The APMS contract for an 11,000-patient GP practice is set to be awarded to ‘super-practice’ provider Modality after the partners handed back their contract.
A preliminary award notice, posted on Monday, named the Modality Partnership as the preferred bidder for the £18m contract.
Last month, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB (NNICB) announced that the Windmill Practice GP contract will switch from GMS to APMS in order to improve procurement chances.
It was later revealed that Windmill was one of 16 practices in the area impacted by ICB clawbacks and was ordered to pay back £174,000.
NNICB had made an administrative error which led to GP practices being wrongly paid for providing out-of-hours services.
According to Nottinghamshire LMC, this clawback was ‘one of the final straws’ for the Windmill Practice, with partners handing back their contract soon after the error came to light.
The notice on Monday said: ‘The contract will be awarded to Modality MMS following a robust Competitive Process under The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.’
Other providers can make ‘representations’ until 18 April, but the contract is expected to begin from the start of June, and will last for 10 years with the option to extend for a further five years.
Modality is the largest GP ‘super-partnership’ in the UK, with just under 50 GP practice sites covering over 450,000 patients, according to its website.
The company already runs the Wellspring Surgery in Nottingham, which is close to the Windmill Practice.
NNICB commissioning delivery director Victoria McGregor-Riley sought to reassure Windmill patients that there will be no ‘immediate changes’ and the ICB aims to ‘ensure the continuation of high quality’ GP care from the same location.
She said: ‘The current contract holders for primary medical services at The Windmill Practice have served notice that they will be withdrawing from the delivery of the service at the end of May 2024.’
‘The process of identifying a new provider to operate from the current location from the start of June 2024 is on-going, so we are unable to comment further at this stage,’ Ms McGregor-Riley added.
Last year, the CQC placed Modality Mid Sussex, a super-partnership of four practices, into special measures, citing lack of capacity to meet patient demand as a contributing factor in the decision.
READERS' COMMENTS [1]
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“Super” practice with “super” GPs trained in medicine but running a business instead of seeing patients leaving the medicine to “allied professionals”. How long will this model last I wonder? Make hay whilst the sun shines guys..wont be long before allied specialists in business managment will come along and relieve you of your position. You too (the super facilitators of the dismantling of your profession) will be replaced along with all your other unnecessary GP colleagues. What exactly is the point of a clinician who’s “too skilled” to see any patients?