US firm loses GP surgery after patients ‘were denied access to appointments’
The decision was described as a ‘victory’ in ‘retaking our NHS’
Friday, 21st October 2022 — By Anna Lamche and Tom Foot
Nurullah Turan
A PRIVATE company which took over a series of NHS GP surgery contracts last year will lose control of one of its Islington practices after patients were denied access to hundreds of appointments each month.
NHS chiefs have agreed to re-tender Hanley Primary Practice in Finsbury Park after being told of a shortage of GPs, overuse of nursing staff and a massive “underprovision” of 270 patient appointments each week.
A GP running the surgery criticised the committee for an “unfair” assessment of its service, blaming a national “workforce crisis” and “unhealthy lifestyle choices” of patients in what he described as the eighth most deprived ward in the country.
The centre is a GP service linked back to US healthcare insurance giant Centene Corporation via its UK subsidiaries, AT Medics and Operose Health.
Campaigners warned of “privatisation by stealth” after the Tribune revealed last year that AT Medics had merged with Operose Health, the UK arm of Centene.
AT Medics had contracts to run both Hanley Primary Care Centre and Mitchison Road Surgery near Essex Road. Following the takeover, both practices fell into the hands of Centene. The company also runs four GP services in Camden.
In Islington, both Hanley and Mitchison Road GP practices have been dogged by claims of poor performance, most recently at a Town Hall meeting last month when one patient warned it was easier to go “DIY doctoring on Google” than get an appointment with a GP face to face.
On Tuesday morning, the NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board met to decide whether to renew their Islington contracts with AT Medics.
Figures in an accompanying report showed that the Hanley surgery had an underprovision of 2.8 “working time equivalent” GPs – a huge hole in any GP surgery – and was carrying out 270 too few appointments every week.
The report said: “This is deemed significant to access for the registered patient list. There was an overprovision of nursing appointments.”
Questions concerning the overuse of nursing staff as opposed to GPs were raised in a Panorama investigation in June this year. There has been an intense spotlight on the workings of AT Medics and Operose Health since the takeover with questions asked in the House of Commons and street protests.
Despite the strong findings from the NHS committee, doctors at both Islington surgeries had made a plea for the contracts to be renewed. The board chose to extend its contract with AT Medics for Mitchison Road Surgery by two years. Board members said they would only renew the contract if they saw improvement in the practice’s performance.
Meanwhile, the board decided not to renew Centene’s contract to run Hanley Primary Care Centre. The board stressed the decision was made solely on the basis that AT Medics was failing to deliver on the terms of its contract. Islington’s executive member for health and social care Cllr Nurullah Turan said the decision was a “victory” that signified “the first step towards retaking our NHS from giant corporates”.
He told the meeting: “The reason why I’m here today is that my fellow councillors, all 51 of us, are quite hoping that the decision will be made to get our GP practices out of the hands of companies which are profit driven.
“Our GP colleagues are wonderful, saving lives every day, but this is about the privatisation of the NHS more than anything else. “So the decisions that are being made here will have implications nationwide.
“And it is our NHS that we are fighting for. It may not feel like it, but believe me it is.” The contract for the Hanley surgery will now go out to tender, and Centene’s subsidiaries will continue to run the service while the procurement process takes place.
A deputation was delivered on behalf of AT Medics
While the companies are free to make a fresh bid, campaigners hope to see local GPs take on the contract. In a deputation delivered on behalf of AT Medics, Dr Ashwin Balabhadra, clinical lead at Hanley PCC, said: “The workforce crisis in general practice is no secret, but its disproportionate impact on practices in deprived areas is less well known … A GP working in a practice serving the most deprived patients will on average be responsible for the care of almost 10 per cent more patients than a GP serving patients in more affluent areas…
“All these underlying factors that can influence performance and targets must be considered when reviewing our status contractually for Hanley.
“It is clear to me that there has been an unfair assessment made of Hanley and a lack of proper comparable analysis between our practice and those within the borough when having our contract reviewed. We as a team have been working hard non-stop.
“Despite the challenging conditions, we continue to significantly outperform most practices within the Islington borough in a number of performance areas. This has been detailed within our report but I feel, has not fairly been considered when reviewing the contract.”
Dr Balabhadra invited the committee to check the practice’s Google reviews, as the top boss of AT Medics, Omar Din, had done in Islington Town Hall last month. At Michison, a report said there was an “underprovision” shortage of 1.7 WTE GPs and it had not failed to meet targets for winter flu vaccinations.
Its lead GP, Dr Daniel Sherlock, had said in a statement: “Our intention now is that we can continue to strengthen and grow our team and further drive improvements.” The North Central London Integrated Care Board said services would “continue uninterrupted”. – See Letters, page 11
