GP says “pointless” tendering of his practice caused staff to leave

A GP is battling to maintain services after his primary care contract was made subject to competitive tender and “bundled” with those of two other practices.

Ashley Liston said that the tendering process by NHS Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had already “destabilised” his practice in Washington, in Tyne and Wear, causing some staff to leave. He said that it would wreck the continuity of care and did not fit with the CCG’s locality focused approach, which was a core component of its plans to be a vanguard for new service models.

Liston told The BMJ, “This is an expensive, time consuming, and pointless exercise driven by the need to bring more ‘private’ sector into primary …