I read Dr Conlon's letter in your September issue1 with some incredulity and a great feeling of sympathy for those of his employees who may have been faced with redundancy or a loss of earnings in order for the practice to avoid a financial disaster. This was, after all, an APMS contract for which he made a successful bid at a price he felt was appropriate for the services he was offering. It is absolutely vital for any practice or consortium to formulate a sound business plan in advance of any APMS contract bid to see if it is economically viable. In this case, it clearly was not. Full credit must go to the PCT, of whom I am not acknowledged to be a great admirer, for increasing the payments to 85% when there was no contractual obligation for them to do so.
I hope that this example serves as an object lesson to all those practices who may be tempted to make bids for APMS contracts without doing the most basic arithmetic. It is unfortunate that more GPs today have not had the benefit of a grounding in the Classics. If they had they would understand the meaning of the Latin expression caveat emptor.
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2008.
