Ombudsman criticises deputising service

General practitioners in England have been advised to monitor the deputising service they use more closely after complaints to the health service ombudsman, Michael Buckley, showed that the biggest of the private companies provided a “totally unacceptable” service.

Although Mr Buckley's office received only three complaints about Healthcall, which provides out of hours cover for more than 7000 GPs, investigations showed the service to be substandard.

In one case a woman in Gateshead had to wait nearly three …