Staff at a GP practice in London fell ill due to NHS Property Services’ (NHSPS) failure to resolve problems with their boiler, according to one GP partner.
Dr Priyanka Aggarwal, GP partner at the Shakespeare Health Centre, told the Evening Standard her practice went without heating for weeks in November when temperatures went below zero.
The building is managed by NHSPS meaning staff are not able to access the boiler themselves and have to ask the property company to turn it on and off for them.
According to Dr Aggarwal, the practice has experienced ‘recurring’ boiler problems since they came to the building eight years ago.
Over the summer, the staff were not able to turn the heating off meaning some members were calling in sick because the rooms were ‘too hot’.
In November, Dr Aggarwal said the team was ‘wearing coats all day to stay warm’, and they were having to examine patients with respiratory conditions in cold conditions.
She said: ‘It was absolutely freezing here. For people with coughs and colds, the last thing you want to do is come into a practice that is so cold.
‘This isn’t safe for patients or staff. My hands would often get stiff at the end of the day because I was so cold. It really affects your concentration, it’s very difficult to carry on and work properly.’
Since then, the GP practice has been given oil heaters as a short-term solution, but Dr Aggarwal said NHSPS has failed to replace the boiler.
According to NHSPS, Shakespeare Medical Practice were forced to move into the current premises ‘as an emergency measure’ after they were evicted from their previous building.
A spokesperson said: ‘There is currently no formal lease agreement in place between ourselves and the practice, however to ensure patients can continue to access services we have committed to fixing the heating issues in the building, and this work is due to complete imminently.
‘We are currently involved in ongoing discussions with the practice and are keen to help them resolve their long-term estates challenges and provide the local community with a permanent, suitable location to access primary care.’
Last year, a survey by the RCGP revealed that four in ten GP practice staff described their premises as ‘unfit for purpose’.
The survey also found that almost three-quarters of the staff who requested funding to upgrade their premises over the previous year were unsuccessful in obtaining it.
In November, the RCGP called on chancellor Jeremy Hunt to address ‘unsafe’ GP premises with a cash injection of £2bn, as part of the college’s ‘general election manifesto’.
