GP Practices Losing Patients And Staff To Local Polyclinic, Bradford, England

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Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 02 Mar 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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The first GP-led health centre in the United Kingdom to open is already taking not only patients but also staff from nearby practices, according to the medical journal Pulse.

Even though the polyclinic is situated in an under-doctored area of Bradford, nearly half of those registered there come from neighbouring practices. One local GP practice has already lost two practice nurses who were offered a 'significant pay rise' by the polyclinic.

Fear has grown among General Practitioners (GPs) that the new centres will undermine practices after a recent report by the Health Services Management centre warned they would have to take up approximately 20% of GPs' patients to avoid becoming white elephants.

The Hillside Bridge Healthcare Centre in Bradford registered 198 new patients in its first sixty days of operation - 86 of them came from other local practices, 77 came from practices slightly further away, while 35 were previously unregistered patients.

According to Sarah Rhodes, Practice Manager, Avicenna Medical Practice, and chair of the local practice managers association, two nurse practitioners and approximately 20 patients had defected to the new centre since it opened. "The main impact is staff moving down there because they pay more than the general practices do. We've lost both of our nurse practitioners. We're having to advertise and we're currently having to use locums."

The centre, which also provides out-of-hours services in the area, is run by non-profit organisation Local Care Direct. Alan Whitaker, Communications & Community Relations Manager, Local Care Direct, said "Local Care Direct is not aggressively seeking to register patients already with other local practices. Patients are at liberty to register wherever they like to find the service which best suits their needs. We have advertised externally for nursing staff at different levels to fulfill different roles at different locations and do not actively seek to influence staff to leave other practices."

Click here to view the full article online in Pulse.

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Written by - Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
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