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DOCTORS 'MAY BE LAID OFF SO PATIENTS CAN BE SEEN'

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25 January 2008

EXCLUSIVE 

A private company which has taken over two of the borough’s medical centres may lay off GPs so ‘more patients can be seen’.

Concordia Health took over the running of Parkside Medical Centre in Camberwell and Melbourne Grove Medical Practice in East Dulwich from the PCT in July 2006 and told the 'News' that it set out to ‘improve the speed of patient access through a restructuring of its skills mix.’

But a document leaked to the 'News' this week claimed that GPs were being replaced with nurses.

Concordia was furious that the leak had made its way into the public domain, with Medical Director and Chairman, Dr Simon Fradd telling the ‘News’: "You have been passed highly sensitive, commercial-in-confidence information which is strictly between the company and its employees at this stage. No decisions have been taken and staff are being involved in planning presently."

Dr Fradd confirmed that ‘restructuring’ was taking place but no decisions had been made on redundancies: "Plans potentially involve a partial restructuring, the details of which are yet to be defined. We remain hopeful that no individuals will be made redundant."

The 'redundancy rationale' is being proposed to increase the number of patients by employing nurses. Dr Fradd continued: "We will have achieved, after the possible restructure, a 25 per cent increase in the availability of prescribing appointments per patient, compared to the practices we inherited.”

Dr Jane Fryer, Southwark’s Health and Social Care Medical Director, said: "We have now met with Concordia Health, who have given their assurance that delivering the highest and safest quality of care to their patients is their first priority. We will continue to monitor the situation and meet with Concordia Health to make sure that this remains the case."

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