Private company pulls out of running Leicester GP surgery
From the
Leicester Mercury:
A private company is pulling out of running a city GP surgery after protests from patients about poor service.
The Practice plc made the announcement as patients threatened to demonstrate outside the Brandon Street surgery, in Belgrave, and take their protest to local health bosses.
They said they were fed up that nothing was being done to sort out a catalogue of problems at the surgery, which moved from Cross Street, in Belgrave, to the newly-built Belgrave Health Centre, in Brandon Street, last year. Problems included concerns over the number of locum doctors being used, as well as difficulties getting through on the telephone and in getting an appointment after The Practice plc took over the running of the surgery in 2010.
It was part of a £5 million deal to run this and three other city surgeries for five years.
I wonder if 'private' is the crucial word here? After all, GP surgeries are private partnerships, not state bodies. I'm sure that there are lots of problems with this sort of private provision, but they stem from issues of scale and anonymity, rather than ownership. GPs are so popular because they operate on a humna scale, not because of a specific ownership structure.
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