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GPs invited to give ‘honest’ feedback on support services under Capita

GPs will be asked to give ‘honest’ feedback on their experience of primary care support services since they were taken over by Capita in a survey to be sent out this month. 

The contract with NHS England for delivering Primary Care Support England (PCSE) requires a survey be conducted every six months, and this second survey will be emailed to practices to participate in.

The initial survey was sent out by post, in order to establish a ‘baseline’ by which Capita will be measured.

The GPC told Pulse that they wanted GPs’ ‘honest opinions’ on the service they’ve received so far.

Pulse has followed the rollout of the new contract closely, and revealed how the BMA said practices had been left without deliveries of basic clinical supplies and had accumulated piles of patients’ notes – with some practices saying they waited four weeks for a collection.

The GPC also said that practices reported that patient notes going missing, while the Information Commissioner’s Office is enquiring about information governance breaches.

GPC chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul wrote to NHS England last month demanding that GPs be compensated for the ‘systematic failure’ of support services, and indemnified against any serious incidents that may have arisen.

Capita has said it that primary care support services had been ‘fragmented’, and it had been asked to transform them. 

A spokesman said about the issues faced by practices: ‘It is inevitable that with such significant structure change there will be initial challenges. However, we have been working closely with NHS England, and are continuing to do so, to ensure the service is delivered at an optimal level.’

Capita will send out the new survey to practice’s designated email addresses stipulated for the online portal, which has been implemented to allow practices to order supplies and track the movement of patient records.

The company confirmed to Pulse that the survey formed part of the contract with NHS England and would be sent out this month, after it is signed off by the ‘PCSE Stakeholder Forum’ – which includes the BMA, NHS England, Public Health England, Health Education England and CCGs. 

Chair of the GPC’s practice finance subcommittee Dr Ian Hume told Pulse they were working with NHS England to ensure the quality standards in Capita’s contract were enforced.

Dr Hume said: ‘One of the important things within the contract is a satisfaction survey, every six months.

‘The next survey runs in June. I would like GPs to respond to that survey and give their honest opinion of the service they’ve got.’