Shropdoc in financial trouble
The service has been struggling with its finances this year and in recent weeks there have been serious questions asked about whether it could continue.
But over the Christmas long weekend, the NHS Shropshire CCG, NHS Telford and Wrekin CCG, Powys Teaching Health Board issued a joint statement to reassure residents that it was being supported at least through to its end of contract on March 31, 2018.
The full statement read:
“We have been working with Shropdoc since the summer to support them whilst they address the financial challenges they have been facing to ensure that these do not impact on the GP out-of-hours services they provide to our local populations.
“Our organisations are committed to making sure the service continues to provide appropriate level of quality care for the duration of the current contract ending on 31 March 2018 (in Wales) and on 30 September 2018 (in England).
“Commissioners in England are progressing the planned procurement for the long term continuation of services which had been their plan since 2016. Commissioners in both England and Wales are progressing their plans in the context of the planned roll out of NHS111.
“We are supporting Shropdoc to make internal changes which will help address the financial pressures without impacting on patient care and the organisation is optimistic these will be successful.
“We want to assure patients that our priority is to ensure that local people have access to out of hours primary care if they need it.
“Patients can help us by making sure that they order repeat prescriptions in plenty of time from their practice, so that out of hours is used to help people whose need is more urgent.”
In August it was revealed that Shropdoc had written to the county’s CCGs asking for financial help, as it faced up to what was described as its most serious financial challenges in 21 years.
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