Concern as Portadown GP practice, which is expecting 3 new doctors, is locked out of 3 rooms by Southern Health Trust amid negotiations over lease

Riverside GP Group Practice at Portadown Health Centre is one of the more successful GP groups with around 14,000 registered patients and it is taking on three trainee GPs to its practice next week – however it has no available consultation rooms for them.

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Riverside, which is a training practice, is one of the biggest in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust area with nine GP partners – one of whom is leaving at the end of August to take over two other practices in Portadown Health Centre after their General Medical Services (GMS) contracts were handed back.

With so many practices struggling to attract GPs some staff at Riverside are perplexed as to why the Southern Trust has locked up three unused rooms and refused to permit the practice to use them.

Many patients have voiced their frustration at the lack of available GP appointments and, in particular, face-to-face appointments.

It is understood an assessment by the Health and Social Care Board recommended that four new consulting rooms were created to accommodate the ever expanding Riverside GP Group Practice. Only one of those rooms has been opened and made available to the Riverside Practice with the other three rooms under lock and key.

The Trust is in the process of drawing up a lease agreement with all 7 practices in Portadown Health Centre before any of the GP practices get access to their additional rooms.

A source inside the Riverside practice said it is currently paying almost £3,500 per month in rent to the Southern Trust with a request to substantially increase this by around £365 per month.

He said there were four new consultation rooms created recently in response to the ever increasing demand for their GP services. The Practice has access to one of those rooms and is seeking access to the other three rooms in order to accommodate the new GPs arriving this month.

"They locked the doors and refused to allow us access,” said the source who added that the Southern Health and Social Care Trust is seeking to lock the GPs into a 15 year lease. It is understood the GPs are willing to work on a 2-3 year lease basis but are unwilling to be saddled with a 15 year lease.

The source said: “It would be unsustainable for GPs to lock into a 15 year lease. What happens if they retire or have to leave their job due to illness? They would not be able to afford to pay for the lease if they are not earning money.”

A document from the Trust to Riverside GP Practice, seen by the Portadown Times, states: “Regarding access to the new GP Consulting Rooms, we received a request from one of the other practices last week to access their new rooms. Estates Management reaffirmed the position that agreement on the leases has to be progressed before we can provide access to the rooms.”

In another document to the Trust and local politicians, seen by the Portadown Times, a member of staff said: “ We face the same position as before in trying to provide clinical services to the population of Portadown and surrounding areas.

"At a stage in the Health Service where funding has been cut to the GP Out Of Hours service and they are having to reduce their clinical cover from the 1st July, surely this is not the time to hinder Primary Care from providing face to face GP services.

"With additional pressure being put on Emergency Departments and Urgent Care services, can we afford to add to this by refusing primary care access to clinical rooms who actually have doctors to work in them?”

It is understood the Riverside GP Group Practice is not the only one facing difficulties with signing leases with a health trust. There is a test case that the British Medical Association is involved in with a Strabane practice as a test case for practices within Trust buildings.

It is understood the GPs in Portadown are awaiting the outcome of this test case before they engage with the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in signing a lease. In the 14 years of Riverside GP Group Practice’s existence there has never been a formal lease signed by the GPs and the Southern Health Trust.

A spokesperson for the Southern Health Trust said: “We are continuing to work with Riverside GP Group Practice to finalise contract and accommodation arrangements.”

The Southern Health Trust was asked to confirm that these rooms were unavailable to these GPs despite huge demand for the service and if they were part of the negotiations on the lease. A spokesperson said it had ‘nothing further to add at this time’.

Three weeks ago the Department of Health confirmed that Dr Philip Lusty will take over management of two GP practices at Portadown Health Centre – Annagh Family Practice and Waterside Medical Practice – with effect from 1 September 2024.

Both of these two practices account for around 24% of all registered patients in the Portadown area. There are 4,925 patients registered with Annagh Family Practice and 5,006 registered with Waterside Medical Practice.

According to the BBC, 18 Northern Ireland practices have handed back their contracts to the Department of Health, and another 100 are receiving ‘rescue support'.