A DOCTOR'S surgery may be saved from closure but thousands of patients will still have to re-register with another practice first.

A contract has been awarded to Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre to set up a branch surgery at the Eaton Place Surgery site.

The Eaton Place practice will close on February 28 – but the “challenging and complex” business of setting up a new surgery means the NHS cannot not guarantee if, or when, a new branch would open.

Patient Mark Laverick, 45, of Paston Place, said: “If it happens it will be brilliant but there’s no concrete guarantee. It still leaves us in the same uncertain position. It has been left too late and people will turn to the nearest alternative, A&E.”

Retiring partner Dr Mockett said: “This is fantastic news for patients. We hoped it would remain a surgery instead of becoming commercial units.”

So far around 1,000 patients have re-registered with another practice out of 5,600 who need to move.

A spokeswoman from NHS England South East confirmed it had approved the proposal and said: “Setting up branch surgeries is, however, a challenging process involving complex financial and contractual negotiations between practices and premises owners regarding buying or leasing the premises.

“NHS England is not party to these negotiations and cannot yet guarantee that the branch surgery will be able to open or by what date.

“Our number one concern is to ensure all patients have ongoing access to GP services once the practice closes.”

The body will work with other surgeries so patients can find an alternative. There are 13 practices less than two miles away, the spokesman said. 

Public figures including Labour parliamentary candidate for Kemptown Nancy Platts, Brighton Kemptown MP Simon Kirby,  Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, and East Brighton councillor Warren Morgan have all fought to keep the surgery open.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove said: "The fallout from an unplanned closure of a surgery has been in the spotlight with Eaton Place. Losing a surgery within a reasonable distance to where people live would have caused real distress to residents of that area. At Healthwatch Brighton and Hove, we will continue to monitor GP provision in the city, as we would not wish to see other patients having the same experience as those of Eaton Place."

Contact the Healthwatch helpline on 01273 23 40 40 between 10am and12pm, Monday to Friday or email help@healthwatchbrightonandhove.co.uk   

 

NHS had chance to buy closing surgery

The NHS had the chance to buy privately-owned Eaton Place Surgery nearly six months ago but it did not take up the offer.

NHS England, the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Property Services were all aware the surgery was up for sale.

Some 5,600 patients were left without a doctor and had to register at other suggested practices, with many saying they were turned away.

At the time NHS England told patients the surgery was not available for NHS use and the health service was not in a position to buy it.

The Eaton Place Surgery manager told The Argus yesterday: “The offer was on the table, to anyone and everyone, right from the get-go.”

Patient Maggie Barradell said: “It makes me really angry to find this out. It makes me think it is just another sneaky back door cut to services.”

In an open letter to health secretary Jeremy Hunt, Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, claimed the premises was offered to the NHS for sale in September before it went on the open market in October. She has also waded in to help patients as many begin to look to register at other surgeries in her neighbouring constituency.

She said: “If the NHS can’t or won’t buy the premises, patients should at the very least be told why.”

In a statement NHS England said at first the partners did not offer to sell or lease the building to the NHS but added: “NHS England made NHS Property Services aware in September that the GP partners intended to market the property for sale on October 6.”

An NHS Property Service spokesman said: “Our role is to respond to the needs of local healthcare commissioners and we were not asked to buy this privately-owned surgery.”

Brighton and Hove CCG did not respond yesterday. 

 

The NHS England explanation in full

A spokesperson from NHS England (South East) said:

NHS England’s priority is to ensure that all patients have continuing access to GP services following the closure of Eaton Place Surgery on 28 February, due to the retirement of the two GPs who run the practice contract.

After confirming their retirement to NHS England, the two GP partners who own the surgery premises told NHS England that they were planning on selling their property and did not intend to make it available to the NHS as a leaseholder.  The GP partners did not offer to sell the building to the NHS and indicated that they had an interested buyer in the property.

NHS England made NHS Property Services aware in September 2014 that the two GP partners intended to market the property for sale on the 6 October 2014.   NHS Property Services is an organisation independent of NHS England with responsibility for owning and managing most of the NHS premises which were owned previously by the former primary care trusts, including some GP surgeries.

We wrote to patients at the earliest possible opportunity on 9 October to let them know that the partners would be retiring from the practice on 28 February, and that the building would not be available for use after that date.   We were unable to inform patients sooner following a request from the GP partners to allow them to complete the required HR processes with their staff before the information about their retirement was announced publicly.  We confirmed to patients that we were working at pace to identify if alternative, suitable and affordable premises were available in the local area in order to determine whether we could appoint a new provider to treat patients at another location nearby after 28 February. NHS Property Services did not have suitable surplus accommodation in the area at that time and which would be available for use within the required timescales.    NHS England sought to determine whether the two GP partners could extend the period before their retirement slightly, but this wasn’t possible.

With no alternative premises immediately available, NHS England was unable to hold a procurement process to appoint a new provider to manage a new contract to deliver services to the patients from Eaton Place Surgery.   In addition, we received assurances from other local surgeries located closest to Eaton Place that they had capacity to welcome in excess of 8,500 new patients and therefore there was sufficient capacity to register the 5,600 patients registered at Eaton Place.   

We therefore wrote a further letter to patients on 10 November to inform them that the only way we could guarantee alternative arrangements for their future care, by the time the two GP partners retire on 28 February, was to ask them to register with an alternative local GP practice.

On 20 November, one of the GP partners from Eaton Place mentioned in a phone call with a member of staff from the area team that the two GP partners may consider offering the lease for the building to NHS England.  

The area team confirmed that NHS England was unable to legally take on the lease.  We therefore suggested that the practice contact other local practices to see if they would be interested in leasing the building.  This suggestion from the GP partner was made after NHS England had written to patients on 10 November to inform that the only way we could guarantee alternative arrangements for their future care by 28 February was to ask them to register with an alternative local practice.   

The GP partners from Eaton Place then subsequently confirmed at a later date that they did not wish to be landlords of the surgery premises and would be selling the building as they originally indicated.

NHS England wrote to Caroline Lucas on 12 January summarising the latest position as set out above.

NHS England (South East) has approved a proposal from the Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre practice to open a branch surgery at Eaton Place. Setting up branch surgeries is, however, a challenging process involving complex financial and contractual negotiations between practices and premises owners regarding buying or leasing the premises. NHS England is not party to these negotiations.

Due to ongoing negotiations, NHS England cannot yet guarantee that the branch surgery will be able to open or by what date.

Our number one concern is to ensure that all patients registered at Eaton Place surgery have ongoing access to GP services once the practice closes on 28th February, following the retirement of the two partners.

It is vitally important that all patients currently registered at Eaton Place continue to re-register with an alternative practice until NHS England confirms whether a branch surgery is opening at Eaton place.  Even if a new branch surgery opens in Eaton Place in due course, patients would still need to re-register with another practice until the new surgery opens and is able to accept registrations.

We will continue to work with other local GP practices to ensure that all patients requiring an alternative practice are able to find another surgery.

There are 13 practices within less than two miles of Eaton Place that are able to register more patients, but the patients who are registered at Eaton Place live across a much wider area within Brighton.  With 52 practices in the city, including branch surgeries, we are confident that all patients will be able to smoothly transfer to a new GP practice before 28 February.