Bad Practice - South Nimmo Takeover

Ok,i've learned my lesson. The last time I started a series of articles praising a government document, the MMC scandal hit the roof. I start a series on 'Better Health, Better Care' and NHS Lanarkshire excels itself. This time it's a GP practice- South Nimmo practice to be precise.

The story goes like this. In March a Dr Carlin retired due to ill health from his practice in Adam St in Airdrie. He had not organised for a partner to take over. In such a case, the responsibility for the practice falls to the local health board. The premises at Adam St needed repair, so Dr Carlins practice was moved to South Nimmo St, where there was another doctor's practice, and a bidding process was started by NHS Lanarkshire.

The practice had been run by locums while Dr Carlin was ill, and two of them, a Dr Ahmed and Dr Shah wanted to bid for the practice. When they asked, they were told that they could bid, but only if they resigned as locums. So Dr Shah stood down as a locum to bid on behalf of himself and Dr Ahmed. He was then told he could not bid, because he was not part of a practice! When the invitations for tenders were sent out, they were sent out to all the GP practices, but Dr Shah and Dr Ahmed were not sent one.

In the meantime, two practices put forward bids. One of them was Wellwynd practice, which is based in Airdrie Health Centre. It already has 15 000 patients and only 4.5 doctors. Airdrie Health Centre is also falling to bits and is overcrowded because several other practices are in there. (By this time, Adam St had been refrbished and was ready to be re-occupied).However it became apparent that for some unknown reason, Wellwynd was the preferred bidder. It was awarded the bid, is not taking on Dr Ahmed with the bid, so that means that at the moment they have 17 000 patients and only 4.5 doctors.

This is the third time that NHS Lanarkshire has behaved in this fashion over a GP practice. First there was Rowallan GP practice, then Harthill, now South Nimmo. Once might be an accident, twice a coincidence; but three? Looks like carelessness to me. We are in a situation where single practices are being subsumed into bigger ones and if I put my cynical thinking cap on, that means they can employ fewer doctors, bring in nurse practitioners instead and possibly even bring in a private company to run the staffing? Bigger practices are more attractive than smaller ones, and the more patients you have on your list, the bigger your global sum. This is money awarded per patient. Wellwynds latest acquistion will bring in £120 000 by my reckoning.

If there are any South Nimmo patients out there, there is a campaign group attempting to take on the health board; their address is http://southnimmo.org/. In the meantime, if you live in Lanarkshire, do try not to fall ill; you'll need 10p if you want to phone someone that cares..