Planned Sell Off of Haringey GP surgery leaves Patients in the lurch

NEWS RELEASE

Planned Sell Off of Haringey GP surgery leaves Patients in the lurch

A failing GP clinic in Tottenham, managed by giant American healthcare firm Centene, is reportedly up for sale causing concern amongst patients. 

St Ann's Road Surgery was taken over by Operose, a subsidiary of the the US-based health insurance giant Centene, in 2021 despite local opposition.

Since then patients have expressed significant concerns about the management of the practice, with its contract renewed in April for the minimum 1 year after findings that over 70% of patients were dissatisfied with booking GP appointments. 

In 2022, BBC Panorama reported on unsafe conditions at Operose-run GPs, particularly highlighting the use of less qualified physician associates in lieu of registered GPs.  

A report brought to the Primary Care Committee in April 2023 found that there was an estimated yearly shortfall of 20,000 GP appointments at St Ann's compared to national targets. 

This comes after the coroner's report into the tragic death of Emily Chesterton in 2022 at Vale Practice has highlighted the significant threat presented to patient safety through the widespread use of Physician Associates. 

In a letter organised by local campaign group Haringey Keep Our NHS public, to Chair of the Primary Care Committee, Usman Khan, questions are raised about the decision to award contracts to run GPs to large private companies given the uncertainty caused by the news that Centene planned to sell its practices. 

Tammy Hymas, Councillor for St Ann's said that: "Local patients need high quality, accessible primary care - it is clear that large American insurance companies cannot provide that. Centene's intention to sell St Ann's Road GP puts over 16,000 patients in the lurch. This is exactly what happens when we prioritise profits over patients in our NHS"

Diane Paice, local resident and member of the Patient Participation Group said: “There hasn’t been a functioning broad based Patients Participation Group in many years -often it’s just the same handful of patients that turn up, (including me!)outnumbered by staff.  

The turnover of staff is ridiculously high, from Reception Staff to GP’s; you never know whether you are seeing a real GP rather than the cheaper alternative, a Physician Associate.  All this means there is no continuity of care, little opportunity for patients to get to know their doctor, and vice-versa.  A revolving door of temporary staff just makes everything worse.  

As patients were not asking for anything special, just what we all deserve.

Notes to editors: 

Using the list size of 16,370, BMA and National workforce guides there was a shortfall of; - 3-5 WTE GPs - 432 GP appointments per week (with an expectation for this list size of 1,179 appts per week) - 241 Nursing appointments per week’ as reported by the Primary Care Committee in April 2023.

A shortfall of 432 GP appointments per week translates to over 20,000 per year.

Press release issued by Haringey Keep Our NHS Public