Atos Healthcare takes over its first medical centre

Atos Healthcare is to take over its first medical centre in the UK in February 2008.

The St Paul’s Way medical centre, in Bow, London, will see its 10,500 patients looked after by the healthcare technology specialists and Atos say that the practice is to see major new service improvements, including longer opening hours.

From February 2008, Atos Healthcare, which manages the Canary Wharf NHS Walk-in Centre in London, is set to take over the management of the St Paul’s Way medical centre.

Atos Healthcare will be offering a full range of NHS GP and practice nurse services. As well as ensuring that the practice is open for longer, Atos Healthcare will introduce new services for patients throughout the first year.

Initial changes announced include the ability for patients to book appointments from 8am until 8pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 5pm on Saturday.

There will also be a walk-in service that will allow patients to come in at any time during opening hours and see a member of the practice team.

Mark Bounds, head of Atos Healthcare, said, “We are committed to working with the NHS to further improve the way care is delivered and are delighted to have been selected by Tower Hamlets PCT to deliver this new service that provides patients with more choice to book an appointment at a time that is convenient for them.”

Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust has been managing the practice as a temporary measure since October last year, when the GP partners there decided to retire.

Alwen Williams, PCT chief executive, said: “We are very pleased that services at St Paul’s Way will continue to improve. We were very impressed with the quality of bids we received from a number of those who were interested in managing the practice.

“Patients will experience longer opening hours, and a high quality of NHS care.”

Andrew Ridley, PCT director of primary and community care commissioning, added: “Over the past year we introduced more GPs to the practice. We have replaced a great deal of equipment and have improved the appointment system there. We have also spent £250,000 on improving the premises.”

”It is not usual for a PCT to manage a practice for a long period, and to develop services there further, we needed to find someone to manage the practice in the longer term.”

Ridley said 50 individuals and organisations expressed an interest in running the surgery. They were assessed and five were asked to submit more detailed bids to manage the practice for the next ten years.

A team of experts, including two community members, looked at the bids and Atos Healthcare was judged to have submitted the best application.”

Mr Taric Ahmed, a non-executive director of the PCT, was involved in the selection procedure.

“We considered the quality and the quantity of services they would provide. We looked at issues including opening hours, the recruitment and training of staff, systems they would put in place to ensure the quality of services and the safety of patients, how well they understood the needs of local people, and their commitment to employing local people,” he said.

He added: “We expect local people will see a major improvement in the service they receive. Atos Healthcare has also said it will meet regularly with patients to discuss the quality of their service. Atos Healthcare is, of course, a commercial company, but it has experience in running health services including NHS services.”

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