Claims that Machynlleth residents are waiting up to six weeks for GP appointments have been dismissed by health authorities.

Town councillor Gareth Jones says residents are being forced to go straight to A&E in Aberystwyth because of long waiting times and are experiencing delays in getting their prescriptions from the town’s pharmacy.

But Dyfi Valley Health has strongly rebutted these claims and says urgent calls are dealt with the same day and claims of six-week waits are ‘quite simply untrue.’

At a meeting in September, Machynlleth Town Council agreed to send a raft of questions to Dyfi Valley Health but did not receive a response in more than six weeks.

Cllr Jones says he has been contacted several times by residents who told him about the long waits when they call the GPs’ surgery and the complications at the pharmacy in the town.

He wrote to the Cambrian News saying: “I had been contacted in confidence by a number of local residents, some of whom are elderly and/or vulnerable, who phoned the health centre to book a GP appointment, only to be told there were none available that day and there was a wait of sometimes up to six weeks before they could see a doctor.

“I am aware of Machynlleth residents who were so unwell they felt there was no option but to bypass the appointment system or the offer of a triage, rather than wait they went to A&E in Bronglais Hospital.

“Some of those ended up being kept in the hospital for days or weeks afterwards such was the seriousness of their condition in the opinion of the medical professionals who examined them at Bronglais.

“So, the unavailability of GP appointments in Machynlleth is not just having an impact on Dyfi Valley residents but also has a knock-on effect to a wider area by increasing footfall in A&E in Aberystwyth.”

He added that several residents also spoke about the chaos at the town’s pharmacy with miscommunications, misplaced prescriptions and delays becoming increasingly regular.

The town council says it is still waiting for a response but Dyfi Valley Health’s Dr John Shaw responded to the Cambrian News extremely quickly.

On staffing, he said it has seven permanent GPs – more than at any point in the past – and can offer a quarter more appointments than ‘ever before’.

He says more than half of all appointments are face to face and he insisted all urgent requests are dealt with on the same day.

He added that routine prescriptions are turned around in four days but pharmacists are occasionally affected by national shortages.

He said: “All urgent issues are dealt with on the same day. An urgent caller would never be told to wait six weeks,” he said.

“Our usual wait time for a routine GP appointment is three weeks. That might sound like a long time, but the Welsh Assembly guidance is to be seen within six weeks, so we are actually performing exceptionally well in that area.”