EXCLUSIVE
The surgery of a highly respected Miles Platting GP who died at Christmas is to be forcibly closed today, Inside the M60 has learned.
According to Karen Smith, listed practice manager at the Charles Vites Memorial Centre, the Manchester Primary Care Trust is planning to close the surgery on Naylor Street today, Friday 28 January. The surgery was run by Dr Nicholas Vites, son of Dr Charles Vites, until he passed away on Christmas Eve last year.
At noon today, the surgery will be closed and the PCT will remove all the computer systems and other patient records. Patients who arrive for appointments in the afternoon will be turned away and no one will be able to obtain a repeat prescription for the time being.
Dr Vites’ 3,500 patients will be left temporarily without a GP.
Smith said: “All six staff here are out of a job from lunchtime today although I will be here to help any patients who turn up. Word is starting to spread so I am expecting a lot of patients to arrive. Without the records it will be chaos as some patients don’t have full records and whoever eventually ends up looking after them, it may not be clear whether they are on repeat prescriptions or not.
“We can’t phone patients to tell them their appointments have been cancelled as many don’t have telephones. Miles Platting is a very deprived area and for many of them a phone is just too expensive”.
Smith says she is volunteering to stay in the building this afternoon, with other staff, without pay, to deal with the patients. She also plans to turn up next week to collect the post and be available to patients. The building, which was saved from a compulsory purchase order three years ago, belongs to Geraldine Vites, widow of the deceased GP. Mrs Vites has agreed Smith can retain the keys until she decides what to do with the property.
Smith said: “The PCT told me earlier this month that it was looking at an interim three-month period of administration while it sorted out the paperwork and informed patients about registering with a new GOP. There was even a plan to hire a new GP to take over from Dr Vites.
“But then they decided to close the practice instead, even though the local patient forum and local GPs volunteered to help run things until we got a new doctor. I was told some weeks ago not to say anything to the patients or even to tell my staff that they were going to lose their jobs.
“The patients forum put a lot of pressure on the PCT and they finally sent out an email at 5pm on Tuesday 25 January informing me I could tell the staff their fate. The patients forum also wrote, at its own expense, to the patients to tell them what is happening, as the PCT wouldn’t pay for it. The patients are being transferred by the PCT to the group practice at Victoria Mill. Some patients have already told me though that they don’t want to go there, they want to stay here with a new GP.”
Cllr O'Connor
The PCT has now sent a letter to the surgery’s 3,500 patients but it is dated Wednesday 26 January, meaning many won’t receive it until today at the earliest, just as the surgery is shut down.
Councillor Damien O’Connor (Lib Dem), whose ward is Miles Platting, is also chair of the patients’ forum. He said: “There is a lot of anger around here about how this has been executed by the PCT. They have behaved despicably, it’s really appalling. I honestly believe many patients’ lives will be put at risk by the decision to close down the surgery in this manner. People will be left without vital prescriptions or access to a GP until they get transferred to Victoria Mill. This is not an administration issue but a patient care issue.”
Cllr O’Connor said the forcible transfer of patients to the Victoria Mill complex around the corner was removing patient choice at a time when the NHS was committed to increasing it. When Inside the M60 spoke to him yesterday lunchtime, he was at Vites’ surgery assisting the staff, many of whom were too upset to speak to us. As we spoke, he signed for a courier-delivered hard copy of the email that had been sent to the practice managers on Tuesday teatime.
“That email,” he thundered, “was sent at close of business, when no one would be here to read it until next day. The staff are going to lose their jobs with no notice and the PCT have given no allowance to finish the administration here properly. With the help volunteered from local GPs we could have finished everything properly, including helping patients register with another GP of their choice in the area.
“The decision to shut down the surgery was not even passed to the PCT board, but made by two managers – Karen O’Brien and Ben Squires. I honestly think Squires should resign over this and the fight is not over. This practice was in the top two in England for its quality outcome framework and I’m pushing for an urgent meeting with David Regan, the director of health for Manchester, to see if we can save the surgery.”
He added that the vast array of bouquets left outside the surgery at Christmas by sad patients in memory of Dr Vites was still there and that he would also be available to assist patients who are not on the phone but are expected to turn up at the surgery not knowing it is closing.
Inside the M60 contacted Manchester PCT and asked them to put their case. They issued the following statement:
PCT letter to patients dated Wednesday
“We were very saddened to hear of the death of Dr Vites over the Christmas period and our thoughts are with his family, friends and patients. As he was a single-handed GP, there is no legal alternative but to close the existing contract and look for a new GP to take over the practice permanently. NHS Manchester has a responsibility to ensure that his patients continue to have access to a doctor while this happens and this is what we have done. Another local GP practice will provide cover for the patients from the newly refurbished Victoria Mill Health Centre, which is less than half a mile away from the Charles Vites Memorial Centre. Patients do not have to re-register anywhere else, although they can if they wish. This arrangement will continue whilst the formal process of finding a new GP to take on the practice list continues.
“We are concerned that there has been some conflicting advice around what patients should do during this time. We have written to every patient to tell them about the new arrangements. Dr Vites’ patients will receive all the care they need from the new location and do not need to re-register. The Charles Vites Memorial Centre can provide patients on regular medication with up to 28 days’ supply of medicines before they close on the 28th January, and there will be normal out-of-hours GP cover over the weekend after the practice closes. Patients can receive care from the Victoria Mill Health Centre from Monday 31st January.”
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The pct have no manners dr vites has been a valuable member off miles platting for several year and thinks it is disrespectful to him and his family and meber of the staff who r very special in the community and you will never get a practises In a Manchester what is as friendly as dr vites manorial surgery patient of the surgery are heart broken at how we’ve been treated as a patient it is descusting how we have been treated in the community it is disrespectfully to dr vites family for all the hard work he has done in the community and would like to make it clear that we r not happy
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Pauline Hammerton, Inside the M60. Inside the M60 said: EXCLUSIVE – PCT forcibly shuts down Miles Platting surgery after GP Vites dies http://nblo.gs/dEuoC [...]
I have known Nick Vites for a long time and he would not have wanted this to happen to his beloved patients and practice.He had instigated a programme of refurbishment in the premises and though not finished his improvements will be on a par with Victoria Mill.He wanted to take the Naylor Street practice forward and had a desire to eventually build a new surgery on the present site.Why move the patients records and computers to new premises when it would be easier and cheaper to put a doctor in.There has been too much haste with this decision and no thought to the feelings of the patients and staff. Suggest the two people mentioned in your article come out of their ivory tower at the PCT and rethink their decision.There was a number of local doctors ready and prepared to run things which would have made life a lot easier for everyone.The flowers are still outside the surgery and what happened to good old fashioned respect.The man has barely been dead a month.There has been unseemly haste and someones head should roll for this.Mrs Vites has not only lost her husband but is going to be left with the headache of either letting or selling the building.Come on PCT think of people of Miles Plating
[...] of a Manchester doctor who had died suddenly. He had served a deprived community for many years. One of his patients saw the story and got in touch with us last week to alert us to the fact that th…. Soon we had a great story about how the local primary health trust was taking the decision without [...]