Service at 34 GP surgeries ground to a halt on Tuesday last week, leaving patients needing care to contact the NHS 111 non-emergency line after the doctors were sent on a training day with colleagues in West Berkshire and Wokingham.

But after two patients — including Carys Strong’s asthmatic son

Evan, from Emmer Green — were incorrectly referred to A&E, health campaigners have this week criticised the region’s Clinical Commissioning Groups

for not warning people of the away-day — or providing a skeleton staff.

Campaigner Carol Munt questioned whether patients had been properly informed and if more call-handlers had been brought in to handle the extra load.

She said: “I’m lost for words. It’s incredibly stupid planning. It shows a blatant disregard for patients. Unless they gave adequate notice beforehand and made adequate plans for people to know where to go.”

Mrs Strong was called by her four-year-old son’s after school club at Emmer Green Primary School, informing her he was feverish and breathless. The 36-year-old rushed him to the Balmore Park GP surgery but was told by the receptionist that she needed to call 111 and when she did, an ambulance was sent out to treat her son.

The mother-of-two said: “It left me feeling shocked and frustrated that I couldn’t see a doctor and had to have an ambulance out when I felt it was unnecessary.”

However, Dr Cathy Winfield, chief officer of the Berkshire West Federation of CCGs, which includes the South Reading and North and West Reading CCGs, defended the training day, insisting that it had been happening for a number of years without problems because WestCall steps in to provide a GP service.

She said: “We are sorry that on this occasion two patients were incorrectly referred to A&E and we are reviewing these calls with 111 to ensure that this does not happen in future.”

Campaigner Tony Lloyd, who has worked with Patient Participation Groups around the area, rejected the claims that GPs had been away on en masse training days in the past.

He said: “It is the first time I have heard about it and I have been involved with the PPGs for seven or eight years. I have never been aware of this before.

“You have got to have training. I don’t begrudge them that. But I think it is pushing it a bit to close down for an entire afternoon and not provide an emergency doctor. Frankly, I think the whole thing is a mess.”

Reading East MP Rob Wilson stressed that up-to-date training is vital to keep GPs at the top of

their game, but said the CCGs should think carefully about how that training is structured and whether

shutting GP surgeries is the best way to do it.

He added: “I personally think there are better ways to do it so that surgeries are kept open but GPs can get the necessary training.”