HUNDREDS of people across the Wycombe district may be without basic clinical care with all but three GPs in the area having to turn patients away because their surgeries are full.

Medical professionals dropped the bombshell after a senior radiologist at Wycombe Hospital, who has found it impossible to get a GP near her home, contacted the Free Press to criticise primary care services.

Andrea Hill, 31, of Queen's Road, High Wycombe said: "This is me, who works for the health service, who speaks English as a first language. If I was someone who wasn't clued up, I'd be absolutely stuffed.

"I will get a GP in the end, but there are so many other people that won't. Many other people in High Wycombe may have been disenfranchised by this process and may not have a GP."

Ms Hill was given a list of five surgeries by NHS Direct after moving recently from east London. All of them turned her away because they were full, except Hatters Lane which Ms Hill says is too far away, as she doesn't drive.

Ms Hill says she has complained, but has been passed from the hospital to the primary care trust, and onto the Patient Advice and Liason Service, with no success.

She said: "You can't find out how many people don't have GPs because a lot don't officially exist. You can't even find out from the electoral role.

"There must be loads of people who just don't have health care. If you don't have access to a GP, you don't have access to the hospital."

There are 162,108 people in the Wycombe district, according to the 2001 population census. There are 147,533 people registered to Wycombe GPs, according to the Director of Public Health's 2001 report.

A worker at Wye Valley Surgery in Desborough Avenue, said: "I think we are one of the few surgeries who are taking patients at the moment. I believe that the health authority have about three names that they are giving out who are still taking patients but quite what area they cover I don't know.

"We have had a lot of patients who have been ringing round for quite a long time to find a doctor."

Richard Burton, of Bucks Health Authority, said: "There are times when GP surgeries are at full capacity and it would not be advisable to have more people on the records.

"What we then do is look for the next available surgery. The bottom line is that it's a fair system. We do all we possibly can to make sure patients have the GP surgeries they want, close to where they live."