Nottingham’s Tudor House Medical Practice in Sherwood face having to pay back 108,000 pounds to the NHS integrated care board.
The ICB mistakenly paid this and 15 other surgeries money for out of hours care when in fact they’d all opted out of it.
Dr. Lloyd says it will be difficult to pay the money back without impacting on frontline care.
‘So it may be that it takes longer for us to answer the phones in the morning, it may be that there are slightly fewer appointments available. ‘It may be that our referrals don’t get done as efficiently. We will try our best to make sure it’s as effective as it can be.”
At Sneinton’s Windmill Practice, the current GPs are handing in their contract. Another provider is now being sought. A reported clawback of £174,000 overpaid to the practice isn’t thought to be the sole reason, but a doctor’s leader says it hasn’t helped. It’s a situation he thinks we could see repeated.
Michael Wright, Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire Local Medical Committee said:
‘We represent the practices but we are worried about the patient impact on this. I think where practices are teetering on the edge, this could be the step that starts moving them towards thinking of handing the contract back.
‘So there is a genuine threat to some surgeries, some will absorb this and they’ll find ways of trying to manage it.
The Integrated Care board, which distributes government money to primary care said:
‘We are in discussions with 16 Nottingham and Nottinghamshire GP practices in relation to overpayments made in error for out of hours services where they were not provided.
‘In all cases, the overpayments began following a change in contract status and the periods and amount of overpayment varies from practice to practice. All overpayments were stopped from 1 October 2023.
‘We regret any impact this may have on practices, but we must take into account that these are public funds, intended for NHS services and paid in error for a service that has not been provided. We are speaking with the practices individually about repaying the monies overpaid and are offering the option of repayment over an agreed period to reduce the impact on practice budgets.’