FAIR TREATMENT?

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Patients at Sai Medical Centre, in Sale Street, Rose Hill, had no choice but to leave when their surgery was changed to a practice dealing exclusively with asylum seekers new to the city, rather than those already here. But Central Derbyshire Primary Care Trust has now decided that hundreds of existing asylum seekers currently registered with the 38 general practices in Derby will be allowed to "choose" whether or not to attend the surgery in Sale Street. The fact that asylum seekers are being given a choice has angered many former patients.

A spokesman for Central Derby PCT, which is responsible for GP services, said, "The decision to transfer will be one agreed between the GP and patient and will be based on an individual's choice." He also said there was no room at Sale Street to provide GP services for local people despite the surgery currently having just 300 of the city's 1,300 asylum seekers, which is about 600 under its capacity.

Former patients of the Fountain Primary Care Service will not be able to return, despite the surgery running below capacity. A bid to increase the number of refugees using the medical centre failed after a letter to city asylum seekers urging them to join the surgery was written in English. The letters were sent out to the city's 37 GP surgeries and were supposed to be forwarded on to refugee patients by doctors.

But one leading GP, Dr Prasanta Chakraborti, ignored the letter saying, "I didn't take any notice of it. Most of my asylum seekers don't read English. I assumed the letter was for the GP's only." Not reading English hasn't stopped the refugees getting this far though. One former patient complained, "I was told that a doctor couldn't be found for me, yet one could be found for asylum seekers. I have a surgery in my street but I can't go to it."

Derby health bosses have found a way to fill Sai Medical Centre, in Sale Street. They're reducing its capacity. Central Derby Primary Care Trust, which overseas provision of inner-city GP services, is ruling out a return for former patients, insisting the surgery is now operating at 70% of its capacity. A PCT spokeswoman said the initial 900-intake figure was proposed two years ago and was based on evidence it had at that time. Now though, similar practices in Leicestershire, Rotherham and Sheffield have practice lists of about 600 patients per supported GP, according to the PCT.

The spokeswoman added, "More recent experience, both locally and nationally, shows that a more realistic number for capacity figures for practices with this type of profile is about 600 patients for every one GP supported by a nurse." John Grenville, secretary of Derbyshire Local Medical Committee, which represents GPs, defended the new capacity announcement saying, "It may well be that there's now more experience of these practices and they're beginning to compare notes and they're developing a national body of opinion. They're looking at their problems and what constitutes best practice." Obvious really.

Sai Medical Centre faces a threat to its future forcing it to close. The lease on the building runs out in January 2005 and Dr Kantilal Patel, who owns the building, is reluctant to renew it, according to Central Derby Primary Care Trust (PCT), which runs the practice. The PCT has come up with two options. If the lease is not renewed, the surgery could close. If it is renewed, the trust would look to boost numbers by opening it to homeless people or those with alcohol or drug problems.

Rosemary Stuckey, the trust's head of primary care, said the former Sale Street patients were now settled at other GP surgeries and would not be moved back. If the surgery closed, the asylum seeker patients would be transferred to other Derby GP surgeries. The doctor who runs the Fountain practice, Dr Richard Crowson, along with nurse practitioner Karen Gilliver, would provide a "mobile" support service for all asylum seekers at those surgeries at an annual cost of £110,000.

Dr Patel dismissed the claim, and said he would be happy to extend the lease, which has already been renewed once, for another 10 years. He said, "It's bizarre. I've said from the start that I'm willing to extend the lease for as long as the PCT likes. I'm baffled as to where this idea that I was allegedly reluctant to renew the lease came from. It's not true."

Central Derby Primary Care Trust is seeking permission to build the 2,120 square metre health centre, equivalent in size to four tennis courts, in Browning Street, Normanton. The site, on the tennis courts of the former Village Community School, will house the existing Village Street Surgery and its seven GPs. The centre will also include a dental practice, physiotherapy services, minor treatment facilities, an eye care unit and community meeting rooms. It will serve an estimated 50,000 people a year. The trust was granted outline planning permission for the development in February 2004 and has now submitted an application of more detailed plans.

If it gets the go ahead, building work could start as soon as September and the centre could be up and running in 2006. The centre is to be built with private money from the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT), set up by the Government in December 2002. Southern Derbyshire LIFT Company is made up of private firm ExcellCare, public-private body Partnerships for Health, and south Derbyshire's five primary care trusts. It was set up to build and maintain health centres across the area.

Under the scheme a private firm builds the health centre and then the primary care trust rents the building over a 20 to 25-year period, upon which time ownership is transferred to the trust. So far a £13m scheme for phase one, which includes a £9m super-surgery in Midland Street, Long Eaton, a disabled children's centre, in St Mark's Road, Chaddesden and an extension to the Eden Surgery, in Ilkeston, has already been agreed between the Department of Health and private firm ExcellCare. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)