Practices to shut early on Christmas Eve, as NHS England reverses guidance

In a letter to practice managers, NHS England informed practices they could ‘close doors’ early over the holiday period, as long as they ensured that care provided during core hours was ‘appropriate to meet the reasonable needs of patients’.

Minimum requirements will involve an answerphone message directing patients to an out-of-hours service that the practice has organised beforehand.

GP leaders have approved the move and declared the directions a ‘U-turn’ on previous guidance on holiday opening hours. NHS’s England’s new stance represents a reversal of its previous policy, whereby head of primary care Dr David Geddes insisted that the holiday hours were ‘non-negotiable’.

However, in a new letter, Ginny Hope, head of primary care at NHS England South, said: “As a minimum, you will need to have a system in place so that patients can access GP services, including urgent care, either by ringing the surgery ([and either] being able to talk directly to a clinician [or receiving] an answerphone message signposting the patient to an on-call GP for the practice.”

Dr Robert Morley, chair of the General Practitioners Committee’s (GPC) contracts and regulations subcommittee, informed

GPs that the revised holiday opening guidance applies to all practices across England.

He said: “NHS England has had to do a U-turn, that’s the key message. NHS England has been persuaded by the British Medical Association’s (BMA) argument and has accepted what the contractual obligations actually are. There is no contractual obligation for practices to remain open as long as they put in arrangements to deal with emergencies.”

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