A GP who runs an APMS practice caring for almost 11,000 patients and a practice in Norwich has announced it will close due to financial problems.
OneNorwich Appswhich operates the 10,948-patient Norwich Practices Health Center and is the largest provider of GP services in the city, announced yesterday that its business ‘will not remain financially sustainable’ beyond this year.
Norwich Practice Health Center has been commissioned by the local ICB to deliver essential medical services in Norwich and surrounding areas, including the Norwich Walk-in Centre, a service for vulnerable adults, a lymphedema service in schools and an asthma pilot service, among other targeted services. patient services.
Norfolk and Waveney ICB said it was working with OneNorwich Practices to identify new providers to ‘secure the continued provision of these services’ and ‘protect the health’ of its staff so that patient care is not affected.
Until then, he said, he is working with the local PCN to ‘continue providing patient services throughout the transition period’ until a new provider is found.
Paul Wood, interim chief executive of OneNorwich Practices, part of Norwich PCN, said: ‘It is with great sadness that we have come to the difficult conclusion that OneNorwich Practices cannot remain financially and operationally sustainable beyond 2023.
‘We appointed the firm Poppleton and Appleby to work with us to close the job in the most efficient way.
‘We will also work very closely with ICB to ensure an orderly transition and will help develop service transfer plans to maintain services and once these have been identified we will assist in transferring as many OneNorwich Practices staff as possible to the new provider or providers. .
‘We will not be making any statutory redundancies until we know the outcome of the service transfer plans.
‘We will introduce a 45-day statutory consultation period and staff will be supported to talk through the options available to them.
Tracey Bleakley, chief executive of NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB, said: ‘I would like to recognize the extensive work undertaken by OneNorwich Practices’ management team and board to ease the impact of financial difficulties on patients and staff. We provide high quality care to our patients during this very difficult time.
‘Naturally we are disappointed that this decision has been made. Our priority now is to minimize disruption to patient services and ensure patients can receive the care they need.
‘We have and will continue to work closely with our colleagues at Norwich Primary Care Network and OneNorwich Practices to continue to provide patient services throughout the transition period, while also ensuring that alternative providers undertake the full suite of services for which they are contracted. to submit.’
Meanwhile, an LMC is demanding a 28% increase in payments from its local ICBs for its local advanced services as GP practices face instability due to inflation and financial pressures.
And an ICB has decided to decommission the local advanced service (LES), which supports GP practices treating people coming to the UK from war-torn Ukraine.
