Corporate owners of St Ann's Road Surgery face contract termination
North Central London Integrated Care Board previously heard that the owners of St Ann's Road had failed to make sufficient progress on service delivery.
Contract termination was discussed at the Primary Care Committee of NCL ICB on Tuesday 3 September 2024. Papers for this meeting indicate that patients, Lead Members for Health in the local councils covered by NCL ICB and MPs had expressed a variety of concerns about the service at St Ann's Road and other AT Medics / Operose surgeries.
Decision
The PCC unanimously decided that contracts would be terminated at all five AT Medics / Operose / HCRG surgeries in North Central London with the addition of St Ann's Road surgery in Haringey.
The breach of trust (see below) was an important consideration in the decision. PCC members also talked about their lack of confidence in obtaining adequate financial information from the company. There was a consensus that 'Option 2' (greater monitoring of the contracts) would be too onerous in terms of workload for NCL ICB and was unlikely to be effective in improving performance and restoring trust amongst the patients or public.
Following the PCC's decision to implement 'Option 3', termination of contracts, the NHS will proceed with an 18 month re-procurement process during which time it will continue to work with HCRG. NCL ICB expects that the company will continue to deliver patient services during the 18 months.
Failure to notify NHS of change of control
Last year AT Medics / Operose effected a sale of St Anne's Road and other surgeries without obtaining permission from the NHS, as it is required to do under APMS contract. This was a serious breach of trust according to the PCC.
NCL’s Finance director Sarah Rothenberg told the PCC in May 2024 the ICB had initially entered into talks with the company “in good faith” and had started “a due diligence” investigation “only to find it was a sham process and waste of taxpayer money” as the sale had already happened.
She said there had been lengthy discussions about getting permission for the change in control before they discovered it had already been carried out without their consent on 28 December 2023. There was also a question around debt restructuring which had not yet been resolved, according to Ms Rothenberg in a report in the Islington Tribune.
North Central London ICB wrote to patients explaining what happened with the sale in April 2024.
Operose had hoped to retain the contract. Samantha O'Kane, CEO of Operose Health stated in a deputation request to the PCC in September, however no representative of Operose was present at the meeting. Samantha O'Kane stated:
We believe we have demonstrated early progress and improvement and the NCL practices are starting to benefit from this positive change through our focus on workforce and outcomes with initiatives improving GP recruitment, retention, continuity of care and individual KPI improvements.
