban areas.

“They are then registering as ‘temporary residents’ at local GP surgeries, often expecting hard pressed teams to provide medications and medical care, often for significant co-morbid conditions, when we have no access to their medical records.

“This is not what the government intend or want to happen. Local NHS services are planned on the basis of the resident population, not to cope with a mass exodus of people from other areas hoping to stay for months.

“We cannot supply safe care to large numbers of such residents who put our services, already under strain, to care for more even people.

“No funding follows these visitors to our Welsh NHS services to care for them.

“Please, politely and calmly, and without any anger or discrimination, encourage potential visitors not to come for the time being, so that we can all do our best for our resident patients.

“People across Britain should stay in their homes where this is possible.”