DOCTORS could be flown in from Europe to help ease the shortage at a rural Herefordshire practice.

Kington Medical Practice Manager Malcolm Sampson stated that the surgery was currently 'reliant' on cover doctors but refused to meet councillors to discuss the situation.

Members of the public who had attended Monday night's town council meeting were left disappointed by his no-show after being promised the chance to ask him questions.

Instead a statement was handed to councillors with an update from Mr Sampson dated June 2016.

It stated that the practice currently had four permanent doctors who were all part-time providing the equivalent of "2.25 whole time hours".

Currently the surgery has 7,500 patients and over 150 nursing home patients. That amount of users would normally be covered by "4.5 full-time staff".

Mr Sampson said: "We are actively recruiting for additional doctors, as well as looking at other non-GP options to support them.

"We are currently heavily reliant upon GP Locums to enable us to provide an acceptable level of GP appointments.

"We always try to use our pool of regular , local doctors wherever possible, though have had to use agency locums from further afield and from IMH's other sites.

"We are also looking to bring GP's in from Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy on two year minimum contracts."

Mr Sampson added that the nurses at the clinic would be running a daily walk-in-clinic with appointments available at lunchtimes and 'after school' to suit young families.

The practice are also looking at recruiting more 'advanced' nurses who will assist GPs with home visits and nursing home ward rounds.

Town Clerk Gwilym Rippon said that the council were promised that the new practice manager would meet with them when they were in post but Mr Sampson had declined to attend Monday's meeting.

He said: "We advertised his attendance in the newspaper as we were of the belief he would be attending.

"There has been some rumours and we didn't know factually what is happening there. We are pleased with the written update but there is some questions to be asked but the relevant people aren't here to answer them."

Councillors requested that Mr Sampson attended their meeting next month.