NHS: GPs Go Unpaid After Outsourcing

Hundreds of trainee GPs have not received their salaries forcing some to turn to charities for emergency funds, it has been revealed.

Capita, the outsourcing firm responsible for the salary payments through a company called Primary Care Services England, holds a contract to administer training grants for GPs. But there have been delays in the payments, leaving some trainee GPs unable to pay their mortgages.

A letter sent to NHS England last month by the British Medical Association warns that some practices were “having to pay trainees out of already overstretched practice budgets, or trainees are going months without being paid if the practice cannot cover the shortfall”.

Capita confirmed it had outstanding payments to some trainee GPs but it was unable to say how many it is responsible for paying or how many it has failed to pay. The BMA estimates that hundreds of trainees have been affected, although NHS England was also unable to give a number.

The Cameron Fund, a charity for the prevention of hardship among GPs and their dependents, said it had received three applications for emergency funding in the last week alone.

“This is actually probably the tip of the iceberg,” said the charity’s treasurer, Dr David Wrigley. “NHS England has commissioned out what was a very efficient service run within the NHS, and now Capita runs this contract in what I’d call another botched privatisation.”

Feeding the Kids?

Wrigley said he believes Capita’s failings are so serious that the House of Commons public accounts committee should be investigating the contract.

“NHS England have known about this for a while and the BMA has been putting constant pressure on, and it’s all promises that it’ll get better but it doesn’t,” he said. “It’s a complete failure and I’d like the contract taken back to be run by the NHS.”

One trainee GP was not paid for two consecutive months by Capita. At the end of October she posted on a private message board for GPs asking: “Anyone know of how I access hardship funds (quickly) to feed children/pay nursery/mortgage (quickly)?”

The Cameron Fund gave her emergency funds so she could buy a present for her daughter’s seventh birthday. Her surgery also lent her money last month to tide her over but it did not have enough surplus funds to do that more than once.

Capita has faced issues with its primary care support services contract since it was awarded in June 2015, including missing records, administrative errors preventing GPs from working, and missing payments. Critics will see the latest revelations as evidence of the dangers of outsourcing NHS services.

Keen to Outsource

An NHS England spokesperson said it was “holding Capita’s feet to the fire on needed improvements”. “In the meantime, the lead employer for Health Education England or the GP practice are responsible for paying their GP trainee salaries and are subsequently reimbursed for this. Backlogs are being prioritised by Capita.”

The BMA’s letter to Simon Stevens, (above), the NHS England chief executive, set out some of the problems with Capita. “We are disappointed at the lack of progress that has been made,” it said. “These issues have been ongoing since NHS England commissioned Capita and it is unacceptable that more progress has not been made to getting these resolved.”

While it now claims to be piling on the pressure, six months ago NHS England appeared to be sanguine about Capita’s performance with Pulse, a magazine for GPs, reporting that NHS England said it was “encouraged” by the progress made by its much-criticised contractor in implementing a recovery plan.

At the Cameron Fund, Wrigley is anticipating more requests for help. “I expect we’ll see more [applications],” he says. “There’s no sign of Capita sorting its act out.”

by Bob Graham

The post NHS: GPs Go Unpaid After Outsourcing appeared first on Felix Magazine.