We have had two stories over the past week that have made me think that the paranoia around commissioners wanting small practices to close might actually have something in it.
In the first story, a practice had to close after the death of a single-hander. There was someone who was ready to take over immediately. However, commissioners failed to get the paperwork signed by the single-hander before he sadly passed away. So now the practice is closing.
In the second story, the LMC is claiming that the local CCG is not stumping up the funding needed to save a ‘vital’ small rural surgery. They say that the procurement process to take over the practice is not enough, and is being rushed – with the aim of the practice having to close.
These CCGs’ actions have suggested that, yes, small practices might be paranoid, but it doesn’t mean they are not out to get them
In both these instances, it wouldn’t take much to save these practices. Yet, in both cases, the CCGs are not willing to take this action.
When Pulse last year revealed Dr Arvind Madan, the former NHS England director of primary care, said GPs should be ‘pleased’ when small practices closed, it could at least be rationalised as pushing for them to work in networks.
Yet these CCGs’ actions have suggested that if GPs in small practices thought they were being paranoid, it doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get them.
Jaimie Kaffash is editor of Pulse. Follow him on Twitter @jkaffash or email him at editor@pulsetoday.co.uk
