The New Beggarwood Surgery
Broadmere Road, Beggarwood, RG22 4AQ Tel : 01256 396500
www.beggarwoodsurgery.co.uk
Lindi LeClerq – Practice Manager
Felicity Greene – NHUC Executive
Chris Stark – Nurse Practitioner
At the May meeting of the Beggarwood Surgery Patient Participation Group (PPG) we were advised by Alma Kilgarriff from Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) that they are now inviting tenders to supply medical services to the Beggarwood surgery from September when North Hampshire Urgent Care (NHUC), the current supplier’s contract expires. Felicity Greene, NHUC Chief Executive, advised that NHUC would not be tendering for the new contract.
NHUC has given such great service to Beggarwood over the last 18 months and the PPG will be very sad to lose them as our medical supplier. Beggarwood had an extremely difficult time two years ago when Cedar ran services into the ground and then walked away from their contract and we, your Beggarwood Surgery PPG, do not want to go back to that situation.
Alma wanted to reassure us that the CCG are aware of the position with the problems in the past and both she and Felicity are working to get us through the process needed for a new owner. Alma advised that there are currently two private providers tendering, one local and one national. At this point it is important to make clear that most doctors’ surgeries are private providers and are either normally run by a private company or the doctors themselves, both with profits in mind. However, those run by doctors seem to have a better patient/doctor relationship overall. The downside is that these doctor lead surgeries are unfortunately becoming quite rare, as a lot of doctors seem to prefer working for other companies/individuals without the worry of looking after staff, buildings, finances etc.
The PPG asked if Operose had tendered and expressed concern about them. Alma advised that under the terms of the procurement process she is unable to divulge which companies had tendered but our concern was noted. She made it clear there are certain protocols to follow when issuing invitations to tender and they cannot be seen to be leaning towards any particular applicant. They are however aware of our needs and whilst they cannot prevent companies like Operose from tendering they will always carry out due diligence. We also discussed the issue that legally any company that has failed in its contracts in the past can be precluded from the tendering process by the CCG.
This communication is to make patients aware of the ongoing situation. We have been in contact with the CCG’s Communications and Engagement Manager Nick Brooks, and he has advised that this is a fluid situation, which is subject to change. We shall keep patients updated as things progress, via the online neighbourhood sites and the local magazines – The Kempshott Kourier and The Rabbiter.
We must make clear that this tendering process is nothing to do with NHUC so please do not phone the surgery for information about this issue. If you have any concerns or views to put forward, please contact Nick Brooks, Communications and Engagement Manager, Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight Clinical Commission Group nick.brooks3@nhs.net or Alma Kilgarriff. If you are interested in joining the Beggarwood PPG, please use the form on the surgery website or drop your contact details into the surgery for this purpose. We will contact you in due course.
Members of The Beggarwood Surgery PPG
