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Many of you will be aware that the practice had to make the incredibly difficult decision last year, to stop providing the Treatment Room service (dressings, stitch removals). This was due to the lack of funding attached to that service, which meant that we couldn’t cover the staffing costs involved to provide it. We had been delivering this service for many years, at a loss and this position was regrettably unsustainable. We know that many of you have also had to travel to appointments over the past few months, some a considerable distance, to the alternative service put in place by the Commissioner, Lincolnshire ICB, which we appreciate was inconvenient and in some cases distressing. We appreciate that the decision to withdraw the service was as a difficult one for our patients.
Over the past 6 months, together with our GP Federation K2 Healthcare Ltd, we have worked hard to continue discussions and negotiations with the ICB to try and secure a better funding deal for this service. We and our colleagues at local practices, have always believed that the best place for our patients to receive wound management services is at their own surgery, so this was not a situation we ever wanted our patients to be faced with.
We are delighted to be able to inform you that those efforts have not been in vain as the ICB have agreed to increase the funding to a fairer and more reasonable level (from the 1st April), which we believe will make the service financially viable for us to offer.
What does this mean for you?
We will endeavour to reinstate the service as quickly as we can, but please bear with us as we expand our nursing team back up to full strength. In the interim, the service will continue to be delivered at Grantham Health Clinic. Watch out for further announcements over the next couple of months.
We hope that you will agree that this is a really positive outcome for our patients, and we thank you for your continued support.