A tenth GP practice has handed over its contract to Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in a bid to provide ‘resilience’ to the practice and ensure its ‘long-term security’.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) is now running Oxford Surgery, meaning it is the tenth practice to come under its management, serving a population of 60,620 patients
The trust said that by acquiring the latest practice, it is able to ‘redesign services’ and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.
The trust began providing GP services in 2017 when it announced it would be directly responsible for the delivery of care of eight GP practices as part of an ‘open-ended’ pilot. Last year, it acquired a 5,000-patient GP practice.
With its latest acquisition, the trust said issues around ‘scope of responsibility, funding, differing objectives and drivers will be removed’ so that ‘clinicians will be in a position to design effective, high-quality clinical pathways, which will improve appropriate access and positively impact on patient outcomes’.
The trust said in an online statement that Oxley Surgery will ‘now have extensive administration support to help manage workflow and secretarial tasks to release more clinical time’.
It said: ‘By investing in GP practices, the trust can redesign services, improve the health and wellbeing of the local population and prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.’
RWT chief executive David Loughton said: ‘I am delighted to welcome Oxley Surgery to RWT and look forward to working together to continue to provide high-quality services for our patients.
‘This is an exciting time for GP surgeries working with us as we have helped improved efficiency in areas such as recruitment, finance and patient access.
‘Within each practice we have extensive administration teams to support workflow optimisation, care navigation and secretarial tasks to release more clinical time.’
He added: ‘This means that with the patient at the centre, we can alter the way patients move between the primary and secondary care interface. Our vision is great collaboration that supports the best interest of the patient.’
Dr Joseph Fowler, GP at Oxley Surgery, said: ‘Joining the trust provides proactive resilience for us. I feel working with the trust will ensure a good standard is maintained.
‘It will provide long term security for the practice which I am pleased about.’
Earlier this year, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust took over three GP practices, with GPs warning the takeovers could put the trust in an ‘extremely powerful position’.
And last summer, Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust was forced to close a 5,000-patient GP practice because of ‘significant difficulties’ recruiting GPs and an ‘over-reliance’ on locums.
