GP’s fund ‘nightmare’

Jan 4 2008 by William Green, The Journal

THE “nightmare” of GP surgeries closing their doors in a worsening funding row has been raised by a Northumberland doctors’ leader.

Jane Lothian, medical secretary of the Northumberland local medical committee, yesterday claimed such a situation was possible if the dispute with local health chiefs is not resolved soon.

The Ashington GP warned a revised offer from Northumberland Care Trust last month was “not acceptable” as it would lead to cuts, with the dispute affecting 90% of Northumberland’s GP practices.

A deadline for accepting the deal has been set for January 21 and existing contracts with affected surgeries finish at the end of March – which could leave them unable to open without a settlement, although Dr Lothian said while that was possible, it was unlikely.

But she suggested outside providers could be brought in for cover, as the care trust confirmed it has a contingency plan.

Dr Lothian said the overall budget would be cut by £1.3m in the next financial year and £1.7m the following year, with the average practice losing up to £60,000 which could pay for medical staff – figures disputed by the care trust.

On the revised deal, she said: “I think most practices will find it impossible to provide current services for what they are being offered and it will result at the very least significant cuts in services. The nightmare scenario would be that if talks completely broke down, potentially GPs would be closed on April 1 because they would have no contract. I think it is unlikely to actually happen but it is a possibility. It is unlikely to happen because the care trust has statutory duties to provide services.”

Dr Lothian added: “We are still trying to convince the care trust that they have a very good service at their disposal and we are still in talks with them to try and find an alternative solution.”

The doctors’ leader said 40 surgeries serving 288,000 people were affected in the dispute over locally-negotiated deals. She criticised health chiefs for not publishing their continuity plan on commercial grounds and a lack of public consultation.

Berwick MP Alan Beith said funding must recognise the scattered rural nature of Northumberland and the extent to which GPs did work done in hospitals elsewhere.

“It would be ludicrous if a breakdown of negotiations led to alternative providers being brought in from elsewhere to keep surgeries open. We saw how many problems that can bring when the out-of-hours service changed and doctors started to be flown in from Germany.”

A new patient-led campaign group also warned against cuts to Bellingham Surgery, which covers 800 square miles of Northumberland.

Mike Murray, from Friends of Bellingham Surgery, said: “If these cuts go ahead and primary health care is reduced we will have to go 40 miles to Hexham.”

What do you think should be done to solve the Northumberland GP crisis? Tell us at www.journallive.co.uk/forums

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Revised offers should avoid closures, says Trust

NORTHUMBERLAND Care Trust yesterday said it did not want practices to close and “firmly” believed that should be unnecessary.

A spokeswoman said revised offers and discussions should avoid closures, although individual practice figures were confidential.

Talks are under way with NHS trusts about what hospital services could be provided by GPs, increasing investment, offsetting any funding reductions and bringing services closer to people’s homes.

“It is sensible to have a continuity plan which is confidential at present which we would very much hope to avoid using as we are very keen to work with GPs on the contract and bringing more hospital services to GPs to reach agreement with every practice.

“We are fully committed to and are working hard to seek agreement with all practices in Northumberland,” added the spokeswoman.

The revised offer includes income cuts capped at 8% for next year and 12% for year two and beyond as well as increased payments to recognise rural areas.

The average reduction for the first year is just under 4% and for the second year just over 5%, with the NHS nationally expected to make around 3% per year efficiency savings over the next couple of years.