Management Changes at Much Birch Surgery

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 Important preface to the information below: Patients will see no day-to-day changes at the surgery 

Recent Changes to the Practice Partnership 

As you may already know, there have been a number of changes to the practice partnership in the last 2 years. The surgery has gone from 5 GP partners to 1, Dr Downing retired in April 2022, Dr Johnson chose to leave the partnership and become a salaried member of staff in October 2022, Dr Howe left the practice in March 2023 and Dr Horne will be leaving in February 2024.  

Drs Seftel, Johnson, Baxter, Haverty, Clegg and Vaughan will all continue to work at Much Birch Surgery as normal. 

GP Recruitment  

You will also be aware that GP recruitment nationally, particularly into partnerships, is increasingly difficult and despite our best efforts we have been unable to attract new partners. Therefore, the current workload previously shared across 5 partners has fallen to one partner – this is not sustainable. 

GP Federation 

With these management and clinical resource challenges, we have been working alongside our GP Federation (Taurus Healthcare) since August 2022, to help ensure the future resilience of Much Birch Surgery. The Federation was established by all the GP surgeries in Herefordshire in 2012 to provide such support within primary care when necessary.  

They also deliver general practice services on behalf of surgeries too, for example,  our evening and weekend hubs on Thursdays and Saturdays, including the Herefordshire Out-of-hours GP service, the overnight nursing services and Herefordshire Remote Health where they provide greater appointment capacity via a team of remote GPs, this alone has delivered over 60,000 additional appointments for all practices across the County. 

They have also provided some strategic management advice, workshops reviewing our clinical modelling, plus providing additional clinical workforce (GPs and nurses). 

New Legal Partnership 

Having discussed a number of options, the remaining partners (Dr Seftel and Dr Horne) decided that Novation was the best model moving forward, this ensured the least amount of disruption and minimal change for staff and patients plus ensured the long-term sustainability of the practice. 

What does Novation mean ? 

  • The partners will transfer all responsibility for the clinical workforce, operational and financial responsibility for delivering all General Medical Services to Taurus Healthcare.  
  • The practice team will continue to work at the practice as salaried members of Taurus staff.  
  • This alleviates all the management and financial burden from the current partners and will help ensure the Practice’s long term future. 

What changes will you see as a Patient ? 

  • None : The practice will continue to function with the same GPs, nurses, dispensing staff and reception team, so day-to-day you will see no changes. 

Who approved this change and how long will it take  ? 

  • The Integrated Care Board (ICB)  for Herefordshire and Worcestershire  
  • The application has been approved and expected to begin operating from February 2024. 

Building Purchase  

A condition of the approval includes the purchase of the practice building (by Taurus), this will ensure the practice continues to operate from the current location. 

Dispensing Service 

As part of the transfer, regulatory rules require us to temporarily stop dispensing  for 30 calendar days.  

Non-dispensing period will be between Tuesday 6th February to Monday 11th March.

Non-urgent advice: Dispensary Update – Monday 29th January

Today is the last day for any orders to be made to dispensary to be dispensed at Much Birch Surgery. (due to the 5 working day turnaround).

This week, please remember to wait for your text message saying that your medication is ready, before coming to collect.

If you have medication waiting to be collected, and you have received your message to say so, please remember that ALL MEDICATION WILL NEED TO BE PICKED UP BY MONDAY 5th FEB. Any medication remaining after that day will have to be returned to stock as we are not allowed to give out medication from that point.

Repeat Medication  

We have made arrangements for this period, particularly if you are receiving repeat medication. If your renewal falls within this period you will be given 2 x 28 days supply.  

Auto Notification : Dispensary will be working hard to complete all prescription requests, we will notify you once your prescription is ready for collection by text message. If you have not received a notification after 5 working days of your prescription request approval, please call dispensary to talk further on your matter. 

Prescription Collection Between Tuesday 6th February  to Monday 11th March 

During this period all other prescriptions will be available through local pharmacies, you can choose your nearest/preferred branch.   

If you have any queries about this, please call dispensary between hours of 09.00-17.00 on 01981 540310 option 3. 

Contact details and mobile number

We use mobile text messaging for much of our day-to-day communication with patients, please ensure we have your correct details to avoid missing important information.  

To update us please email: admin.muchbirch@nhs.net 

Thank you

Dr Avril Seftel & Dr Dominic Horne