An Aberdeen doctor’s surgery is to close, with the decision taken a year to the day health bosses voted to overhaul its management to make it more sustainable.
All 8,600 patients at Carden Medical Centre are to be transferred elsewhere in the city, as a behind-closed-doors meeting decided to end general medical services there at the end of January.
Letters sent to patients and elected politicians blamed the upheaval on being “unable to recruit staff to crucial vacancies” leaving the practice “not sustainable or safe” to continue on with locum doctors in the long term.
Moves to new surgeries will be done automatically for patients, who will be told of their new practices “in due course” – and before the deadline of February 1.
The West End practice, close to Aberdeen Grammar School, is run by Aberdeen City Health And Social Care Partnership (ACHSCP) – with talks over a private, not-for-profit takeover have broken down.
Carden Medical Centre has faced troubles since 2019
The Carden Place practice has already been steered away from catastrophe once – as authorities took over when doctors left and no “suitable notes of interest” were received from others to replace them.
In January 2020 it became one of six clinics directly run by the ACHSCP as a result.
Carden was one of six medical centres to be made more ‘sustainable’ in controversial £5m overhaul
But at the start of last December, officials had begun a controversial £5million move towards “sustainable” running of the publicly-run centres.
It was decided it would be achieved by tendering contracts for private companies to run them.
This would bring the six – Old Aberdeen, Camphill, Carden, Marywell, Torry and Whinhill – in line with all other GP-led practices in the city.
Contracts worth £5m were handed out to tempt firms to take on the responsibility – with Carden, Camphill and Torry all being awarded to the 2C Social Enterprise Group.
The not-for-profit group has entered negotiations for Camphill and Torry but will not be taking on Carden, while ACHSCP continues to run all three presently.
A merger with River Dee Medical Group has also been abandoned, in the face of continued reductions in permanent GPs and other staff across the city.
Sandra McLeod, ACHSCP chief officer, added that the high usage of locum and temporary staff is “not sustainable or safe”.
In protest to the change, and the way in which staff and patient consultation was handled, doctors walked out at a number of the affected practices.
No more so than at Old Aberdeen, where all nine quit in protest to their views being ignored.
Carden Medical Centre decision not ‘taken lightly’, says health chief
This week’s decision to end GP services at Carden was taken behind closed doors by the Integration Joint Board (IJB), which oversees health and social care services in Aberdeen.
Chairwoman Luan Grugeon said it was not “taken lightly”, adding: “We have acted on the advice provided by our officers, with our priority being to ensure the safe provision of general medical services to local people.
“The struggle to recruit GPs and practice staff is well documented UK-wide, we are not
alone in this.
“It is our duty to make sure that patients continue to have access to GP practice services.
“Please be assured that you will continue to have access to a GP practice from February 1.”
SNP MSP for Aberdeen Central Kevin Stewart, who is also a Carden Medical Centre patient, has urged bosses to maintain use of the building to allow more face-to-face meetings between GPs and patients.
Throughout the pandemic, online ‘e-consult’ video appointments have become the primary method at some city practices.
Mr Stewart said: “I fully understand from a safety perspective why it is they plan to close the practice and redistribute the patients.
“We know it has been tricky because of facilities in Aberdeen for GPs to meet with patients face-to-face, but this is a modern building and it must be used to allow such sessions with patients to take place.”
Carden Medical Centre closure ‘a massive blow’ – pressure on Scottish Government to recruit more GPs
There has been a slew of clinic closures in the city in recent years, with Rosemount Medical Group having to transfer 4,000 of its patients to other facilities across the city in January 2019.
And Liberal Democrat councillor Martin Greig blamed the woes on a Scotland-wide failure to recruit enough GPs.
“There is a problem with supporting and resourcing of crucial health services to meet the needs of the community,” the Hazlehead, Queen’s Cross and Countesswells member said.
“I receive so many complaints about how hard it is to even get a basic appointment with a GP.
“The government’s failure to train and recruit GPs is a disgrace and they need to give us more GPs and more GP surgeries.”
Scottish Conservative north-east MSP Douglas Lumsden heaped in on the criticism, describing the closure as a “massive blow to the community”.
He added: “This situation highlights the GP crisis facing the north-east and it’s time the Scottish Government acted to give our region the fair deal it deserves.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We now have a record number of GPs working in Scotland with more per head in Scotland than the rest of UK, and recruitment of new GP trainees this year has been better than any other year on record, with 98% of GP training posts that were advertised filled successfully.
“As the health secretary recently announced, we will invest up to a further £28 million in primary care services this year, which will underpin a range of measures including accelerated multi-disciplinary recruitment to support general practice.”