Garway Road GP Services – patients victorious

This article was published in the Autumn 2007 edition of the South East Bayswater Residents' Association (SEBRA)'s Newsletter and has been reproduced with their permission.

Local people are delighted by the recent decision to award a new GP contract to the existing doctors at Garway Road, who will run the new contract at Hallfield Medical Centre.  As first disclosed in our last issue, the existing practice is due to close down. The incumbent practitioners were forced to make a formal tender for the contract despite enjoying overwhelming support from local patients. There has also been widespread criticism of the lack of transparency in The Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT) consultation procedures.

Earlier this year the PCT had invited parties to tender for the contract but following a heated meeting, attended by over 400 alarmed residents, which packed out St Stephen’s church, it decided to extend this closing date to allow the Garway Road GPs time to prepare their bid.  The problem had been that they were unable to find any new premises and felt the PCT had not been willing to assist them.

At the meeting a number of prominent community members spoke passionately about their fears that the Garway Road bid might be marginalised by the PCT’s Vacant Practice Panel (VPP). Lancaster Gate Councillor, Susie Burbridge, was one of those to voice her concerns. She recalls: ‘It saddened me to see the PCT in such a predicament and to hear that their statement about their dealings with the resident GPs was inaccurate.  This actively undermined the Garway Road practitioners’ position and I urged the PCT to proceed in a manner that was both open and honest and that guaranteed equitable treatment for all parties. I suggested that we look again at the Hallfield premises to see what could be done.’

Joanne Cash, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the new constituency of Westminster North, spoke out in support of the resident GPs and their patients and gave some much needed legal advice, which proved vital in getting the date for the selection of the contract delayed. She was subsequently elected to sit on the VPP as one of the patients’ representatives and also worked closely with the Patients’ Action Group (PAG) to safeguard the interests of local residents.

Westminster PCT had sought to cut spending in the area by reducing the value of the new GP contract from £104 to £86 per patient per annum. This is the lowest per capita amount allowed. Joanne.Cash was concerned that such a cutback in funds would have a detrimental impact on the quality of health care available in the area. She said ‘Garway Road health centre provides a vital service for some of the most vulnerable people in the Bayswater area.  The PCT’s proposal to cut funds in this area put patient care at risk as it would have necessitated the reduction of GP services in order to meet these tight budgetary requirements. Furthermore, the arrival of new doctors, lacking any knowledge of residents’ medical histories, would have caused an intolerable amount of upheaval and disruption to both the patients and the local medical community as a whole.’

The Garway Road GPs refused to sacrifice the standard of care that they offered and their successful bid, produced with the backing of an overwhelming number of patients, came in above the PCT’s proposed value. The VPP’s decision delighted supporters of the Garway Road bid. SEBRA Chairman John Zamit said ‘I am thrilled that the Vacant Practice Panel has awarded the GP contract for the Garway Road area to the existing practitioners. This bid ensures that the patients of Garway Road will receive the high quality of health care that they deserve. The importance of maintaining the local GP- patient link, which is central to a successful bid, cannot be quantified in simple monetary terms and offers both the GPs and the patients of Garway Road security in the years to come.’

The Patients’ Action Group, while pleased with the final outcome, has expressed reservations about the decision making processes adopted by Westminster PCT and a spokesman for the group said: ‘A fractious process such as this has jeopardised the working relationship between our local GPs and Westminster PCT and it is critical that both parties now work to reconcile their differences. I hope the PCT will acknowledge that its initial consultation procedures were deeply flawed and will resolve to ensure that all of its members are made aware that their overriding responsibility is to guarantee a high standard of health care throughout Westminster ’