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GPs hit with breach of contract notices after NHS England checks up on practices closing early over Christmas

NHS England has issued breach of contract notices to 12 GP practices in London for closing early on Christmas Eve and is preparing more notices for those who were closed on New Year’s Eve, Pulse has learnt.

NHS England’s local area team in London said that staff rang round 238 GP practices in the capital after 3.30pm on Christmas Eve to check they remained open. As a result of the calls, NHS England found that 12 practices had transferred calls to an alternative provider and has subsequently issued them with a breach of contract notice.

It repeated the same exercise on New Year’s Eve and told Pulse that further breach notices ‘have been or are in the process of being issued’.

Londonwide LMCs said it had initially reached an agreement with local managers to allow GPs to close early on Christmas Eve but that this offer was withdrawn by NHS England in London after national primary care chief Dr David Geddes sent a strongly-worded letter informing practices across the country that remaining open during core hours would be ‘non-negotiable’.

A spokesperson for NHS England (London) told Pulse today: ‘From 15.30 on Christmas Eve we called 238 practices in London. 12 practices were found to be closed and were issued with a breach of contract notice before New Year’s Eve.

‘On New Year’s Eve we repeated the process and further breach notices have been or are in the process of being issued.

‘We undertook this exercise as we wanted to ensure that patients in London had access to the primary care services they are entitled to and that GP practices had signed up to deliver.’

At the time of writing, NHS England was unable to confirm whether this exercise had been repeated in other areas of the country.

But in a statement, Londonwide LMCs said they were clear that the practices had not breached their contract by transferring calls to another provider and it would be supporting practices if they wanted to challenge the notices issued to them from NHS England.

The statement said: ‘The GMS contract is non-specific on hours of opening on Christmas Eve and requires only “reasonable access to services”. It is the firm opinion of Londonwide LMCs, the GPC and BMA Law that the GMS contract does not require that practices are physically open during all of core hours. This was made clear in guidance issued by the GPC and Londonwide LMCs.

‘Last year one of the PCT clusters objected to this but LMC negotiated a reasonable response. A similar compromise was negotiated with NHS England (London) early in December but following a letter from Dr David Geddes this agreement was withdrawn and practices were told they were expected to remain open until 6.30pm Christmas Eve.’

‘Londonwide LMCs are contacting affected practices and offering support and guidance if they wish to dispute the breach notices issued by NHS England (London) and we are liaising with the GPC to ensure their resources are adequately mobilised. Because this is a national issue, Londonwide LMCs will be working with other LMC leads across England.’

‘It is Londonwide LMCs’ view that NHS England (London) have wasted valuable resources in contacting so many practices and [we] view their action as mean-spirited and vindictive with no benefit to patient services.’

Before Christmas Pulse revealed many GPs were planning to defy NHS England’s guidance on early closure over the holiday, supported by guidance from the GPC and LMCs.