GP social enterprise CHUHSE unseats Harmoni to run out-of-hours services in Hackney

A social enterprise led by a group of local doctors has won a multi-million pound contract to run out-of-hours GP services in Hackney.

City and Hackney Urgent Healthcare Social Enterprise (CHUHSE) unseated private company Harmoni, which will now no longer run the service.

Harmoni had faced criticisms in some areas of London that it was ‘short staffed’ but has always maintained its services are safe and provide the required quality of care.

A spokesperson for CHUHSE said: “CHUHSE now has a busy time ahead while we mobilise the service ready for a start date some time late in November.”

Hackney GP Dr Jonathon Tomlinson said CHUHSE’s success was “definitely good for patients, good for local hospitals and good for GP practices”.

But he said it would mean local GPs having to work “hard and unsocial hours”.

He said: “We believe in taking back responsibility in City and Hackney. Our patients will be better looked after and it will relieve the pressure on local hospitals.

“We are doing this because we have been concerned that our patients are not being looked after properly when we are not around. Too many are being given poor advice or being sent to Accident and Emergency unnecessarily.”

Dr Deborah Colvin, who led the campaign to win back out-of-hours care, told GP publication Pulse a lot of “time and money and anguish” could have been saved if the local clinical commissioning group had awarded CHUHSE the contract earlier rather than going through a lengthy and expensive tendering process.

A spokesperson for Harmoni, said: “As our contract draws to a close, we will be working closely with the new provider of the local GP out-of-hours service to ensure a smooth transition.”