Following a BBC Panorama investigation alleging poor standards at a London GP practice, Basingstoke MP, Maria Miller, responded to concerns that Basingstoke practices might be impacted by the issues raised in the programme.
Maria said, “It is extremely worrying to hear allegations on BBCs Panorama of inadequate patient care at a London GP practice and vitally important these are investigated immediately by the CQC, the organisation responsible for the quality of care in GP Surgeries. I am sure our local NHS and GP surgeries will want to reassure patients as quickly as possible that the quality of patient care in Basingstoke GP Surgeries is already subject to close scrutiny, because like all our local GP Surgeries, Operose in Basingstoke is already required to work closely with the NHS in Hampshire to ensure the correct quality of service for patients. I recently met the GPs who run Operose in Basingstoke who confirmed that every patient enquiry is seen by a GP on the same day."
"Everyone in Basingstoke wants the best NHS care possible, a point that was clear from the Community Meeting I convened last month with GPs, our Hospital and patients groups. Locally there are significant concerns amongst residents about access to GP appointments. All General Practices, including Operose, are experiencing a surge in demand for GP appointments with 39,000 General Practice appointments a month being provided in Basingstoke, that is one in three of the local population seeing a GP every month.
"The back-log created by the pandemic has put the whole NHS across the country under huge strain, including GPs. I know from my work with the NHS in Basingstoke that every GP surgery in our community, including those managed by Operose, are looking for new ways to work to be able to meet the needs of their patients and the local community more widely. That includes using a team of medical professionals with GPs overseeing their work. This is a new model of working led by the NHS not GPs, put in place to increase the capacity of Primary Care, using the expert skills including nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists and mental health professionals."
GP practices have been run as private businesses since the beginning of the NHS. They are owned and managed by doctors and partnerships, providing services to the NHS, rather than being directly employed by it.
Operose Health runs 70 GP practices in total across England, making it the largest supplier of GP services to the NHS. The CQC currently rates 97% of Operose practices as Good or Outstanding.
In Basingstoke Operose manage three practices, across five sites: the Camrose, Gillies and Hackwood Partnership (CGH); the Beggarwood Practice; and Shakespeare Road Medical Practice (on a temporary contract). These cover around 63,000 patients in total.
Nationally the Government is driving increased GP recruitment, with 4,000 trainees accepting a place in 2021-22, compared to 2,671 in 2014.
As part of the package of funding and support, the NHS is increasing its oversight of practices with the most severe problems around access, and GP appointment data is now available at the following address: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/appointments-in-general-practice