GP practice case study
Developing a GP practice through APMS
Primary care has long been a bastion of the NHS and the development of a role for primary healthcare providers within it is key to the Government drive towards plurality.
There are two elements to this strategy:
- The first is the directive to move some secondary healthcare to the primary care arena. This is about providing what have traditionally been secondary care services, such as diagnostics, closer to home and away from the acute hospital environment. This is designed to free-up resources within acute hospitals and develop a trend for more community-based medicine.
- The second is to improve the range and accessibility of primary healthcare in areas where the NHS has found it hard to maintain quality provision. This is particularly true of the areas of the UK that have lacked facilities such as GP surgeries, or where secondary care provision is under pressure from primary care demands.
The big catalyst for change was the introduction of the APMS (Alternative Provision of Medical Services) GP contract in April 2004. This changed the old way of doing things, which provided for either a GMS (General Medical Services) or PMS (Personal Medical Services) contract that put doctors in charge of running their practices.
The APMS contract allows independent sector organisations such as Care UK to run GP practices and employ salaried GPs. This means that the business of running a GP surgery is put in the hands of experienced management teams, leaving the doctors and other healthcare professionals to get on with what they do best.
Care UK was awarded the contract to run the first such GP surgery in the UK at the Broad Street GP Practice in Barking & Dagenham.
We have worked hard to develop a multidisciplinary approach to the contract. The combined GP practice and walk-in centre mean that we have been able to make the most of efficiencies of scale.
The GP practice in Dagenham provides healthcare for 7,000 patients in the GP practice and up to 100 patients each day in the walk-in centre.
The centre employs three GPs and seven nurse practioners, along with associated support staff.
For more information
If you would like to talk to us about about our GP practice through AMPS please contact us.
