Family doctors have criticised the “shambles” that has ensued after the firm Capita was handed a £700m contract to provide important backup services to GP surgeries across England.
GP practices have been hit by a host of problems with patients’ medical records and they have begun suffering shortages of syringes, “fit notes” for patients to give to employers and pads on which to write prescriptions since Capita took over last year.
The British Medical Association has criticised Capita sharply for presiding over “multiple failures” in the support it gives England’s 8,000 GP practices.
In some cases, GPs have had to hold their first appointment with a new patient without their medical records to guide their decision-making, because Capita has not transferred them in time. Even some urgent requests to process records quickly because a patient had a medical emergency have not been acted upon.
Full story in The Guardian, 14 September 2016