The personal touch

Most readers will have been aware of the rise in corporate ownership of UK dental practices, be that because they have read the press announcements of burgeoning numbers of corporate purchases of dental practices, and also the mushrooming numbers of corporate chains. What I was not aware of is that this has been happening increasingly in GP medicine, with one in 20 GP practices now being owned by chains.¹ There has also been a rise in corporate ownership over the past decade, with firms that own at least five different GP practices now running 6.1% of all surgeries in England, this figure rising by 2.1% over the past 10 years. The Chief Executive of one chain has stated that single-doctor practices are no longer viable, and, while patients feel secure with the idea of a trusted family doctor who has known them for years, such a model is no longer fit for purpose. Those who have visited a GP doctor in recent years will be all too aware of the difficulties in obtaining an appointment with a named doctor. The personal touch is being lost.