GPs to hold rally in London Fields as campaign builds to save surgeries from closure

Save Our Surgeries: Jubilee Street practice manager Virginia Patania, GP Naomi Beer and Dr Chaand Nagpaul on a previous anti-cuts march

GPs and patients from across the borough will join a protest march this Saturday as anger builds over government funding cuts to local surgeries.

The demonstration, taking place on the 65th birthday of the NHS, will start in Whitechapel at the Altab Ali Park and end with a rally in London Fields where Diane Abbott MP will give an address.

Up to 12 Hackney GP surgeries face closure and GPs fear that hundreds of thousands of East Londoners face being left with inadequate services as the surgeries that do survive will be pushed to breaking point.

This is partly due to government plans, spearheaded by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, to phase out the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG) within seven years.

Since 2004, the MPIG has compensated practices in high poverty areas since care costs are generally higher there due to the link between poverty and ill health.

Dr Naomi Beer, GP at the Jubilee Street Practice in Tower Hamlets, one of the surgeries driving the campaign, said that anger was building as the implications of the cuts sink in amongst GPs, patients and the general public.

She said that Saturday’s protest aims to “raise awareness” and “make a statement” to the coalition government.

A petition started by Dr Sarah Williams, GP at Nightingale Practice in Hackney Downs, calling on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to reverse the withdrawal of MPIG has garnered almost 5,000 signatories.

She said: “I decided to set the petition up to ask the government to find a fairer funding formula for general practice – at the moment the formula leaves practices in inner city and rural areas non viable financially.”

Dr Coral Jones, GP at London Fields Medical Centre said: “It is perverse that NHS England is taking funding from practices in deprived areas and redistributing this to better off areas as a way of ‘equalising’ funding.

“NHS England wants to base funding for practices principally on age and number of patients.  This does not take into consideration the increased attendance rates and ill health burden on patients in deprived areas such as Hackney, and increased resources and services needed in practices to support and treat patients.”

Dr Jonathon Tomlinson, GP at the Lawson Practice in Hoxton, said: “Patient demand is much higher in poor areas than rich ones. There are 6.4 appointments per head at our practice while the national average is 4.

“Some kind of deprivation payment is needed to reflect the considerable workload in areas with particularly high levels of poverty, poor housing and social inequality.”

NHS England previously said: “As a result of these changes, the majority of GP practices in London will receive more funding in their global sum, however, a small number of practices will lose funding.”