EARLY ONE MORNING.........................
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Stansted North on Uttlesford District Council and former Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Learn more
by Alan Dean on 1 December, 2014
Work is steaming ahead at Lower Street, Stansted to build what is primarily meant to be a new health centre. But according to NHS managers at the West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, Stansted’s GP Practice is refusing to sign the lease for the premises so the deal remains uncertain.
The CCG board met last Thursday. At the meeting it was announced that Stansted’s doctors are “refusing to sign the contract”; i.e. the long-term lease on their part of the building. It is reported that the lease will run beyond the present doctors’ retirement dates and that they want the whole lease underwritten by the NHS. There may be other reasons, but I don’t know what they are.
I was so concerned – and have been for several years – that the NHS and the commercial developers will manage between them not to deliver what Stansted’s residents need and deserve, that I wrote recently to Norman Lamb MP, a minster of state at the department of health. Here is what I wrote.
By email 22 November 2014
To Norman Lamb MP
Minister of State for Care and Support, Department of Health
Dear Norman
I wrote to Paul Burstow, who was then minister of state at the DH, in March 2011 about a new health centre for Stansted which had then been awaited for many years. Three-and-a-half years later there is continuing uncertainty about its delivery. The project has moved locations; the new centre is now proposed to be located at 2 Lower Street, Stansted Mountfitchet CM24 8LP in a commercial development containing NHS facilities as well as retail units and residential accommodation. Planning permission was granted two years ago.
Since then there has been continued procrastination. I am now hearing that the local GP practice is unwilling to sign up to a lease on the premises owing to their uncertainty over whether there will be successor practice partners to take responsibility for the lease to the end of its term. I understand that GPs are increasingly reluctant to take on the managerial and proprietorial responsibilities that has been the norm, but prefer to be medics only.
Are you to establish what is going on with this (literally) multi-generational project and to determine whether the NHS will support the lease for its full term? Standards of care are slipping badly in Stansted. This is aggravated by the GP practice continuing to occupy adapted domestic premises that have been unsuitable and inadequate for at least twenty years.
Kind regards, Alan
Cllr Alan Dean
Member of Uttlesford District Council for Stansted South
Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition
7 Comments
Given that the surgery has a CQC rating of 1 and is not highly regarded by its patients either, perhaps the NHS should invite another group of clinicians to negotiate a lease anyway. If the GPs don’t want to be part of the new health centre, even though it has a legacy commitment from the NHS, they can find jobs elsewhere.
It does feel like the practice is being wound down. A senior partner has left and not been replaced, the remaining senior partner is part-time and there are 2.5 GPs serving a patient roll of around 11,000-12,000, including children (one of the worst GP to patient ratios in the country). I’m having to wait five weeks for an appointment with a GP – I took the nearest available appointment, not a time that was most convenient for me. Meanwhile, the practice manager is shared with a practice in Elsenham, which brings into question whether they can cope with the challenges posed by the move to a new building. I hear that the lease on Redlands may not be renewed or renewed on a very short tenure if the GPs don’t sign the health centre lease. Perhaps it’s best to press for an alternative group of clinicians to set up a new practice in the village and who appear more committed than the present set-up.
The GP Practice has contacted me to say that some of the above comments are factually incorrect and that there is another side to the delay in signing the lease. I have been told that the Stansted patient list does not exceed 9,000 patients including children and that there are the equivalent more than 2.5 doctors. I have also been informed that a project manager for the new health centre will be in place after Christmas.
I am planning to attend their Patient Participation meeting this evening and hope to find out something about these matters. Unusually, the meeting is being held in Bishop’s Stortford at the offices of a legal company. I will post an account of the meeting.
Can you name the doctors? Full time: Dr Islam and Dr Leeman. Part-time: Dr Humphrey. Who else is there? http://www.thestanstedsurgery.nhs.uk/meet-the-team,26574.htm I don’t know whether you use the surgery, but there isn’t another doctor. And if we are to believe there are 9,000 patients on the roll (including children?), that would mean a patient to GP ration of 3,600:1. It’s got to be one of the worst in the country. The average is 1,600:1. Tell me why we shouldn’t be concerned. I gather a new GP may be appointed in the new year. Let’s hope so, as soon as possible because winter is here and the demands on GPs and PCPs will soar.
I was told by the practice manager that any complaints about the quality of service made in public could lead to the CQC closing the surgery and a company like Serco being brought in to run the service. [Moderator: I have been told that this quotation is a misinterpretation of what the practice manager said. The Practice has been invited to post a rebuttal here of any opinions and factual claims expressed by contributors if it so wishes.] I spoke to a long-standing campaigner within the NHS who says this isn’t true and that the CQC doesn’t just close surgeries over informal complaints and that more formal patient surveys form only a small part of their consideration.
I’ve got a feeling that the LibDem-Tory NHS reforms will eventually lead to GPs, as essentially private providers on contract, leaving the NHS or limiting their patient numbers in the same way as the dentists. It is tantamount to privatisation of NHS primary care. We’re all in it together, are we?
From a couple of years ago, but still relevant:
Experts warned that doctors with vast numbers of patients might not be providing the best service, with their practices seeing poorer care and longer waiting times.
The figures show the worst surgeries for securing a doctor’s appointment within two days have 50 per cent more patients per GP than the average practice.
Leading doctors warned that the problem was likely to be exacerbated by reforms planned by Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary.
Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, which represents the UK’s primary care trusts, said it was a question of whether doctors were “able to cater as well for each patient with a list once they get much over 2,000 or 3,000”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8978509/Shortage-of-family-doctors-leaves-health-care-in-crisis.html
I am not qualified to answer most of the points raised here. Some of these have been disputed by the GP Practice. In the interests of free speech, I do not normally censor comments, but any alternative views and rebuttals are always welcome in the interest of public understanding and of free speech, which is a fundamental right.
Well, I would certainly be interested in what the surgery manager says. As far as I am concerned, Serco and Virgin Health were mentioned in the conversation as alternative primary care providers should CQC close Stansted Surgery. This was said in the context of public complaints by patients. If I am told I am wrong, then I’d be reassured.
If the CCG, NHS England and the surgery would communicate better with the parish council and residents, perhaps any “misinterpretations” would be dispelled. It’s not hard. Stansted has a perfectly good parish magazine, The Link, and surrounding villages have similar publications. A couple of hundred words once a month would help. The failure to communicate is the root of a lot of confusion and gives the impression no-one is interested in keeping patients properly informed. Let’s hope someone responds.