Concern over surgeries merger
PATIENTS WILL BE MOVED TO NEARBY AMERICAN-OWNED PRACTICE
“NERVOUSNESS” is being felt by patients and GPS as a surgery in Nottingham is set to close and merge with a nearby American-owned practice.
Patients at Springfield Medical Centre in Bulwell will be moved to St Albans & Nirmala Medical Centre in April next year after the partners at the surgery, Dr and Mrs Mohindra, announced their retirement.
Springfield’s almost 3,000 patients were issued a letter on October 11 informing them that they would be automatically transferred to the neighbouring practice, less than 500 metres down the road.
The move was supported by the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in August.
However, unease has been felt over the merger with St Albans & Nirmala, which is run by Operose Health, a UK subsidiary of US health insurance company, Centene.
Michael Wright, chief executive of
Nottinghamshire Local Medical Committee, which represents GPS, said it was a “big concern”.
Speaking at the CCG Primary Care Commissioning Committee, he said: “There is nervousness about this, there is nervousness about Centene or Operose’s expansion.
“So it is a big concern and I think a lot of GPS are a bit concerned about this. But what this shows is there are no ready-made packages to rescue practices who have got retirement plans or pending changes that are going to mean they have to handover or have a succession plan. They have to see what’s available. This is right on their doorstep so it’s probably minimal disruption in terms of patient flow.
“I think it’s just a sign of where we are. There is nervousness but it does allow GPS to retire and for a fairly, hopefully, painless transition across for the patients.”
Mike Scott, spokesman for campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, said the transfer was “another nail in the coffin of the NHS”.
“US multinationals like Operose which has already taken over the St. Albans and Nirmala practice - are looking to build up a presence in the UK, so they will be in a strong position to bid for other services when the Government takes the privatisation of our NHS to the next level. Patients want their GP services to be run by local people, not some unaccountable foreign company.”
Responding to a resident’s question at the committee which spoke of a “concern for quality of care”, chair Eleri de Gilbert pointed towards the practice’s most recent CQC report from 2019, which rated the service as “good”. She added: “The CCG itself undertake quarterly reviews of all of our practices, scrutinising a wide variety of. St Albans & Nirmala have not raised any concerns for us.”