Guardian News and Media/London
NHS England has stepped in with an emergency bailout to save an award-winning GP surgery that was threatened with closure due to changes in the way primary care is funded.
In April, the Jubilee Street surgery in east London told Society Guardian that is was preparing to shut down within 18 months as it faced the gradual loss of nearly £1mn.
Jubilee Street was one of nearly 100 practices that feared for their futures as a result of the withdrawal of the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG), which was introduced in 2004 to protect GP practices which lost out financially as a result of other contract changes. The surgery provides high-quality care for a deprived population in Tower Hamlets.
The Guardian story generated so much radio, TV and newspaper interest and concerns from patients that the practice decided to set up the Save Our Surgeries campaign, with the backing of other local GPs, the Royal College of GPs and the British Medical Association. It sparked marches, petitions and charity events and amassed a 130,000-signature petition to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Patient Danny Currie, who has a chronic illness, has even launched legal action against the NHS and Hunt claiming that the MPIG funding cuts are illegal as they will increase health inequalities.
Now NHS England’s London outpost has announced that it will provide extra financial support in 2014-15 and 2015-16 “to a small number of GP practices in London that serve patients in more deprived areas and which are significantly affected by recent changes to the GP funding system”.
NHS officials have also announced a review of primary care funding that it is hoped will mean that surgeries in deprived areas will get more cash.
Jubilee Street practice manager Virginia Patania and GP partner Dr Naomi Beer set out their case to senior NHS officials and Health Minister Lord Howe.
Patania said the decision was “a great victory.
The money is immensely welcome and an acknowledgment that the system is flawed to such an extent that it has made quality practices unstable.”
NHS London has written to GPs saying that it intends to review the Carr-Hill formula introduced over a decade ago, which links funding to the age of the practice population.
Critics have always said this punishes inner-city areas where the average age of patients is younger but the burden of illness is higher.
