A community health trust has won four more APMS GP contracts, bringing the total number of GP contracts under its control to ten.
The East London Foundation Trust (ELFT) now provides GP care to 80,000 registered patients across north east London, Bedfordshire and Luton, with all but one of the practices under APMS contracts.
The four new contracts, which have been in place from the start of this month, are now ‘integrated’ with the trust, bringing in over 30 staff and 17,500 patients.
According to the ELFT, this ‘union’ of GP practices highlights its ‘alignment with the NHS England Fuller stocktake report’, which in 2022 argued for better integration between primary care and other NHS services.
However, the trust told Pulse it has a unique model where practices are run under APMS contracts won by the trust, rather than being subcontracted.
Two of the practices, the Cauldwell Medical Centre in Bedford and the Kingsway and Bramingham Medical Centre in Luton, had previously been run by the large GP chain Operose Health.
The trust said its collaboration with GP practices focuses on ‘enhancing patient experiences and fostering strong partnerships with local health and social care organisations’.
‘This union highlights ELFT’s commitment to local population health and its alignment with the NHS England Fuller stocktake report,’ the trust’s primary care team added.
ELFT deputy CEO and chief operating officer Edwin Ndlovu said: ‘It is an exciting time as we collaborate to focus on community-centric healthcare, forging stronger connections, and innovatively addressing essential health challenges.’
The practices won by ELFT
|
Victoria Medical Centre |
Barking |
|
Five Elms Health Centre |
Dagenham |
|
Rainham Health Centre |
Rainham |
|
Upminster Medical Centre |
Upminster |
|
Leighton Road Surgery |
Leighton Buzzard |
|
Cauldwell Medical Centre |
Bedford |
|
Kingsway and Bramingham Medical Centre |
Luton |
|
Newham Transitional Practice |
Newham |
|
Health E1 |
East London |
|
Greenhouse practices |
East London |
Last year, a leading think tank argued that widespread implementation of trusts managing GP services will not fix the main issue facing general practice – that the supply of GPs does not meet the current demand for care.
Ahead of the Fuller Stocktake’s publication, then health secretary Sajid Javid put his backing behind a report which recommended phasing out the GMS contract by 2030, with the majority of GPs contracted by providers such as hospital trusts.
Government officials had also visited the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s salaried GP model, which managed nine GP practices, to explore ‘alternative ways to deliver primary care’.
Under the Wolverhampton model, practices subcontracted their GMS contracts to the trust.
Pulse previously reported that the Royal Wolverhampton Trust had struggled to fill GP vacancies across its fully salaried practices amid ‘high’ cost pressures.
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READERS' COMMENTS [6]
Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles
NHS England and some other trusts are perennially failing overspent mismanaged organisations in my opinion – I assume this is not the case for this trust or some other overriding factors were considered after evaluation otherwise the bid would in my personal opinion likely to have been rejected as it probably would be for other failing /overspent bidders.
Glad to see it’s in line with the Fuller shitsteak though
Apologies. Autocorrect playing up
Should be *stocktake *
Given what we know already about the costs of running a salaried GP service, I presume this will be thoroughly audited to ensure “value for money”. However, we already know that APMS contracts cost more, so fallen at the first hurdle already.
Given that the practices have been taken over by an NHS trust/public body, presumably all the costs and payments involved in the contracts will be in the public domain? Should be very interesting.
Fuller Stocktake is a sham. It’s just NHSE/DHSC feigning legitimacy, with no substance and no evidence for better patient care. It’s post-STP, post-truth, post-GP. Does not merit the term ‘report’ and has no buy-in from General Practice at large.
@So the bird flew away
Love your autocorrect function.