Out-of-hours provider hands contract back to commissioners

A social enterprise running out-of-hours primary care services across three English counties has handed its contract back to commissioners amid spiralling demand and lack of resource. CNCS (Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services) has been providing out-of-hours care in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Rutland for more than 10 years but doctors say it has been unable to cope with the needs of patients and dwindling staff numbers. Care across the region will now be fragmented with a mental health trust, the organisation that runs 111 locally and another out-of-hours specialist taking over in different areas. North Nottinghamshire GP Khalid Butt, who sat on the social enterprise’s board for 10 years until becoming an elected member of Mansfield and Ashfield CCG (clinical commissioning group), said: ‘There’s been no marked increase in staffing levels and people are practising like headless chickens. ‘There have been huge waiting lists for home visits, large queues in waiting rooms and it’s spiralling out of control. 'The demand was so much, they just couldn’t keep up.’   Sudden decision Dr Butt said the sudden decision to hand the contracts back to commissioners came out of the blue. He added: ‘We knew things were going wrong, but I was pushing to get a GP on the board and work for a solution. 'I thought we could help understand what was going on.’ CNCS initially ran services from standalone premises, but last y...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news