Sheffield Council leader says plan to transform GP services is ‘Trojan horse for NHS savings’

Councillor Fox was responding to the Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) pre-consultation business case to use £37 million funding to transform GP practices in the city, which some fear will lead to closures.

It follows a consultation, held between March and May, that showed 61 percent of people would not be able to visit their practice if it was further away and nearly two-thirds would not be prepared to travel further for better care.

Coun Fox said the CCG’s plans were not good enough.

“Of course, we recognise that primary care is under incredible pressure, and I fear that the Government simply isn’t addressing the underling fundamental issues here. We recognise that NHS England are inflexible in the way the criteria for distribution of this funding is allocated and fear that by this inflexibility we may inadvertently do the wrong thing.

“Any improvement in care is no improvement if people, many of whom are vulnerable, are not able to access it,” he said in the letter.

“Ultimately this money should be used to improve the health and wellbeing of Sheffield residents, and not as a Trojan horse for NHS efficiency savings, and we would welcome further conversations on how this could be delivered.”

He added that a cross-party health scrutiny committee was damning in its criticism of the proposals, saying they bear little resemblance to the initial concepts and raised concerns about the pre-consultation engagement.

In a report presented to the committee, officers said Covid-19 and other factors meant they were unable to involve patients and the public from the beginning of their plans and it now has very tight deadlines for consultation.

What are the plans?

The proposals include creating up to five new health centres bringing together existing GP practices, other health services and some voluntary services.

Officers said: “These health centres would give practices more modern, flexible spaces to help meet the needs of patients in the 21st century and the demands of a growing population.”

However, there is concern about potential closures, meaning patients would have to travel further for care.

In his letter, Coun Fox said: “It is a real concern from some GP practices that such a move may in fact lead to some of them merging or closing, due to the competition within the same building, which would ultimately cause even greater rent issues, and be ultimately dishonest to patients and practitioners who are being consulted now on proposals that do not suggest mergers.

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“It is perhaps worth noting the parallels with the former plans to close the city centre walk-in-centre, which was deemed to be necessary only for the NHS Clinical Commission Group to U-turn on this decision following public pressure.”