 A SENIOR member of the company which runs Merseyside’s biggest out-of-hours GP service has resigned from his post saying he had lost all faith in the service and its management. Dr Raghu Hedge, council secretary for Urgent Care 24 since its creation in November 2004, last night revealed he has handed in his resignation after becoming increasingly unhappy with the way it was managed. It comes amid massive controversy surrounding the service, which was last month ordered to bring its operation up to national standards after health managers investigated claims patients with life-threatening illnesses were not identified fast enough, and performance figures were falsified. The GMC is also investigating two cases involving doctors working for UC24, including that of Julie Barr, 28, who died of a heart attack after a GP told her to take paracetamol. And last week the Daily Post revealed the confidentiality of thousands of patients has been compromised after a bug was discovered in UC24 offices. Dr Hedge, a GP at the Riverside Centre for Health in Liverpool 8, had previously defended UC24. But last night he told the Daily Post he was no longer happy to be a part of the service and thought he had no choice but to resign. He said the final straw came when rotas were changed without his approval and he was put on call without being told. He said: “In the past I have stood up and defended this service but lately I have been very unhappy about things. Things are not right and I really got upset about things that were going on. “I am not happy about the way UC24 is being run. “I was supposed to be the company secretary and yet I was not informed about anything, and not consulted about the decisions being made at board level. “I was not receiving emails or correspondence – just basically being kept in the dark. “There was no point staying at UC24 if I was not being allowed to be involved. They did not inform me of what was going on and the board members just do what they want to do regardless of anyone else’s opinion. “They even changed the doctor’s rotas without telling those very doctors that their rotas had changed. Imagine my surprise when I got a call to visit a patient when I didn’t even know I was on-call and was not in a position to be able to attend.” | 
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