‘Many GPs considering whether to continue’ say campaigners, as Cambridge doctors hand back contract

A campaign group has raised the alarm over the future of general practice in Cambridgeshire after doctors said they can no longer run a Cambridge surgery amid spiralling costs and a lack of funding.

The Cambridgeshire Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) team says it has urgent questions for health bosses after the four GPs at East Barnwell Health Centre said they were handing back their contracts as of October.

The comments come days after family doctors announced unprecedented industrial action amid a row over the new contract for GP services in England.

In a letter to supporters, Cambridgeshire KONP said: “I am sure you have all seen the headlines and read the mainstream media reports about the decision of the GPs to take industrial action. This has been a long time in the making as the GP contract has been proscriptive and underfunded for many years. The latest increase of 1.9 per cent was the last straw.

“The fact is that many GPs are seriously considering whether they can continue to provide the service that they want to give: continuity of care from cradle to grave, according to need, not according to rationing or targets.”

The campaigners refer to the decision by the GPs at East Barnwell Health Centre, adding that there has been “no willingness” from the Cambridge and Peterborough Integrated Care System (ICS) to increase funding or reduce premises costs. The East Barnwell GPs said the surgery had faced “increasing financial challenges” over the past 10 years and it was becoming more difficult to “maintain a financially viable practice”.

The GPs said they had held “many meetings over several years” with the local NHS leaders to try to “achieve a solution to guarantee our viability going forward”.

The letter adds: “Despite requests from the East Barnwell GPs there has been no willingness from the Cambridge and Peterborough Integrated Care System to increase funding or reduce premises costs in order to make the practice financially viable. Shockingly, they are prepared to give much more funding to new bidders for the contract rather than retain the well-functioning, well-liked existing doctors.

“This could be the first example in our area of a terrible new model for further privatising GP practices. If it goes through, we can expect it to be taken up by many other practices who are struggling with the underfunding of community GP services.”

The ICS was approached to comment. It said previously that the old and proposed contracts should not be compared like-for-like, because the new one would be fixed-term, offering greater flexibility. “We would like to reassure patients that they can continue to access services in the same way as they always have during this time, and we will work alongside community groups to ensure that feedback from patients at the surgery is taken into account,” it said.

The county’s Integrated Care Board will next meet on 13 September.