The team running a community doctors\u2019 surgery in Brighton has thanked all those patients and partners who rallied round over the past few months.<\/p>\n
Their message was sent after health chiefs said that they were halting the current process to award a new contract for family doctor services in the Whitehawk area.<\/p>\n
Wellsbourne Healthcare Community Interest Company (CIC) was set up as a not-for-profit organisation to run the practice after a previous private provider pulled out.<\/p>\n
But the contract to provide health care in Whitehawk was due to expire and the Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB) \u2013 also known as NHS Sussex \u2013 started a procurement process which was open to other qualified organisations.<\/p>\n
The ICB published a notice earlier this year saying that it intended to award the \u00a310.4 million contract to a business based in Leeds.<\/p>\n
The team running the surgery appealed against the decision and the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Chris Ward, started a petition.<\/p>\n
This afternoon (Thursday 24 July) Mr Ward, said: \u201cDelighted to announce Wellsbourne Healthcare CIC will continue to serve our local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter months of local campaigning, NHS Sussex has now paused the procurement process that could have seen a private provider replace Wellsbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuge thank you to the 4,000-plus people who signed my petition to keep Wellsbourne in community hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a victory for staff, patients and everyone in Whitehawk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surgery said: \u201cWellsbourne Healthcare CIC will continue to serve our local community while NHS Sussex consider next steps<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome NHS Sussex\u2019s decision to bring the current procurement process for the Whitehawk health GP contract to a close.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Wellsbourne Healthcare CIC, our priority has always been the delivery of high-quality care to our patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve served the East Brighton community for over seven years, and our roots here run deep.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope this decision marks a step towards a more stable future, one that recognises the value of relationships, continuity and listens to the voice of this community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to work constructively with NHS Sussex and keep you updated as we learn more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased that NHS Sussex has recognised the need to pause and reflect before deciding next steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain committed to supporting patients, staff and the wider East Brighton community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to all our patients and partners for your support, it has been fantastic to hear from so many of you over the last few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
NHS Sussex said that it was calling an end to the current Whitehawk contract process to consider its next steps.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cNHS Sussex is announcing today that it is stopping the current procurement for a new contract for GP services in the Whitehawk area of Brighton and Hove.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt follows receiving the national Independent Patient Choice and Procurement Panel\u2019s report regarding the proposed contract award for an alternative provider medical services (APMS) primary care service in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Independent Panel\u2019s findings confirm that NHS Sussex\u2019s preparations for the procurement were in line with the national Provider Selection Regime (PSR) but found that there were four areas in terms of how it carried out the process that were not line with these rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a conclusion, the panel recommended going back to an earlier stage in the procurement process (to the publication of a new contract notice and issuance of ITT documentation) to address the issues identified by the panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking this into account, and the strong public feedback in recent weeks, NHS Sussex has taken a decision to stop the current process and consider how we can best ensure high-quality services for the local population.\u201d<\/p>\n
NHS Sussex chief integration and primary care officer Amy Galea said: \u201cWe remain committed to delivering high-quality, value-for money-GP services in Whitehawk that meets the needs of the local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have received the report from the panel and need to take this into account and also recognise all of the feedback that we have received from service users, residents and partners over recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ambition has always been to ensure that there is the best possible GP services offered to the local residents in this area of the city and we will now consider our options to see how best to achieve this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the meantime, it is important to assure all patients at the current practice that there is no change to their current services and people should access help and support from the practice in the usual ways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The team running a community doctors\u2019 surgery in Brighton has thanked all those patients and partners who rallied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-288664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114909834458994305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}