STP plans to roll out a GP care home service will be impossible to achieve unless general practices are stabilised, an LMC leader has warned.
The final draft sustainability and transformation plan (STP) for the south west London footprint was published by the London Borough of Sutton this week following the final submission deadline.
The five-year plan includes a proposal to roll out the Sutton care home vanguard across the footprint area, covering six boroughs and a population of around 1.4m.
Sutton LMC chairwoman Dr Rebekah Dowdy said the scheme, which funded regular named-GP visits to local care homes to provide healthcare, health and wellbeing reviews and end-of-life planning, was good for patients. But she warned the plan was ‘difficult to envisage’ without core general practice first being stabilsed .
The vanguard, which Dr Dowdy said had ended when funding stopped, covered six care homes in Sutton, requiring around one GP session a week for participating practices.