Fareham health summit sees angry residents blast 'shambolic' GP service under Sovereign Health Partnership

More than 100 people came out to the summit organised by Fareham MP Suella Braverman, with healthcare leaders from across the area attending to discuss a variety of issues facing residents.

But one topic led to heated questioning from those in the audience, as dozens of residents expressed their anger with the service from the Sovereign Health Partnership.

A trio of surgeries – including Whiteley Surgery, the Jubilee Surgery in Titchfield, and the Highlands Practice – came together in 2019 to form the group, with the aim of improving services for their 40,000 patients.

But now residents say service has become ‘shambolic’ since the initiative began, with it becoming increasingly difficult to see a doctor and increasingly frustrating to use e-Consult, an online request form for a doctor’s advice.

Park Gate resident Madalaine Miller said the slow service led to her husband being rushed to hospital in an ambulance due to a serious urinary infection.

She said: ‘On March 4, I used e-consult to say that my husband had a urinary infection and needed antibiotics.

‘We did a urine sample and took it in by lunch time. And my husband deteriorated quite rapidly across the afternoon, so I had to call an ambulance. While I was waiting for the ambulance he got a text message from the surgery saying he had an appointment for a telephone conversation on March 21.

‘In the last two years, he has needed to see a GP about ten times – and we haven’t been able to do that.

‘It’s extremely stressful – this last (incident) was the icing on the cake.’

Another patient with a chronic health condition, who attends the Whiteley practice, said she had gone to a private healthcare provider out of frustration with the poor service, which then took weeks to pass on paperwork necessary for a long-awaited surgery

The 22-year-old, who asked not to be named, said: ‘We want to have more face to face appointments with doctors.’

A representative from Sovereign Healthcare was due to attend the meeting, but was unable to appear due to a Covid-19 infection.

Madalaine said: ‘In a way I’m glad they are not here – I wouldn’t be able to contain myself. I am very, very angry.’

Suella Braverman said that GPs were giving the impression they were ‘hiding’ behind Covid-19 precautions instead of focusing on seeing patients, and the MP echoed residents in calling for evidence of increased in-person appointments.

The Fareham politician said: ‘It’s obvious that things are not getting better with Sovereign.

‘People are really worried about relatively straightforward conditions getting worse.

‘There was real worry and real anger in the room tonight.

‘I feel local MPs need to be more transparent and held to account with a plan of action on what they are going to do to address these concerns.’

Amanda Gray from Sovereign Health Partnership said: ‘We understand the frustrations of some of our patients and recognise their strength of feeling. GP services are privileged to work at the heart of our communities and we want our patients to have the best possible experience. At times our service has fallen short of expectations and we apologise for this.

‘We are working hard to improve in light of feedback from our patients. In recent weeks we have increased the number of staff who deal with telephone enquiries and have taken on additional GP locums to help support the increase in demand for appointments. Our e-consult service for clinical advice responds to over 1’600 enquiries a week and we prioritise those who have greatest clinical need, however we know this can be frustrating for those who have to wait longer for a response.

‘We value all feedback from our patients and will continue to listen to their concerns and work with them to continue to make changes and improvements.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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