An increase in waiting times for appointments at Tranent Medical Practice is a result of multiple general practitioners (GP) being on long-term sick leave according to the practice.

A spokesperson for the practice said on Facebook that there had been an increase in “unpleasant” social media posts about the issue.

The spokesperson said: “In recent weeks we have had a number of patients contact us to complain about appointment availability, and there have also been some frankly unpleasant posts on Facebook regarding the same issue.

“We understand that getting an appointment has been particularly frustrating for patients of late. One of the main reasons for this is that we have had two of our GPs on long-term sick leave for several months, and a third GP has recently also become too unwell to work.

“Whilst we have tried to cover these absences with the use of locum doctors, these are not easy to find and we have been unable to cover many of the absent GP’s days.

“This has reduced the number of appointments we have had available to offer to patients, and has also increased the workload for our remaining GP’s, who have to process an even larger share of the prescription requests, sick line requests, test results and correspondence from hospitals that come into the practice every day.

“We anticipate that the GP availability position will improve as the doctors on sick leave return to work over the next few weeks.

“In the meantime we are likely to remain short of GP’s, particularly over the peak holiday season.

“We ask for our patients understanding during this difficult period, and request that people treat our staff respectfully when they contact us regarding appointments or in any other communications e.g. social media.”