Until recently, General Practioners (GP’s) were obliged to ensure that their patients had access to a GP twenty-four hours a day. This meant that outside normal surgery hours (Out-of-Hours or OoH) they had to be available to see their patients or make sure that another GP was available. Over time many GPs grouped together into cooperatives to provide OoH cover across a wider area to reduce the burden on each individual GP.
In 2004 the government changed the underlying principle that led to these arrangements (based on the conclusions of the ‘OoH review’, also known as the Carson Report. The key change is that Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) now have the responsibility to commission OOH services from alternative providers and GPs no longer have 24hr responsibility to cover patients. In some areas GP cooperatives are continuing to operate in a very similar way to how they used to. In others, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are managing their own services or deputising to commercial OoH organisations.
Wiltshire PCT have commissioned Wiltshire Medical Services to provide OOH services in the North, West and East of Wiltshire. We are a private company set up by local GPs with experience of running the GP cooperative that previously operated in this area. While we are a commercial company we have worked hard to maintain the positive features of the existing local cooperative.
Since we are run by local GPs, we understand the importance for both patients and doctors of maintaining an excellent ‘round the clock’ service. Through a well motivated team we deliver a service in which patients are satisfied, unnecessary acute admissions are minimised and good relations are maintained with other health services in the area.
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