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PCTs Refuse to Fund Extended Opening Hours
"PCTs Refuse to Fund Extended Opening Hours By Nick Bostock
PCTs that want practices to extend opening hours without paying
them for the extra work have been condemned by GPs.
Under a scheme being rolled out across seven PCTs in the North
East London SHA, practices will be offered cask to cover
additional staff costs to enable them to open from 8am to 8pm
for six or seven days a week for up to nine months.
PCTs will fund up to eight additional two-and-a-half-hour GP
sessions per week, at a rate of £65 per hour.
But after nine months, the SHA expects the extra hours to 'pay
for themselves' as practices attract more patients and boost
global sum pay.
Andrew McDonald, assistant director of primary care contracts
for the SHA, said: 'Ultimately we want all practices in
north-east London open when it is convenient to patients.'
He said not all practices would be expected to open until 8pm,
but 'a substantial minority' would extend hours on some days.
GPC negotiator Dr Peter Holden said that GPs who take part in
the scheme would be 'cutting their own throats'.
If practices took on more patients, extra global sum pay would
cover treating them in normal hours but would not be enough to
pay for staff to work longer, he said.
'The global sum is for 52 hours a week. If you're working 60
hours, you should get 60 hours' money,' Dr Holden said.
He added that GPs could reasonably expect out-of-hours rates if
they worked late. North East London SHA has started to roll out
the scheme.
Two practices in Waltham forest are offering extended hours
between 8am and 7pm on weekdays but are not being paid for them
now that their year-long pilot is over. A pilot practice in
Redbridge is opening between 8am and 8pm seven days a week and
is being paid.
In Tower Hamlets PCT, 10 further practices have extended opening
hours for £120 per hour.
Grange Park Medical Practice, also in North East London SHA, had
planned to open longer but has ruled it out because there is no
extra pay.
GPs at the Yalding Surgery in Kent, who extended their hours
without extra funds, said they needed extra funds to continue.
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