BP Newspaper Issue 8 v5 1-31 (lores) Aug. 2015 | Page 13

WHAT I LEARNED WHEN
MY PRACTICE FAILED:
DR HOLLY HARDY
“It’s very lonely being a GP partner when things go wrong”,
says Dr Holly Hardy, reflecting on a life-changing decision to
resign her GMS contract
Dr Hardy found there was very little support when her small
Bristol practice became unviable after two partners took
early retirement within 18 months of each other.
She and the remaining part-time GP were unable to recruit
permanent staff to replace the partners and this left them
working additional sessions, often until midnight and using
locum cover to maintain cover for their 6000 patients and to
try to save the jobs of their 12 staff, which were at risk.
They approached NHS England, the local medical committee
(LMC) and neighbouring practices for help, exploring the
idea of a merger or of joining a federation. However, they
could not reach a solution. Local practices could not help
because of their own rising workloads. After nine months,
and knowing that they could not continue to work safely, they
took the difficult decision to resign.
The practice has been temporarily taken over on a 12 month
contract by a larger practice from South Gloucestershire but
a permanent solution for the patients has yet to be finalised.
Dr Hardy says the financial side of making the decision to
resign the contract was very scary because she and the
other remaining partner would be liable for the redundancy
costs if another organisation did not take over the contract.
Potentially she could have lost her life savings or her house.
Her property owning partners would became liable for the
costs of redeeming the mortgage e