Maria Miller MP for Basingstoke convened a Community Chat on behalf of the Camrose, Gillies, Hackwood, Beggarwood Patient Participation Group (PPG) following speculation over the future of this partnership. At the meeting with members of the PPG, NHS Integrated Care Board, Operose Health and the Camrose Gillies Hackwood Beggarwood partnership, residents questioned a panel from the NHS and the GP Partnership to clarify the position following calls from the Borough Council for an Inquiry into the possible sale of the medical practice buildings.
Maria said, “It’s regrettable that patients have been worried over the past few days by speculation, when it is already clear that the GP NHS contract at CGHB has always been with the GPs who run the practice not Operose, and that Operose doesn’t own the surgery buildings. I hope that this meeting has stopped any unnecessary speculation allowing the GPs who run the Practice to focus on patients.”
The meeting enabled the local NHS, the GPs who run the surgery and Operose to make clear to patients and local residents that Operose neither own the GP surgeries nor do they hold the contract to supply GP services at the Practices. The Patient Participation Group confirmed there is already a statement in their regular bulletin setting out that Operose do not own the Practice Buildings, nor do they hold the contract to provide NHS GP services therefore any sale of Operose by their parent company will not mean GP services or buildings will be sold.
Operose Health, a UK based company, currently owned by parent company Centene, confirmed that they do not have any confirmed buyer and they continue to provide the corporate services to the CGHB local medical practice, providing IT systems and services, assistance with recruitment, and advice with NHS policy, which then allow the GP partners more time to run the practice and treat patients.
They also confirmed that the General Medical Service Contracts sit with the GP partners and cannot be transferred to another party or sold in the way recent speculation has implied and the practice buildings can’t be sold by Operose as they don’t own them.
Further information can be found at the PPG website: CAMROSE, GILLIES, HACKWOOD & BEGGARWOOD SURGERY PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP - Home (weebly.com) and via this recent post from the PPG chair Thelma Wiseman: https://nextdoor.co.uk/p/QY3JDMGsN_pL?utm_source=share&extras=MTc1OTIxODc5NjczMzI%3D
