GMS Contract for Blakeney Surgery

Concepts

• health services
• gloucester
• blakeney surgery
• gms contract
• gms
• the blakeney gms contract
• a gms contract
• surgery
• blakeney
• general medical services contracts

Location

Gloucester

Description

The contract covers the provision of primary care services to patients registered with Blakeney Surgery. It is a GMS Contract that is subject to the requirements of the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2015 (as amended). The contract has no term as it is a contract held in perpetuity.

Ammendments to Previous Notice

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 85100000 - Health services

Indicators

• Contract modified due to unforeseen circumstances.

Legal Justification

The ICB considers that the modification is permitted pursuant to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 under regulation 13(1)(c) i.e. where the modification is made in response to external factors beyond the control of the ICB and the provider. The existing Coleford GP Partners all wish to step down as contract holders. The provider holding the Blakeney GMS Contract (G DOC Limited) operates in the same Primary Care Network and is in a position to provide the services in the Coleford area under its existing contract. The existing Coleford GP Partners stepping down is an external factor that is beyond the control of both the ICB and G DOC Limited (the provider). If this were to happen and the GP Partners were not replaced (either by way of an individual, a partnership or a company), Coleford Medical Practice would not be able to operate as there needs to be an entity that is responsible for the delivery of the services. It is therefore necessary to modify the Blakeney GMS Contract in response due to the integrated nature of primary care services: • This enables continuation on a GMS contract model with dispensing rights (there being challenges procuring an APMS model in this geographical area) • The cessation of Coleford Medical Practice would lead to patients having to register at other GP practices (thereby causing disruption to their operations) and/or patients in both the Blakeney and Coleford area not having access to the care required due to the reduction in access to GP services locally. As such, if Coleford Medical Practice were to fail it would destabilise and disrupt the whole Primary Care Network. • Blakeney Surgery is within the same Primary Care Network as Coleford Medical Practice and would therefore be impacted by any disruption arising from the failure of that practice. This impact could potentially be fairly significant given the size of Blakeney Surgery (c. 3,000 patients) and the size of Coleford Medical Practice (c. 13,000 patients). Blakeney Surgery therefore would not have the capacity to absorb the patients currently listed at Coleford Medical Practice. • As Blakeney Surgery is fairly small, there is a reasonable chance that the ICB would need to consider options in the near future to ensure its ongoing viability. Modifying the Blakeney GMS Contract to incorporate the Coleford Medical Practice premises will mitigate against the risk of these viability issues. It also aligns with the direction of travel from a national policy perspective in terms of creating more sustainable primary care delivery models. On balance, the ICB does not consider that the Blakeney GMS Contract will be rendered materially different in character as a result of the change as G DOC will be continuing to provide the same primary care services to patients.

Other Information

This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) contract modification notice, under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to this modification. This contract has now been formally modified. The decision to modify the contract was taken by the Primary Care and Direct Commissioning Committee under delegated authority by NHS England. No conflicts of interest registered. COI is managed using the ICB COI process along with NHSE COI guidance and the PSR reg 21 and guidance.