Patient Care Services Contract Awarded to Royal Primary Care
Royal Primary Care (RPC) has been awarded a 15-year contract to provide GP and primary care services for more than 20,000 local people in areas across Chesterfield by NHS North Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group (NDCCG). The successful bid comes after more than a year of RPC providing a caretaker service for patients in Grangewood, Staveley and Inkersall.
NDCCG confirmed RPC’s successful bid on 12 August 2016 and the move has been welcomed by the Patient Participation Group (PPG) covering the three surgeries based in Grangewood, Staveley and Inkersall.
David Pipes, Chairman of the PPG, says:-
“We are delighted that Royal Primary Care – as part of Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – has been successful in securing the contract to provide healthcare services to people across these communities.
“We hope that more patients will start to share their experiences and join the PPG to bring about change and improvement. We are looking forward to working with RPC to get more people involved in the surgeries and their future. ”
The caretaker arrangement, which commenced in May 2015, was the first time primary and secondary care had come together locally in this way. The arrangement was put in place to safeguard services in the former Holywell Medical Group, which, like many GP Practices across the country, was struggling to run a full range of services and to meet demand.
Dr Gail Collins, Medical Director at the Royal, explains:-
“We are pleased to be able to sustain these services for local people at a time when fewer doctors are choosing to train in primary care medicine and go into partnerships. We need to be able to offer new solutions – and over the past year it is clear that working for the Trust, as part of Royal Primary Care, can be a successful and viable approach.
“Over the last year we have been able to attract and recruit five more GPs, there are early morning, evening and weekend GP appointments and new services have opened – including an ultrasound clinic staffed by the experienced team from Chesterfield Royal Hospital. Through this long-term contract we will continue to develop Royal Primary Care, bringing GP, primary care and hospital services together in ways that will benefit all our patients.”
The contract, set to start on 1 October 2016 has been awarded for 15-years with a potential option to extend it for a further three.
Steve Allinson, Chief Officer of North Derbyshire CCG, says:-
“Overall we were looking to award a contract that will give local people high-quality, safe services to meet their needs.
“The Trust has over 30 years of knowledge and experience in local health care and we are confident that Royal Primary Care will continue to improve GP and primary care services to make sure its patients are well-cared for and looked-after.”
In July this year Royal Primary Care also joined forces in a new partnership at the Blue Dykes Surgeries in Clay Cross and Grassmoor. Around 11,500 patients are served by the practice, which was operating with just two GPs. This new development will operate for six-months and after that, if patients, staff and the CCG are happy with progress, steps will be taken to transfer Blue Dykes Surgeries to Royal Primary Care permanently and to grow the practice so it too also has a sustainable future.
