A PUBLIC meeting will be held tonight to outline plans for legal action over cuts made to a rural GP practice.
Bellingham Surgery, in Northumberland, has taken the first step towards seeking a judicial review of a key change in Northumberland Care Trust’s funding criteria by issuing a pre-action letter.
Since 2007, Friends Of Bellingham Surgery (FOBS) has campaigned against cuts after plans were made to reduce rural budgets to help make huge savings.
The group claims that over the last three years it has had regular meetings with officers at the Trust and was led to believe the cuts would be limited to 3% per year, pending the findings of some commissioned research.
However, FOBS says it has emerged the average Northumberland GP surgery has now lost some 20% of its budget over the last three years, and the small and rural practices have lost more than 30% in some cases. In particular Bellingham Surgery is set to be one of the biggest losers, suffering a funding cut of £67,000 in the three years up to March 2014.
Retired Bellingham GP Dr Iain Mungall, who is a key member of the patients’ group, said: “We have felt compelled to ask for a judicial review of the decision by Northumberland Care Trust to withdraw additional funding from small and rural practices. We were clearly led to believe that cuts would be limited to 3% per year, pending the findings of some commissioned research.
“The research report was completed last May, but was hidden from us until December, by which time the trust had decided to impose the full swingeing cuts.
“When we reviewed the report we found it to be full of holes. The researchers made no attempt to look at the expenses of running rural health services, but made several recommendations. The trust reported to the board that there were no additional expenses, and ignored most of the recommendations.
“We claim that they did not follow due process, misled the public and the board, and have ignored all of our detailed arguments. Hence the decision to look for some legal redress.”
The trust’s director of public engagement and communications Rachel Chapman said it had participated in a number of discussions with the FOBS over their concerns.
She confirmed the Trust had received the pre-action letter and was now discussing it with legal advisers.
The public meeting is being held at Bellingham Town Hall at 7pm.
