Circuit Lane surgery in Southcote lies outside the South Reading CCG area but developments there could be an indicator of future changes here.
When the GP partners were unable to recruit a replacement for a partner who had announced their resignation, they found themselves unable to guarantee the safe continuation of the service and all resigned together. NHS England (Thames Valley) was left with the problem of how to push forward the GP service for around 11,000 patients from Southcote and areas further afield. NHS England and the Berkshire West CCG Federation resolved to replace the GP service in two steps. Firstly, a 12-month interim service, from February 2015 to hold the fort at Circuit Lane. A more permanent replacement would be appointed to start from February 2016. The reasons for this are not altogether clear, but at public meetings it was explained that from April 2015, NHS England and the Berkshire West CCGs will be co-commissioning GP services rather than NHS England having sole responsibility. It was suggested that this will allow an innovative replacement service in 2016. Although the details have not been made clear it has been suggested that a centre integrating GP services with full community care could be under consideration. Alternatively, mention has been made of the use of "Physician's Assistants" alongside traditionally trained GPs and nurses at the new centre.
It has now been announced that the interim 12-month service contract will go to Berkshire NHS Healthcare Trust which already operates the Berkshire West out-of-hours GP service through its Westcall organisation. This allays immediate fears for patients of having to deal with a very different "business-oriented/profit-seeking" organisation - as was strongly expressed at the public meetings about the change of service.
The contract award to Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust is an interesting development which should provide interim assurance to the patients at Circuit Lane. They will now want to know more about the long-term solution for 2016 and onwards.
Ths underlying problem at Circuit Lane - the difficulty of finding replacement GP partners at a practice - is likely to be widespread, particularly in areas of relatively less prosperity where workloads can be somewhat higher and income opportunities somewhat less. There is a firstly a shortage of new GPs. Half the training places in the Thames Valley are empty although there are 5 applicants for every GP training place in the North West. Then, since a large majoriity of newly qualifying GPs are female and in their late twenties or thereabouts, part-time salaried work can be a more attractive option than the demands of partnership. Further, the attractive but relatively familiar conditions in countries like Australia and Canada induce a certain number to seek work abroad. Some think that this is all leading to the demise of the GP partner model. It is certain that there will be a big role for salaried GPs in the near future.
South Reading has quite a few small practices and quite a few GPs approaching retirement and a measurable shortage of GPs. It has been said that North and West Reading CCG has 69.8 whole time equivalent GPs per 100,000 population, while South Reading had 53.9 per 100,000. How will all of these developments come to affect us in the South Reading CCG area?