No bids have been received for the NHS contract to deliver GP services in Moffat ... but Lockerbie has been more successful.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway has announced that a meeting will be held on Tuesday in Dumfries when details of a bid to take over GP services in Lockerbie will be revealed to a decision-making scoring panel.
Members of community councils in areas served by the town’s medical centre are being invited to the meeting as part of the health board’s “efforts to maximise community engagement in the procurement process”.
Two community council representatives will then join the head of primary care services, the deputy medical director, a representative of finance, and a non-executive member of the Dumfries and Galloway NHS board, on the scoring panel to consider the bid and decide if it merits awarding the contract for Lockerbie patients.
Both practices, which have 9,800 patients between them, were managed by the local health board for four years before Lanarkshire-based Alba Medical Group took over on April 1 last year.
The company gave notice on its contract at the end of last year and will leave on May 31.
The Alba contract has been beset with problems and complaints from patients, with concerns about the service raised in the Scottish Parliament.
A national tendering process for the GP contracts in both towns was launched on December 14, seeking expressions of interest from potential providers.
By Monday’s deadline there was no bid to provide services in Moffat.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway will now consider continuing services under its management.
Deputy medical director Dr Grecy Bell said on Tuesday: “A number of expressions of interest were received for both contracts, but no bids were received for the contract to deliver services out of Moffat.
“This is regrettable, as we had hoped that those expressions of interest would have resulted in bids for both – either individually, or for the two contracts to be taken on together as they are at present.
“However, we now progress to assemble a scoring panel next week focused on the Lockerbie contract, with the hope of securing a provider who is well-placed to meet the needs of the local community.”
With regard to Moffat, Dr Bell added: “Ensuring services are able to continue under direct board management is not a quick or easy challenge.
“It will require looking to ensure we can enlist the services of staffing such as GPs for perhaps a limited time period until the contract can be awarded, and comes when there is great demand for clinicians across the whole of Scotland.
“Even as we begin to make those arrangements for Moffat, we will be looking to see what can be done around a procurement process which secures bidders for that contract, and identifying a suitable provider who can deliver these services for the wider community, which includes Wanlockhead, Leadhills and Elvanfoot.
“Details on the outcome of the process will be shared publicly as soon as the process permits.”
