PATIENTS have been told there is no ‘quick fix’ to put right concerns raised by healthcare inspectors, according to the chief executive of an under-fire provider in charge of five Barnsley GP surgeries.
Marie Hoyle, who heads Barnsley Healthcare Federation, admitted the community interest company has faced adversity since it launched in 2015 and was awarded multi-million pound contracts to take over the running of practices in Brierley, Goldthorpe, Grimethorpe, Lundwood and Shafton in quick succession by the Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which oversees healthcare in the town.
Having faced considerable opposition from patients at the time of the changeover which even led to a petition being circulated against the CCG’s decision BHF’s woes deepened recently as the Care Quality Commission began its first inspections of its practices.
It was found Brierley, Grimethorpe, Lundwood and Shafton surgeries all required improvement while multiple regulation breaches were also found.
But Marie, who joined the federation in January, said: “We have had problems in the past and there’s no quick fix, but we are trying to put them right.
“We’re already working through an action plan formed immediately after the CQC’s visits and the areas we were told to improve particularly regarding staff-led incidents and patients’ feedback have been addressed.
“We’ve never had as many ways to communicate so it should be getting better.
“All these reforms are consistent across our sites. The CQC will come back to re-inspect and we want to blow them out of the water with what we’ve achieved.”
Another BHF-run service i-HEART was launched in 2015 and offers extended hours to GP services, an out-of-hours model which offers home visits and a walk-in service at Barnsley Hospital.
But in its first inspection by the CQC, inspectors rated it inadequate across the board with the exception of being caring something that’s followed in subsequent visits to its other surgeries.
One aspect flagged up by patients has been its reliance on locum GPs temporary doctors who fulfil another’s role in the short-term but Mrs Hoyle confirmed BHF is continuing to recruit full-time GPs.
“It’s no secret we have had a lot of locums,” she added.
“That’s difficult for us and patients as we want a stable workforce and patients want to build up a relationship with their doctor.
“It has always been a challenge and when a doctor leaves, we have no choice but to fill that role so we keep recruiting and attempt to retain the doctors we have.
“It isn’t perfect but it’s a key part of what we’re working on. If it’s a good place to work, more people will commit to us. Regular doctors are what we’re striving for.
“That’s a continual challenge and although we are sorry to patients for that, it’s not something we’ll lose sight of doing and we will get it right.”
Although full-time GPs are in place at some of its practices, gaps in care remain and the two-year-long reliance on locums to fill in something BHF said would take just six months to fix when it took over has been criticised by Shafton Parish Council.
Chairman Dave North said: “The fact is people like to talk to people patients want to go into their surgery and know they’re seeing a doctor they know and more importantly knows them.
“Doctors are a key part of a community and we’re more than two years into this now.
“It has been difficult for the federation but it appears they are now heading in the right direction.”
